IF you are over 19 and looking to continue or return to education, you will struggle to find anywhere better than Swindon College for its type.

The North Star Avenue institution has done a little digging through the performance figures made available by the Skills Funding Agency and found it’s actually the best in its class.

Of the 218 colleges in the country which cover general and tertiary education, which excludes sixth form colleges, Swindon College was top dog for the delivery of adult skills.

The relevant figures related to the performance of learners over 19-years-old and the success rate they achieved in their qualifications for the 2013/14 academic year.

“We have always been quite strong in our adult achievement results, but our 19-plus students have been getting better and better each year,” said Andrew Miller, the college principal.

Mr Miller said there was a variety of learning and teaching methods for their 19-and-overs, of whom the vast majority learn on-the-job in their workplaces, or study part-time courses at the college around their occupations.

Mr Miller said the emphasis was on teaching and the learning of adult skills, ensuring the curriculums, topics studied and delivery were all suited to each student.

He also described the close relationship the college operates with hundreds of employers around Swindon and further afield.

This connection with bosses was crucial to maximising the student’s development and ensuring the employer feels it is crafting the ideal employee it wants.

“It’s about a high emphasis we put, as a college, on teaching and learning of adult skills,” said Mr Miller.

“We have very good quality improvement tracking systems, we work very close with employers and we have committed to expanding apprenticeships.

“We want to show employers, if they are looking to train their staff and considering where they should send them, Swindon College should be the first.”

Also as a result of its research, the college found it was the number one destination in the South West for apprenticeship delivery among all ages.

When compared with fellow general and tertiary colleges in the South West, Swindon College was found to be most successful.

Overall in 2013/14, Swindon College up-skilled or retrained over 9,000 adult learners across all disciplines.

Last week, the college held an open day giving prospective students the chance to look around the campus and find out more about the wealth of courses on offer.

To find out more, log on to www.swindon-college.ac.uk.