Access All Areas continued.. ‘It's possible that they're not very academic but they've got a love of music,' Rawlins says. ‘We can be dealing with kids who've left school, been watching Pop Idol maybe for the last two years and want to be pop stars but aren't particularly into academic studies – which can pose a problem in as much as we have to guide them a lot.' Motivating students academically is one of the biggest challenges ATM faces.

‘They're leaving school and they think they're going to come on a course that's for vocal artists, that they're going to be singing continually, and it's not particularly like that,' Rawlins warns. ‘They do have studies to do such as key skills if they're under 19 but there are contextual studies too. They study music business, history of popular music – and those are the challenging areas for them and for us as well. Getting them to sing's no problem!'

But Rawlins revels in the progression of his students' careers: ‘We've got several students – particularly in the MFP – who end up working in schools as workshop leaders or setting their own businesses up. The progression routes for MFPs? 60-70 per cent in some years have gained employment.'

One of Rawlins' students is aforementioned chart-topper Rachel MacFarlane, who had to leave the programme because of her record's success. That‘s something Paul Hill, one of Rawlins' other students, is excited by: ‘Two Manchester DJs put it together in the back room eight weeks ago and she went over and put the voices on it. Now she's in New York ; there's serious money changing hands. The point is that anyone can do it. People spend years putting bands together, struggling and getting nowhere; with an organisation like this as a central networking facility you can achieve anything you want to.'

ATM at North Trafford is far from insular; it believes in interacting with the city. Rawlins and Hill both explain that various gigs are arranged at venues such as Band on the Wall and Life Café. Hill's story of working with a young beat-boxer is a particularly encouraging tale of music bridging different worlds – Hill is a 52-year-old bassist training to be a teacher.

‘These are seriously talented young people but they wouldn't get a sniff if you tried to give them a formal music education,' he complains. ‘ATM will give them the fabric from which they can stitch their masterpieces.'

An equally glowing report of ATM comes from Georgina Hill-Brown, another student on Rawlins' MFP course. Hill-Brown is 27 and, with her two children old enough for her to allow time for personal development, is more free to revive her background in theatre and classical singing. ‘When I came down, I was actually going for the vocal artist programme – but they suggested this course to me because I love to teach; it's something I used to do before.'

The course has more than lived up to her expectations: 'It's been brilliant, to be quite honest. It is a teaching course, there's a heck of a lot to get through and we're only here a few days a week. But they are very relaxed, in a caring kind of way. They'll chat with you, ask how you're getting on outside of college as well as inside. I'm really, really enjoying the course. It's given us a lot of contacts and it's sort of building up confidence and helping us manage things a little bit better.' Desperate by now to find some negatives to shade me from the unanimous sunny vibes given off by this ATM lot, I press Hill-Brown for a downside.

‘I can't actually think of anything that's bad about the course,' she insists. ‘It's really good. It's not just the three days a week; you do need to set aside time after that as well. I found it quite difficult to be honest, making sure that I could still earn enough and do the course as well.' Despite such practical difficulties, it seems to be working out for her. There's still several months to run on the course but not only does Hill-Brown have a battle plan, she's already putting it into action. ‘I'm setting up as self-employed,' she explains. ‘I've now got six students that I'm teaching privately, including one I'm very excited about who was a finalist on Pop Idol last year. It's really building up. I've got lots of opportunities, so I've decided that's it: I'm going to go for it.'

Access to Music
Lionel House
35 Millstone Lane
Leicester LE1 5JN
Tel/Fax: 0116 242 6888/6868
Free course information line: 0800 28 18 42
info@access-to-music.co.uk
www.access-to-music.co.uk