Mid-Cheshire College in Northwich is equipping a pub with computers connected to the internet, so that people who would not usually use information technology can be encouraged to try it out.

The Slow and Easy pub in Lostock Gralam is to open a 'cyber bar' at the end of this month, with four internet-linked computers to be installed in a project funded by the University for Industry.

Learning zone

"We wanted to encourage people who would not normally take up education to learn some IT skills, and by putting computers in a pub we hoped to make it less threatening and more fun," says the college's learning resources manager, Simon Clough.

The pub is to have a 'learning zone' area, in which computer skills and other courses will be taught.

Among the people who will be using the cyber bar will be one of the pub's staff, Elaine Clarke, who says that she is "terrified of computers".