A budding electrician is helping to refurbish the home of some of his former neighbours as part of a pioneering training scheme.

Asad Ahmed, 18, is one of a team of ten 16 to 19-year-olds who have been let loose on a six-bedroom house in Bradford. The young people have been given the task of refurbishing the house in Queen's Road, Manningham as part of the YouthBuild scheme.

Asad, who lives in Queen's Road, is looking forward to putting his skills as an electrician to use revamping his former neighbours' home.

The full team is made up of would-be bricklayers, electricians, joiners, carpenters and plumbers who are being trained under the Modern Apprenticeship scheme.

They will turn the house, which is owned by the Bradford & Northern Housing Association, into a home for a family of eight.

The house was acquired by the housing association to accommodate a family in the 1970s, then was turned into three flats. Now it is being converted into a family home again.

The team is backed by B&N Housing, Bradford & District Training & Enterprise Council, Bradford Council and seven private house-builders.

The team is being trained at Bradford & Ilkley Community College and employed through the Modern Apprenticeship scheme by builders Totty, Bradlor, Jarvis, Frank Haslam Milan, Weaver, Haslam Homes and Termrim.

The scheme was launched last October and in the last few months the trainees have been given training at the college and with the builders.

Asad said: "We have learned a number of basic skills and now we have a chance to do something with this house."

Fellow trainee Muzibar Rahman, 18, of nearby Manningham Lane, is a budding joiner. He learned about the scheme from his local youth centre.

"I get to have more experience working with other people. I worked with a foreman on a building site at Barkerend Road and he explained things clearly to me," he said.

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