STUDENTS have gone construction crazy after free taster courses to build a workforce to regenerate East Lancashire.

The 10-week scheme, funded by Elevate - the £100million Government scheme set to revamp the area's housing - has proved a smash hit.

The evening classes, which covered bricklaying to solar panel fitting, were held this year at Blackburn College, Burnley College and Accrington and Rossendale College.

An education bosses reported massive interest - with Blackburn College having to run twice the number planned.

The courses were aimed at stirring up interest in the construction industry so students would qualify in time to help build new homes in East Lancashire under the Elevate pathfinder scheme.

Catherine Pickup, manager of its Constructing The Future project, said the students will be in demand when they qualified, especially those training in solar panel fitting - as Blackburn currently has no trained professionals in the field.

She said: "When the rebuilding phase starts it will create a lot of jobs. But we know there is a skills shortage, which is why we are putting money into courses for local people now, so they will be qualified to access the jobs on offer.

"We realised there were no contractors in the North West qualified to fit photovoltaic systems and thought if we staged courses it would give local contractors the edge."

Blackburn College will now run an NVQ course in bricklaying, which has already attracted 73 students. By the time they graduate at NVQ level three, the house-building schemes should be about to start.

Its curriculum centre manager of technology, Steve Redford, said: "The idea was to attract non-traditional learners, that is people who have been out of education or people who are in work but want a change of direction.

"As a result of the interest, we have started new evening courses in bricklaying. This is in addition to the huge increase in demand across all skill areas - our workshops are bulging."

Week-long solar panel fitting courses are available to electrical contractors with a level three NVQ with a City and Guilds 16th edition qualification.

Anyone interested should call Mr Redford on 01254 292213.