AHMED Rahman is hoping to give the unemployed the sort of help he himself once got.

Mr Rahman went on a course aimed at getting unemployed people in Oxfordshire back into work and has now been given a job running similar schemes.

He is manager and tutor of the IT centre based at Northway Community Centre in Headington, Oxford, after benefitting from a course run by Oxford Brookes Univeristy.

The university has been given £110,000 by the Economic Challenge Investment Fund to run three years of community courses to get people back into work.

Mr Rahman, 52, from Barton, Oxford, will run computer courses from the centre which will form part of 74 courses being run by Brookes in the county this year.

He said: “These courses are excellent.

“They extend the role of the university because instead of waiting for people to come to them, the university is reaching out to help them reshape their knowledge and skills at a time when they need it.

“It is much better than being just stuck at home, and it is one way people get to know your abilities.”

Mr Rahman had previously completed an MA in electronic media from Brookes before he took a course in Black and Minority Ethnic Resident Community Research last year. He is now putting that course to use by volunteering to conduct research with the South Oxfordshire Housing Association to determine customer needs.

Other courses to be run by Brookes this year will cover computing and training in practical skills such as searching for jobs and preparing for interviews.

Leys News, in Kingfisher Green, will provide training in community journalism, while there will be courses in craft skills and marketing at the Rainbow Centre in Banbury, and in health and beauty at Barton Community Centre.

Oxford and Cherwell Valley College will also offer a module in motorsport composites as an off-shoot of the motorsport foundation degree it runs in partnership with the university.

Ingrid Widdows, academic project leader at the university, said: “We go out into the community and ask people what courses they want and need rather than what we think they may need.

“We are truly working in partnership with other local providers to support those looking for jobs in these difficult times.”

Kate Martin, from Banbury, is currently doing a course at the Rainbow Centre called Get Work Ready the Creative Way.

She said: “It is creative and fun and has given me the confidence to be more enterprising.”

For more information contact Peter Knipp at wknipp@brookes.ac.uk or call 01865 484886