PEOPLE are the most prized asset of any institution. That is the firm belief of Pat Dickson, a director of St Andrews Travel, the successful Bolton travel agency set up by her husband, Andrew, in 1983.

Pat prides herself on her ability to develop people to their full potential.

She shies away from the suggestion that she is a radical, but her personal and professional CV reads like a blueprint for affirmative action.

Born in Bolton, she spent much of her early childhood in Birmingham, before her family returned to the North-west, where she attended Bolton School.

It was there that she first encountered some of the progressive idealism that was to shape her future.

"We had an inspirational headmistress there, who encouraged all the girls to go into traditionally male preserves such as engineering.

"It was there that I first had the idea that I wanted to go into teaching - I saw what good teachers can do.

"But the general liberal ideas that were developing at a girls' school in the 1960s caught my imagination. There was a lot about tolerance and the responsibilities of power.

"A lot of the discussion centred on South Africa so, like others of my generation, the Mandela story is central to my life."

Pat studied English at Reading University in the early 1970s, when student radicalism crossed the Atlantic and invaded the campuses of Britain.

There were sit-ins, protests and "other weird things that probably bothered my parents" she said. Details are scarce, but Pat describes this period as "good times".

Her determination to become a teacher was embedded, and she studied for her teaching qualification at Lancaster, before starting her first teaching job at Bolton's Deane School where, "by happy coincidence", one of her sons is now a teacher.

She enjoyed her job immensely, but felt another world was calling.

She said: "I followed this young Bolton entrepreneur, who was working in the holiday trade, out to Majorca.

"I worked in the British school in Majorca for three years, teaching the children of British Expats. There were all ages from three to 17."

That Bolton entrepreneur was Andrew Dickson, who was already laying the foundations for the fiercely independent enterprise that would explode on to the travel scene years later.

Married, and with a growing family, they returned to England, where Pat moved into adult education in Salford in the early 1980s.

She developed the skills and prospects of a generation that felt scrapped before it began, culminating in a post as a special needs education officer for the borough.

By the early 1990s, St Andrews Travel was expanding at a rate that needed her input, so she joined the company, heading personnel development, as well as taking a masters degree in business management.

She said: "Not all entrepreneurs have great people skills and, without them, a business can never really grow to its full potential.

"I'm not keen on stereotyping but there probably are characteristics that are female rather than male, - but can be found in men and women - such as the people-first instincts, building relationships, looking at various aspects of issues and not steamrolling ahead.

"Synergy is a good jargon word for the company's success - blending creativity, entrepreneurial skill and networking with communication skills, staff development, attention to detail, particularly in finance and customer service."

The synergy displayed in her career led to Pat being invited to be join the governors of Bolton Community College, eventually becoming chairman of governors.

She said: "It was a difficult time for the college, but we appointed a strong, focused principal who knows what a good college should look like.

"Its current success and potential for development are due not only to her focus and drive, but strong management and the efforts of staff , who this year were given an up-front pay rise - the first in about five years.

"There were hard decisions to be made at times, but business can be like that. As long as those decisions are made for the greater good, without losing focus of the bigger picture, you can keep hold of your beliefs in developing people and their skills."

Pat stepped down from the college's governing body last month, mainly to develop further personnel projects at St Andrews Travel. "We have a number of projects in the pipeline over the next few months which will take up a lot of my time," she said.

The flame of idealism can still be seen in Bolton, tempering the steel of the independent travel business.