Martin Biron, head of construction at the College of North West London, won development category of the BPEC Charity Awards

A college lecturer who uses avatars as part of his methods to teach central heating has scooped a charity award.

Martin Biron, head of construction at the College of North West London, which has campuses in Willesden and Wembley, won development category of the BPEC Charity Awards.

The award, which includes �6,000, was presented to Mr Biron for the creation of a virtual plumbing college environment he developed to support plumbing students, teachers and the wider general public in understanding the key principles and processes of the plumbing industry.

Mr Biron said: “As an educator, over the past five years I have been driven with a passion to develop educational resources to encourage individuals to develop the skills needed to become competent and proficient plumbers.”

Over the past four years, thousands of people from all over the world have used the virtual online 3-D training environment and the cash award will be reinvested to fund the online 3-D world reality site for a further two years. BPEC charity identifies the education and training needs of those who work in the building services engineering industry and provides innovative solutions to address their needs.

Frank Glover, BPEC chairman, said: “BPEC is delighted to have presented four separate awards at our inaugural BPEC Charity Life Awards event.

“Each of the award finalists has shown how plumbing can make a difference to life, and we congratulate the College of North West London for being amongst this year’s recipients.”