Bosses at a Shipley marketing firm today gave their backing to a pilot scheme aimed at enticing adults back into education and training.

The workplace initiative, called Bite Size Intros, is to be rolled out across West Yorkshire after a successful pilot in Shipley.

The project involves local col-leges visiting businesses to deliver introductory lessons to staff in a bid to give them a renewed taste for learning.

It is free and is the brainchild of Bradford-based Learning and Skills Council West Yorkshire, which admin-isters all post-16 education and training in the region. The pilot was undertaken by Shipley Col-lege in conjunction with Ship-ley-based full service marketing agency MBD.

The French lesson taster, given to staff at MBD's Wellcroft of-fices, proved so successful that one member of staff - IT Man-ager Sean Lewis, immediately enrolled on a French course at the college.

The Intros, which last between one and three hours, cover a very wide spectrum of subjects, from basic car maintenance to anger management and website design to job hunting. There are nearly 200 courses to choose from and staff can enrol on as many courses as they like.

Bite-Sized Intros were intro-duced by the Learning and Skills Council in 2001. They have been well-received by the public but the Shipley project was the first time that colleges and other training providers have worked with local businesses to hold courses in the workplace.

Learning and Skills Council West Yorkshire executive director Margaret Coleman welcomed the scheme.

"Bite Size Intros are designed to attract the interest of adults but require lower levels of commitment than standard courses and so can be easily fitted into people's busy lives," she said. "The courses show how easy it is to learn something new, even in just one hour, and stimulate interest amongst adults for learning. We hope businesses will see the positive benefits of helping their staff to re-engage in the learning process and will work closely with colleges and other training providers to give them that chance."

MBD managing director Gary Shaw said: "We think Bite Size Intros are a great idea and are delighted to be the first busi-ness to introduce it into the workplace. Anything that can help our staff broaden their in-tellectual horizons can only be good for us as a company and we highly recommend the scheme to other businesses."

For further information, call 0800 16 00 17 or visit www.bitesizewy.com