A PILOT scheme which aims to help jobseekers back into work has been launched in West Yorkshire.

The Jobseekers' Mandatory Activity Programme is aimed at people aged 25 and over who have been unemployed and receiving benefit continuously for six months.

The three-day intensive work-focused course will concentrate on key areas, including confidence-building and motivation, job search skills and identification of strengths.

It will also look at skills and training needs, as well as barriers to work and how they can be overcome, and routes into work.

Each person who takes part will leave the course with an action plan.

JobCentre Plus advisers will then provide three fortnightly interviews with them, building on the action plan and job search skills.

The pilot projects will be held in 10 areas of England, Scotland and Wales over two years and the Government anticipates that about 76,500 people will get help.

Margaret Hodge, Minister for Employment and Welfare Reform, said: "These pilots are an excellent example of the reforms we want to bring to the welfare state - strengthening rights and responsibilities to get people off benefits and into work.

"We want the state to be flexible enough to meet the needs of people who traditionally have felt unable to take up the opportunities that now exist, but equally ensuring that where a person is able to work and contribute they can do so."