A project aims to boost job prospects in some of Hartlepool's most disadvantaged areas.
The pilot project, called Enhancing Employability, will recruit a coordinator to work with businesses, training organisations and residents, to improve employment rates in the most deprived wards.
It aims to improve residents' basic skills, with the help of employers, and assist them directly into jobs, as well as involving employers in schools to improve pupils' understanding of the workplace.
Diane Latimer, the council's employment projects officer, said: "If it proves successful it could be something that could be rolled out to other areas of the town.
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