People on a Bradford Council training scheme are getting a taste of other faiths and cultures this week in a series of activities organised to mark National Interfaith Week.

The Skills for Work Service, which trains people to help them get jobs, has organised a timetable of events as part of the special week which aims to celebrate the diversity of religions in the UK and a greater understanding of them.

Trainees visited Festival Lights on Monday, part of Skills for Work’s Industrial Services Group, which provides supported employment to 46 people and manufactures lights for religious festivals across the country.

In 2006 Festival Lights created displays to celebrate the Muslim festival of Eid which are now shown in the city centre every year.

A group is due to visit Hanifa mosque on Carlisle Road and a Polish Catholic Church on Edmond Street today and the Ramgarhia Gurdwara Sikh temple on Bolton Road and the Shree Prajapati Mandir Hindu temple on Leeds Road tomorrow.

There will also be a range of activities in Skills for Work centres including talks given by a Buddhist monk and a vicar, Henna and body art and sampling foods from different faiths and cultures.

Bradford’s Interfaith Education Centre has helped organise the timetable of visits.

Councillor Michael Kelly, the Council’s executive member for services to children and young people, said: “This is a great learning opportunity for the trainees. Gaining a greater understanding of other faiths is a valuable addition to any other training or employment they enter into and even more important in a multi-cultural district like Bradford.”

Skills for Work provides supported employment and training for people with learning and physical disabilities or other challenges to work or training. Its Industrial Services Group has three departments which provide supported employment – Festival Lights, a department which manufactures windows and doors for a range of customers such as social landlords and a mailing and packaging section working mainly for retail clients. They also provide training through the Department for Work and Pensions’ WORKSTEP programme.

e-mail: jo.winrow@telegraphandargus.co.uk