Hi Dave
Good to hear from you.
Hope you do well with the formal study thing, I'm still reasonably on top of my particular game (gave an Engineer at work a bit of surprise this week. He may have just taken my natural Dopey look and assumed I was a Half-Wit - very normal reaction to me). But I don't think I'm quite cut out for education.
I think it takes a fairly special sort of person and character to be one. The trick is getting the attention of the class or person etc, that is no mean feat at all. You also need the ability to take the same subject or problem and bring it in from an opposite direction as some just don't git it straight away.
The 'Learning Mentor' sounds like a good direction. I think a lot of people would benefit from that one, personal tuition can do wonders for some. Even just for short periods.
As for the foundation degree, would you do full time at a University or distance home learning?
Good luck and hope all goes well for you.
Andy - SDDW