A GROUP of north Durham businessmen is to receive £20,000 from the Government to help make learning fun for schoolchildren.

Members of the Derwentside Engineering Forum will work with 96 youngsters, aged 14 to 15, from Blackfyne, Stanley, Greencroft, Moorside, Tanfield and St Bede's secondary schools, to encourage them to become interested in engineering.

Members of the forum hope the after-school project will help to promote engineering as a career, to encourage more youngsters to apply for jobs, and improve the calibre of candidates.

The businessmen's group, which was formed nine months ago, also aims to promote Derwentside as a centre of engineering excellence across the country.

Pupils will have to solve a hypothetical engineering problem involving recovering highly-dangerous equipment from a decommissioned nuclear plant.

A leading member of the forum, John Hodgson, said he was "delighted" by the Department for Education and Employment's (Dfee) decision to make the grant.

He said: "The money will help us to do this for two years, and we hope to take it on from there.We work very closely with Derwentside College and with schools and have been very successful so far. For example, I know the number of applications to the college for modern apprenticeships went up steeply this year.

"We thought engineering was becoming a little forgotten in schools since the end of the steelworks and the mining industry. Basically, we thought it was time that changed."

A spokesman for the Dfee said the Derwentside project was an "innovative and exciting" scheme.

He said: "A major outcome for the engineering companies of Derwentside will be to produce a holistic interest in engineering as a career, resulting in a higher calibre of future employee."

The forum is one of nine North-East groups to receive a Dfee grant.

Northumbria Police are involved in a Gateshead project to try to break down barriers between police and young people. Three Cleveland schemes, one in Durham, two in Newcastle and another in Gateshead have won funding.

£2.5m in grants has been given by the Government for more than 130 new learning projects across England