THE first trainees to graduate from a jeans school have been given the denim carpet treatment.

The Amazon training Centre was launched in Blackburn earlier this year by the North Lancs Training Group.

The idea for a training school was initiated by Gulam Musa of the Accrington based North Lancs Training Group.

He contacted a number of textile companies throughout the North West to establish if they had a shortage of machinists and to see if the group could be of any service.

"As soon as I began asking round it was obvious that they were all crying out for machinists," explained Gulam, national sales and marketing manager for NLTG. The 13 week course covers practical textile skills and written work towards an NVQ level 2 in textile manufacturing.

A staggering 12 million pairs of jeans a year are supplied by manufacturers in Blackburn and Preston - the two major Lancashire centres - every year. And an estimated 50 per cent of all jeans worn in Britain have been made by local manufacturers.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.