A Bradford school is teaming up with big businesses to help it launch the UK's first vocational centre of excellence in customer service.

The district's schools have been chosen by the Government to pilot vocational centres of excellence as part its radical reforms of education for 14 to 19-year-olds.

Some £250,000 will be poured into five schools to help them develop courses which are more relevant to the world of work. Hanson School in Sutton Avenue, Swain House, has been chosen to operate a centre focusing on retail and customer service.

It has received £50,000 to spend in the next academic year and hopes to receive cash for a further two years beyond that.

Now it has teamed up with businesses including supermarket firm Morrisons and Tesco along with Yorkshire Bank and HSBC to develop courses.

It plans to offer a new BTEC qualification in retail study for year ten students, aged 14 and 15 from September. Hanson has appointed a new assistant head teacher, Ross Popper, to oversee the creation of its vocational centre of excellence. He said: "We already work with the training provider BEST to provide a post-16 course. The idea is to work BEST and employers to provide the new courses with some of it being taught outside the school. We have been talking to employers because we want to know what retailers in the area want from their workforce in the future."

Last month the Government announced that it would be creating new specialised diplomas which will combine traditional education with vocational training. The first diplomas are expected to be introduced in 2008.

And Mr Popper said: "I am very excited about our new centre of excellence but also excited about the chance of the school being involved in the new diplomas as well."

For the last academic year Bradford secondary schools have been working in a set of five partnerships, called confederations. The Bradford Confederations project is managed by the Learning and Skills Council, which submitted the bid for the vocational centres of excellence to be opened in the district.

A centre will be based in each of the five confederations each focusing on a different career area.

The centres will run at Hanson, Salt Grammar in Baildon, focusing on digital and creative media, Oakbank School in Keighley focusing on engineering, Queensbury School focusing on hospitality and catering. There will be a fifth centre run from Tong School.

And Bradford Confederations is also in talks with the Department for Education and Skills about a sixth centre of excellence being opened at Wyke School.

Bradford Confederations' director Sid Slater said a bid had also been submitted for Bradford to become one of the first areas in the country to pilot the new specialised diplomas from 2008

A decision is expected to be made by the DfES this term.