A Bradford company is set to embark on a two-year project to put equality and diversity at the heart of employment training.

Trescom Research and Consultancy has won a government contract to carry out research into work-based learning schemes.

The team will be surveying 84 training organisations across West Yorkshire to find out to whom they are delivering their training. They will then offer advice on how the groups can extend their services to a wider range of people.

Saeeda Ahmed, a director at the city centre firm, said: "We will do an audit and look at how aware they are of diversity.

"We'll study issues such as gender, age and race and then come up with an action plan for the organisation.

"For example, we might find that there's not many older people involved with the organisation and we can work with them to help change that."

Research released today by the Adult Learning Inspectorate shows there is great need to widen learning opportunities.

The report states that just 3.3 per cent of work-based learners in engineering, technology and manufacturing are women, and only 2.8 per cent are from ethnic minority groups.

Marbat Hussain, director at Trescom, said some may argue that was just the way of the world. "But that's not the case. If both sides make an effort, then things move on," he said.

"The only way we can move forward is to learn about people and understand how different groups work and encourage people. Our research will help in changing things - that's what we are all about."

And he believed the company would start to challenge the preconceptions around training and job opportunities.

"The more we understand what the issues are, then the more we can move forward and tackle them," he said.

"Once you encourage diversity, you start to get the benefits of that and you have a more productive environment."

As well as boosting individual job opportunities, Ms Ahmed said the company's research would encourage links among different sections of Bradford's community. "Diversity is about recognising that everybody is different, that there's no homogenous group and that people are individuals and have individual needs," she said.

"We feel very strongly that the community has a lot more to offer. There are a lot of positive community relationships and we want to help build on and improve on that and bring people together."