Utility bills in houses with teenagers are often punishing. A multimedia interactive CD-Rom called Switched On enables students aged 14 to 16 to equip themselves with some relevant consumer and financial skills. They can pursue the tasks in the classroom or at home, chasing up information about service suppliers, planning the energy supply grid for a city at competitive prices or testing the nature of “special offers”. Then they might create a virtual household full of domestic appliances and compare the costs of available forms of energy in their own post-code area.

Available from the website: www.switchedon.gov.uk