SOLDIERS serving with the Tidworth-based Staffordshire Regiment (Prince of Wales') will be able to study educational courses when they arrive in Iraq in April, thanks to the Swindon & Wiltshire learning and skills council.

The council has presented the 1st Battalion with £9,343.80, the first of a series of cheques to the Armoured Infantry Battalion to help towards soldiers' education while serving in Basrah and Al-Amarah.

So far, 300 troops with the regiment have passed courses in English literature and numeracy that equate to GCSE standard grades.

The money comes from the government's Employer Training Pilot, a scheme that encourages employers to release workers to attend qualification courses.

It refunds the costs of attending courses to employers once employees have completed it - with the money to be used for further investment and training in education.

Lieutenant Colonel Andrew Williams, commanding officer of the 1st Battalion, said he was very proud of what the battalion had achieved so far.

He said: "This cheque will allow us to continue improving the education and qualifications of our soldiers while we are in Iraq."

The courses were set up by Michele Blain, education co-ordination developer of 10 Army Education Centre, together with Captain Matt Melarkey, the regiment's education officer.

The tour of duty in Iraq will be the battalion's last operational deployment as the 1st Battalion, prior to the Staffordshire Regiment becoming the 3rd (Staffords) Battalion, The Mercian Regiment.