TEENAGERS are being encouraged to seek work in the environmental sector through a scheme that has started operating in the North-East.

Shape Training, part of Cleveland Youth Association, is running courses for young people who initially expressed an interest in the construction industry.

Based on Sotherby Road, near South Bank, Teesside, the organisation is teaching teenagers how to adapt basic construction techniques to environmental projects, including making bird and bat boxes, coppicing woodland and building composters.

Kevin Spindloe, a naturalist and Shape's learning and development manager, who devised the idea, said the recently-launched project had been organised through the E2E (Early to Employment) initiative.

He said it took teenagers from deprived areas of Teesside and helped them focus on career opportunities.

Mr Spindloe said: "We have taken a holistic approach to the subject and involved them in eco-projects, something they perhaps knew nothing about before."

That has meant working with environmental organisations including Tees Valley Wildlife Trust, the Billingham-based Industry Nature Conservation Association (INCA) and Durham Bat Club, supported by the JobCentre and careers organisation Connexions.

The construction work is carried out at the Shape headquarters, but trainees also work at such sites as nature reserves.

Mr Spindloe said the work embraced a ranges of skills. "We are trying to broaden their horizons and give them some different career choices," he said.

Published: 01/03/2005