RAF parachute engineer Paul Simmons has scooped top place in a national award scheme.

Cpl Simmons, 35, who is stationed at RAF Brize Norton, is a part-time student at the Oxford College of Further Education.

He was successful in winning the Management NVQ Level 3, the Ministry of Defence regional award, and later went on to win the national award. As a stock controller for the RAF's Parachute Engineering Flight he belongs to a small band of people whose quality of work could be a matter of life or death.

His duties include supervising maintenance teams in parachute production for RAF personnel in the UK and overseas. He said: "By going for a nationally recognised Level 3 management qualification, I knew I could improve my approach to working with teams and individuals."

John Lyons, who manages the programme on behalf of Oxford College, said: "This is an outstanding achievement, gained in competition with many other high-quality submissions from MoD students."