PRESTON'S Nirmal Singh and Sheela Solanki are among forty-two entrants from the North West who have made it through to the final of National training Awards.

All finalists will now attend a prestigious awards ceremony at Manchester Town Hall on November 12th to find out if they have won.

The National Training Awards are universally recognised as being the number one training award in the UK given to organisations and individuals who have achieved lasting excellence and success through training. It is aimed at those who have decided to improve their chances of success through learning new skills.

Nirmal Singh, wowed the judges of The National Training Awards Final by using his lifelong pursuit of learning as a way to develop his career.

Amazingly, although Nirmal arrived in the UK in 1978 from India as a highly qualified academic, he found that his qualifications were basically redundant in Britain.

He therefore went about reinventing himself using education and training to forge forward with a career in social services, community work and race relations.

His success has seen him represent the Sikh community when Prince Charles came to Preston in 1981 and receive the Whitbread Volunteer Action Awards Commendation Certificate in 2000 for his voluntary services.

Sheela Solanki came to the UK from India as a 16 year-old bride-to-be and wanted to study nursing.

But things did not go to plan, and Sheela, of Preston, was obliged to work in a factory doing piecework. Her desire for learning did not go away, and she persuaded her husband and his family to allow her to study part-time - often after her children went to sleep.

After learning IT, typing, counselling, presentation and mediation skills, she works for Blackpool Borough Council as a mediation assistant and is a director of the management committee of Preston's Women's Refuge.

Speaking to Asian Image she said, "I was totally amazed when I told.

"I just want to tell all the ladies out there never to give up learning. Because if I can do it so can they."