A COLLEGE centre at Catterick Garrison has received praise from Government inspectors.

The Further Education Funding Council inspected the College of Technology, in Darlington, earlier this year, and yesterday released its findings.

The centre at Catterick came in for special praise.

The report said: "The telematics centre at Catterick is outstanding".

Through a longstanding partnership with the Army, the college has recently constructed the telematics and childcare centre at Catterick Garrison.

The college in Darlington was also found to have several strengths.

The report stated: "The college is well managed. It has sound partnerships with a wide range of organisations."

However, the proportion of lessons judged by inspectors to be good or outstanding was below the national average for colleges inspected in 1999-2000.

The report said: "The college should improve the quality of its teaching and learning.

"It should also improve student retention rates, the level of student achievement, some tutorial provision, the quality of students' action plans, access for people with restricted mobility and aspects of the corporation's business."

The college draws its students from a population of about 150,000 and is near the borders of both North Yorkshire and Teesside.