We have a remarkable history of success – our students’ success for over 40 years! Founded and established in 1984 by Penny Lewis Cert Ed who is still actively involved with the development and teaching at the College.

How it all started

The college started in the dining room of newly married Penny’s home teaching shorthand to begin with, before adding typing skills.   Within a few months it was time to move into business premises as the student numbers increased.  Gradually the college grew in both reputation and size and a wider range of courses, skills and knowledge were provided by the teaching team to reflect the needs of those working in offices.

The courses were classroom based and as technology developed, so did the range of skills increase. Teaching mainly for local students from Devon but later on also students from other parts of the country who stayed with local host families in the 90s.

As we moved into the 21st century, technology moved on enabling us to provide our courses through distance learning/home study from as early as 2005 opening up our courses to thousands of students from all parts of the UK and worldwide. We were one of the first colleges to provide this method of learning which proved very popular.

What’s important to us

Our students’ success is the key to our courses – not just in passing exams and assessments and gaining Diplomas but also in moving forwards with careers, getting a better job which is more rewarding and satisfying and feeling more confident in their role.

We are a “people” College. We appreciate that our students are investing their time and money to improve their job opportunities and long term careers and that they have placed their trust in us to help them achieve these aims.

We have always focused on providing the personal touch for our students by providing one-to-one tuition, a friendly and open service helping our students to successfully complete their course. All of our students work with tutors throughout their course communicating through our learning hub directly or via email.

We endeavour to help all our students have a positive and rewarding experience, enjoy themselves whilst learning and above all complete their course and gain their qualifications to help them move forwards with their career and lifestyle.

Annual Inspections

Our qualifications are currently accredited by NCFE, one of the leading vocational awarding bodies in the UK under their Customised Qualification provision enabling us to provide career specific qualifications.

We are inspected by NCFE every year to ensure standards are maintained across the full range of criteria set out by the awarding body.  Each year we have been awarded Excellent – so you know you will be studying with a professional, independent college with a long history in education.

We have been an approved centre for various awarding bodies over the years including:

• Pitman Examinations Institute
• RSA and OCR – Oxford, Cambridge and RSA
• AMSPAR

Examining boards evolved over the years and either stopped providing vocational qualifications or were no longer the right fit for our students’ needs.  The NCFE provides us with the framework and educational standards to enable us to provide specialised courses to meet the demands of the business world in specific career roles.

Our International Reach

We teach students throughout the UK and from all over the world.  See below the different countries where our students have studied from.