UP TO 1,800 benefit claimants could be found work in the construction industry under plans for a £3.4 million training scheme.

Stoke-on-Trent City Council wants to create the vocational training centre, in Federation Road, Burslem, in partnership with housing maintenance contractor Kier Stoke and Stoke-on-Trent College.

It has asked the college to train up to 600 benefit claimants a year for three years in a variety of construction skills from September.

The project, which aims to tackle high rates of worklessness in the city, would attract a £3.4 million grant from the European Social Fund, which targets deprivation.

It is part of the council's £42 million worklessness strategy to try to get people off benefits and into employment, education or training.

Regeneration director Tom Macartney, pictured below, said: “Stoke-on-Trent suffers from significant issues of worklessness.

“Despite numerous opportunities opening up in a wide range of sectors, Stoke-on-Trent citizens are not competing as successfully for new jobs as they could be.

“This is due to a range of barriers including low skill levels.”

Stoke-on-Trent has the 12th highest benefits dependency rate in England, with about 48,000 people reliant on state hand-outs to make ends meet.

The figure includes 19,000 residents receiving incapacity or disability benefits – the highest rate in the West Midlands.

That means that in some areas of the city, almost half the working-age population is out of work and not receiving any education or training.

Mr Macartney added: “Challenges also include higher than average rates of poverty, poor health, teenage pregnancy, crime and substance abuse, as well as high levels of people with low or no skills and many people who have skills that are not appropriate for the available jobs.”

Council officials are pressing ahead with the scheme despite the credit crunch reducing the amount of housebuilding.

They want to train up workers as they expect to see more than £100 million of business investment, with about 20,000 new job opportunities, by 2014.

Margaret Jackson, city council interim head of employment and skills, said: “We need to ensure that local construction employers have the skilled workforce to carry out the major regeneration developments within North Staffordshire.

“Many job vacancies remain unfilled each year due to low skills. Skilled trades within construction is one of the sectors where vacancy problems are reported due to low skills.”

Stoke-on-Trent College has already been awarded more than £5million from the Government towards the project.

Ken Burgess, head of engineering and construction, said: “The construction sector is still going to be experiencing massive investment locally over the next few years and offers good opportunities for adults who are unemployed or looking to retrain.

“It is still early days, but we hope that together we can develop a flexible new centre that can provide a range of programmes to equip local people with the specific skills they need to work in construction.”