A new type of recruitment service is celebrating its first birthday after notching up a string of achieve-ments.

Bradford's Recruit Ahead, a business focused, European funded offshoot of the Employment Service, has helped 140 people into jobs.

The scheme works with firms who need staff, gathering information on their vacancies along with wages, hours, bene-fits and culture.

Those details are used in three-day workshops with candidates to prepare them for interviews.

On Friday the Lord Mayor of Bradford, Councillor Stanley King, will speak at the project's anniversary party at its offices in Little Germany.

Project Manager Tony Clayton said: "This way the employers are saved the hassle and expense of going through an agency, and the applicants have a definite interview to aim for."

"We're helping unemployed people market themselves and their skills, and working directly with employers to make sure the interviews are targeted and useful, and I think the results speak for themselves."

Statistics for the last year show that out of 265 clients who applied for Recruit Ahead workshops, 81 per cent com-pleted the course. Of those, 64 per cent ended up securing employment with a range of firms including Filtronic, Grattan and Abbey National.

Mr Clayton is confident that even those who didn't succeed will be better prepared for their next chance.

"The actual job skills are of course down to the clients, but for whatever post it is I can help them with the 'soft' skills they'll need, depending on the organisation they are going to."