A new recycling project is aiming to plug skill gaps in the district while giving unemployed youngsters a helping hand.

Q-mat Ltd, a subsidiary of the Mid Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce, has teamed up with Bradford Council for the European Union-funded scheme.

Taking the best pieces of waste wood dumped at the authority's recycling bins, Q-Mat is training 18 to 24-year-olds to turn the junk into everything from bird tables to doll's houses. Everyone on the eight-week scheme works towards NVQs in joinery and other skills, putting what they have learnt into action at a workshop in Thornton Road Industrial Estate.

Q-Mat then introduces participants' CVs to employers in the district, and tailors the skills taught to what companies need.

Centre co-ordinator Bernard Armstrong said: "Everyone is going to benefit from this - the participants, who will come out trained, local employers, who will get staff with the skills they need, and the community as a whole.

"All of the products made in the workshop are going back out to charities, voluntary organisations and hospices. The workers themselves are loving it and a lot of them are getting great satisfaction from seeing the stuff they have made.''

Those involved in the project come off benefits and receive a weekly wage, which Mr Armstrong says does wonders for their self-esteem. Q-Mat also helps participants pick up other life skills, paying for driving lessons and computer literacy courses, to make sure each participant is much better equipped to get a job at the end of the course.

The Lord Mayor of Bradford, Councillor Stanley King, will join employers and the Employment Service for the scheme's official launch on Thursday, May 10, at the Design Exchange, Little Germany.