STAFF from Nelson and Colne College are celebrating after winning a prestigious award for integrating computers into the curriculum.

Workers at the college's Learning Resource Centre have been given a Beacon Award by the national Centre for Learning Resources in Colleges for boosting the number of students using computers to help with their work.

The award is given to one college in the country every year, and representatives travelled from London to present the award yesterday.

College staff created a framework to assess the success of their efforts to boost computer use by students in all subjects.

They also worked with tutors to ensure everyone realised how information technology could benefit their work.

Now their efforts will be an example for other colleges to follow.

Learning Resource Centre manager Lesley Shaw said: "We are really pleased to win this award.

"We have worked hard to support the college's aim of embedding Information Learning Technology into the curriculum. However, no effort had been made to measure the impact of our activities.

"An initial questionnaire gave students the opportunity to assess their own skills and knowledge.

"From the responses a profile of each target group was constructed which highlighted strengths and weaknesses, which we addressed through follow-up activities such as workshops, online search sessions in class, subject-based research exercises, one-to-one sessions with teaching staff, displays and leaflet distribution.

"At the end of the year, our target groups completed a follow-up questionnaire which revealed there had been a general upskilling of both staff and students, and everyone had a greater awareness of ILT resources."