A MULTI-million pound scheme to tackle high levels of unemployment in one of the region's job blackspots is on course to get nearly 4,000 people into work within five years.

Many long-term unemployed people are being advised about debt and low confidence and may even be given money to buy suitable clothing for interviews.

The training operation of the project could help tackle regional skills shortages in the long-term.

In the first ten months of the Employment Zone project, more than 600 unemployed people have found jobs in the Middlesbrough and East Cleveland areas, including one man who has not worked for more than 20 years.

Pertemps Employment Alliance (PEA), which provides a range of Government-funded welfare to work programmes, has funds of £55m to spend over five years on the project.

PEA is also working on a two-year, £2m project, which has created 50 jobs in eight weeks in two of the worst unemployment blackspots in Middlesbrough.

Sharon Marshall, regional director of PEA, said: "By achieving successful employment for hundreds of people, we have developed excellent relationships with local businesses, who are now working in partnership with us, developing new employees and other workforce mem-bers to engage in programs that promote lifelong learning."

The scheme helps tackle factors traditionally associated with unemployment, including childcare, low confidence and debt management.

It can also pay for equipment and transport to their place of work.

Ms Marshall said: "We don't see barriers and issues, we see solutions to key employment problems which have not previously been challenged and by tackling them at source, we can be a catalyst for change.

The company is working with Jobcentre Plus to deliver the projects and is forming links with other organisations, including drug action teams and Teesside University.

Since the launch of the initiatives, more than £600,000 has been spent on the regeneration and revamp of three buildings - Redcar's Literary Institute, Thorntree's Corpus Christi Church Hall and Middlesbrough's Albert Road office - all of which are now well staffed and resourced Pertemps centres.