College and airline leaders were celebrating today when they were presented with the prestigious national Beacon Award for Practical Teaching and Learning – sponsored by Edge- in a ceremony at Flybe's Training Academy.

The Beacon Award – one of only 14 awarded this year – was won by Exeter College's pioneering aerospace Engineering Diploma set up in partnership with Flybe, Europe's largest regional airline and which was recognised as providing outstanding practical teaching and practical learning as key ingredients in the programme. The Diploma creates a pathway to licence new aircraft engineers and some of the first cohort of engineers took a break from their training workshops in the Flybe hangars to be present at the ceremony.

Presenting the award to the college, Association of Colleges' Chairman, John Bingham said “This is a national award recognising excellence throughout the UK. The rigour and robustness of the assessment make these awards very prestigious. They are outstanding exemplars to demonstrate to everyone the many and varied ways that we teach though further education and how collaboration with private employers can help deliver a far better economy and higher skilled workforce.”

Jane Samuels, project and operations manager at Edge said “It's particularly welcome to see such a close and mutually beneficial partnership between a college and a major employer. This enables students to work alongside real experts on real planes. This award is most deserved and you are going to be one of our shining examples going forward.”

“This is a great time to be Principal of Exeter College”, said Richard Atkins, Principal “We are not only celebrating this national award for our innovative partnership with Flybe but we have only just recently celebrated our Ofsted success – gaining Outstanding grades in the country's first no-notice pilot Ofsted inspection.”

The Beacon Award, originally presented to the college by the Rt Hon John Hayes Minister for Further Education, Skills and Lifelong Learning in a ceremony in London, follows two previous Beacon Awards for the college for excellence in school partnerships and for excellence in e-learning resources.