A NEW jobs team aims to equip Wear Valley people with a growing number of opportunities for work.

The Government-backed Action Team for Jobs project moved into the district three weeks ago and already has 34 people on its books, with the first successful placement waiting to be confirmed.

Working from a base in Bishop Auckland Market Place, advisors will run sessions in community centres and halls around the Wear Valley area.

Equipped with laptop computers linked to JobCentre information points, they will have information on vacancies and can advise on training and help with writing CVs and applications.

The aim of the scheme, which is one of ten in the North-East, is to help people find work by removing barriers such as lack of transport, benefit dependency, lack of equipment or clothing, need for training or childcare problems.

Development manager Kate Welch runs the Easington Action Team, which has proved the most successful in the country, helping 1,280 people into work in the last full year.

Manager Gill Hall has moved over from Crook JobCentre, while project manager Sue Hannon joins on June 1.

Ms Welch said: "There is a lot going on in the Wear Valley and new opportunities for work are coming along all the time. We don't want local people to miss out."

The team works with partners including Bishop Auckland College, the Castlebridge Centre offering drug abuse treatment and the Connexions careers agency for 13 to 19 year-olds.

Contact the team on (01388) 458181 or meet advisors on Mondays, from 10am to noon, at Tow Law Community Resource Centre, and from 1pm to 3pm at Stanhope Community Centre; on Wednesdays from 10am to noon in Wolsingham Town Hall, from 10am to noon at Willington Resource Centre and from 1pm to 3pm in the One Stop Shop, Eldon Lane; on Thursdays from 10am to noon in St John's Chapel Town Hall, from 10am to noon in Tees Walk Community Centre, Coundon, and from 1pm to 3pm in the Proudfoot Centre, Woodhouse Close.