MY brother would have been in his element. Fishing is on the curriculum at a school in Shropshire, with children being taught both fly and coarse fishing, how to handle a fishing rod, choose and attach the bait, cast a line - the whole package.

Stephen, my younger brother, used to disappear from dawn to dusk in summer to fish. Our fridge was full of maggots, wriggling about in plastic margarine cartons.

Like many teenagers, he found getting up for school hard. Had fishing been on the agenda he would have been there raring to go at 5am.

It is universities, not schools, that are renowned for what many call 'Mickey Mouse' courses, with degrees in subjects such as golf, Marvel comics and surfing, and there will no doubt be an outcry if schools start to introduce more off-beat studies.

But while some of them are clearly ridiculous - I seem to remember one degree course on Britney Spears - others leave you with a better chance of getting a job than more conventional classes in geography, history and English.

Looking back at my schooldays, so much time was wasted on subjects that simply did not interest me and were as helpful in the jobs market as a criminal record for embezzlement.

I know today, a quarter of a century on, which subjects would have helped me enormously. They are, without doubt:

Vehicle maintenance: To think of how many millions of pounds I would have saved had I inside knowledge of what lies under the bonnet of a car and how it all works. Had I been in possession of such information I would probably be living in a palatial villa on the Cote d'Azur with kidney-shaped pool and tennis court. I know that for the bulk of the time I was at school I was too young to drive, but it is not long before you would reap the rewards and avoid having to use up all your savings every time your car goes in for its MOT.

Plumbing: Who, apart from a plumber and people on the Sunday Times Rich List, does not live in dread of the boiler breaking down? I certainly do. Every time any member of the family shrieks: "There's no hot water!" my heart beat increases 100-fold. To have inside knowledge of valves, thermostats and the pipes at the back of washing machines is worth a million GCSEs in geography, biology or art.

Cooking: Not just rock cakes and bread and butter pudding - the mainstay of 'housecraft' classes at my school - but proper meals involving at least a main course and dessert. That way most students would not arrive at college knowing only how to make toast and working their way up, a month of take-aways later, to spaghetti Bolognese.

Property developing: Now if that had been taught at school I wouldn't be in the position I'm in today, saddled with a huge mortgage and with no hope of paying it off before retirement. Those who left school at 16, got jobs straight away and bought homes while I was messing around getting drunk and missing lectures at college, are now multi-millionaires. I know they didn't get any property-related advice either, they just struck lucky - but I blame the curriculum for not telling me how vital it was to get on the ladder as soon as possible after leaving school.

Men: What to look for in one and who to pass up as a bad job. Had they taught us girls such matters, however, we would probably all still be single.

Updated: 10:11 Tuesday, February 22, 2005