A BOSNIAN accountant who is totting up the qualifications has a new award to add to her collection.

Slobodanka Taylor, known as Bobbie to her friends, has been studying at Darlington College at Catterick since September.

Born in Croatia, she fled to Bosnia during the war and worked as an interpreter with the United Nations peace keeping force, where she met her husband, Simon Taylor, a major in the Royal Army Medical Corps.

After moving to Catterick, she discovered that the qualifications she had achieved in Bosnia did not carry as much weight as she had hoped in Britain, so she embarked on a host of college courses.

So far, she has passed a string of computer courses, including using databases, spreadsheets, word processing and word skills.

She is also working on achieving the European Computer Driving Licence, and numeracy and literacy courses, while her 18-month-old son, Aleksandar, is looked after in the college's childcare centre.

Now her efforts have won her the title of learndirect's Learner of the Year for York and North Yorkshire.

"I was really surprised that the judges thought I deserved it more than other people. I was just working away at my own pace," said Mrs Taylor, 25.

"I am not sure what I want to do in the future now I am a mother but, until I decide, I want to make sure I continue to learn and my CV is as good as it can be for when I am ready."