JACKY Josey has dedicated her life to Basingstoke fashion - and it has now resulted in a top award.

Ms Josey joined Basingstoke College of Technology in 1967 and has been instrumental in building up the reputation of its art courses and art department.

On Tuesday night, her work was recognised with A Place to be Proud of winner's award in the Creativity category.

Now running BCOT's highly successful degree course BA (Hons) Textiles for Fashion, Ms Josey has taught hundreds of students, many of whom she is still in touch with. Today you will find her students working all over the world, in places such as New York, Italy and France.

However, things were very different when she joined the college to teach O-level art. The department was small and only ran a few evening courses and A-levels.

Ms Josey helped to build it up. Despite working part-time, she put in hours of unpaid overtime to promote a handful of textile students directly onto degree courses.

In 1974, the department had grown to five full-time members of staff. By the mid-1980s, BCOT had the fourth largest foundation level department in the country, and colleges visited from far afield to see how it was run.

In the late 1980s, Ms Josey validated the national diploma in fashion and textiles. It was an overnight success. HND was the next challenge to be successfully achieved. In the late 1990s, this was converted to a degree, validated by the University of Portsmouth. Student numbers have steadily increased.

Ms Josey will take a well-earned retirement at the end of the academic year. She lives in Overton and is contemplating doing either an MA or a course in china restoration.

After receiving her award, she said: "I'm very surprised, but it's nice to be recognised after more than 30 years at BCOT.

"We've gone from 30 students to 300 over the last 20 years, and some have made it quite big in the fashion and textile world.

"I've loved my job and I'm going to miss the students when I retire, but winning this award is the icing on the cake. I'm very pleased."

Article first published on Thursday, April 1, 2004