CROWDS gathered to witness the launch of Wiltshire College on Wednesday.

Principals and governors were joined by students and staff from local industries to celebrate the combining of Trowbridge, Lackham and Chippenham colleges to create a new super-college.

Olympic silver medallist Kate Howey, pictured centre, who is studying for an HND at the college, also attended the ceremony.

She said: "It brings so much of Wiltshire together. The bigger the college, the better the sports facilities. It's a way forward for all of the colleges in general. The bigger the better!"

The launch featured a series of inter-college games to celebrate the opening.

Wiltshire College will be offering a wide range of courses and high standards of facilities to both part-time and full-time students.

Greater focus will be placed on students with learning and physical disabilities as well as more basic numeracy and literacy education. There will also be an increase in the number of higher education classes.

Among some of the new courses available will be a series of information technology training schemes.

Each of the three colleges involved will continue to operate at their individual sites but the college will have only one principal. George Bright, currently based in Trowbridge, will be the new principal and will be based at Chippenham from next January.

He explained the main benefits of the merger: "There will be more courses available, bigger investment in facilities and more provision. It will result in a much wider range of education and training available to people in the Wiltshire area."

Geoff Burgess, chairman of the Wiltshire College Corporation, described the important ideas behind the changes.

"Each college was limited in its facilities and sometimes couldn't get enough students signing up to keep a course running.

"The new college can use the facilities more effectively and together we will be able to get more funding as Wiltshire College."

The idea for the merger came from a meeting between the principals and governors in August 1999.

Wednesday's official opening ceremony included the planting of three oak trees at Lackham College between Chippenham and Lacock.

The trees symbolised the three different venues. Blue and green ribbon bows were tied around the trunks to represent the college's new logo.

The combined number of students at the three colleges could reach up to 30,000.

Wiltshire College will now become one of the largest employers in the region. There are more than 1,000 people working in the three centres.

All staff currently employed by the colleges will be keeping their jobs.

Mr Burgess explained: "This is not about losing staff. There are no redundancy programmes. The three colleges coming together is about growth."