Adults are being encouraged to broaden their horizons and take another step on the educational ladder by a Baildon mum who decided to return to learning in her thirties.

Bradford & Ilkley Community College has just unveiled its new adult and general education programme for the coming year.

With more than a thousand recreational and educational courses - including wine tasting, chemistry and tap dancing - the college hopes the programme will produce a new batch of success stories. Mother-of-two Deborah Collard was 32 when she decided to give education another go. Now she is about to start a ten-month teacher training course.

The 39-year-old of Midland Road said: "I was working as a secretary at Bradford University at the time and I saw first hand how education can improve your life. So I decided the best thing would be to return to learning and improve my job prospects."

After six years of Open University study she gained a first-class degree in science. But she did not stop there. She took the opportunity to study for a maths GCSE at BICC and is currently attending one of the college's adult education aromatherapy courses.

She said: "Being a single mum, its sometimes difficult to juggle study and family. But the fact that BICC is on the doorstep makes the courses a lot more accessible. And there's such a wide range of things you can do.

"You don't have to take a course simply because you want to get another job - there are lots of recreational activities on offer too. And it doesn't matter what age you are. It's all about meeting new people and broadening your own horizons."

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.