YOUNG offenders are painting a new picture of learning, thanks to an awarding-winning project at one of the region's prisons.

Poetry, song writing, drama and painting are being run alongside more conventional basic skills, such as literacy and numeracy, to help the inmates gain life skills.

The three-week course at Northallerton Young Offenders' Institution is being run by the local education service's youth arm, Connecting Youth Culture, with the help of New College, Durham.

And the innovative approach to rehabilitation for 18 to 21-year-olds has just won the North-East Prison Aftercare Award.

Now staff involved in the project have been invited to spread the message nationwide at a conference in London next month.

Furthermore, the work of the young offenders has been entered into the national Koestler Award and will compete with artwork from all over the country.

Caroline Patmore, North Yorkshire County Council's executive member for youth services, said: "The course is fantastic. Young offenders need something like this because it makes them think about the positive side of life and equips them with skills that employers demand."

Project co-ordinator Del Stevens said many of the inmates struggled with basic skills and, for them, the conventional classroom approach was not always the answer.

Instead, the prisoners are given the chance to explore the arts through painting, sculpture, DJ mixing, song writing, video-making and poetry.

Inmate John Thompson, 19, of Byker, Newcastle, said: "I have learnt lots of new things including painting, how to use a computer and a bit of culture.

"I wasn't really suited to education and preferred hands-on stuff. I didn't used to like written work but it is part of the course and I have really benefited."