Tourism job plan for the disabled

Tourism chiefs are being urged to recruit disabled staff

A new scheme that helps job-seekers with disabilities target the leisure and tourism industry will be launched in Berkshire next month.

The New Untapped Workforce project aims to convince employers not to discriminate against disabled staff.

The scheme, which runs until March 2008, will cover Reading, Wokingham, Windsor, Maidenhead and Slough.

Reading Borough has just been awarded £279,000 from the European Social Fund to put into the project.

Backers of the scheme say that, by targeting the "untapped" resource of disabled workers, bosses can tackle recruitment problems and better meet the needs of disabled customers.

Reading borough councillor Graeme Hoskin said: "Reading is wasting a huge amount of talent by not fully tapping into the disabled workforce.

"We need local workers to fill vacancies, there are disabled people who can fill that gap and this excellent project is about doing just that."