after a hard day at work, most people look forward to putting their feet up in front of the television - but not Katie Petherick.

The 17-year-old, who works at the University of Durham, spends two nights a week helping disabled pensioners in her hometown of Stanley.

She assists her mum, Lorna, who runs the Quest Club, a scheme that involves taking elderly people out of care homes for a couple of hours each week so they can play games and mix with others in a local church.

Katie said: "The Quest Club is all about getting pensioners out of the care home environment for a while and we try to spoil them by playing games, making them refreshments and basically just chatting to them.

"I really enjoy helping the elderly and being able to give something back to the community is very rewarding."

Katie is currently working towards a Modern Apprenticeship in Business Administration while working as a junior secretary at the University of Durham.

She is one of 14 young people who are on Modern Apprenticeships offered by the university and paid for by the Learning and Skills Council County Durham.

Katie said: "I tried college after leaving school but it didn't suit me and I jumped at the chance of doing a Modern Apprenticeship at the university.

"The best thing about it is that you can get a qualification while earning money and I hope it will eventually lead on to me doing an HNC and HND in Business Administration."

Modern Apprenticeships are a government work-based option for 16 to 24-year-olds and are available in more than 80 different careers.

For details call 0808 001 3219.

The LSC County Durham believes employment is the key driver for learning and MAs are just one of the ways that will help the organisation to realise its aim of having almost14,000 16-18-year-olds in structured learning by 2004.