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Launched last October, the Cumbria Sure Start Making Choices scheme has seen more than 150 people attend free four-day courses aimed at encouraging them to go into child care as a career.

Councillor Joan Stocker, spokesperson for education, said: “It’s the second fastest growing industry sector; more child care workers are needed to meet the demand from parents.”

The courses, which will run until 2005, are open to people of all backgrounds and ages. Those attending are able to visit local child care providers to “see for themselves what it is like to work in the sector”.

Stocker said that the council had tried to find innovative ways to target under-represented groups through approaches such as “taster sessions”, which were held before the four-day courses. “We have a strategy  where we will try and recruit people who may never have thought of becoming child care workers before.”