A DYSLEXIC foster carer has surpassed her own expectations by returning to college to develop her skills in looking after her young charges.

Millie Tilley has been awarded an NVQ Level Three in Caring for Children and Young People, from Redcar and Cleveland College, in east Cleveland.

Ms Tilley, 44, has been fostering for five years and in that time has looked after 26 children. At the age of 13, she was diagnosed as dyslexic and only learned to read in the two years before she left school at 15.

Returning to college was a step she never thought she would take, but new targets to be introduced by 2005 mean that new caring standards will be introduced and the NVQs on offer at the college have been identified by the Government as a way of achieving those targets.

She said: "My lecturer, Lynne Craddock, was very supportive and gave me the encouragement I needed to complete the course. Because of my dyslexia I was able to tape the lectures and take my own notes. I would then make another tape in my own words and give it to my scribe, Sue Lax, who would write up my work for me. It was a great system which has helped me to achieve the NVQ and I would recommend anyone thinking about the course to go for it."