TELL us what you want, what you really, really want. That's what we're asking young readers as part of a Newspapers in Education Spice Girls contest.

The 'Spice of Life' competition has ten exciting Spice Girls' books up for grabs and all youngsters have to do is let us know what they hope to get out of life.

The contest is open to anyone between nine and 13 years of age and attending a school in East Lancashire. Stories must be about 150 words long.

Spice of Life is just one of an exciting range of projects under our NIE scheme.

On April 24 we're holding a free taster day for teachers interested in finding out more about NIE, funded to schools by the Teacher Placement Service.

Included in the day is a tour of the Lancashire Evening Telegraph's head office in Blackburn and printing plant in Bolton but there are only a few places left. We still have some copies of our Eye in the Sky local geography teaching pack and schools can still join one of the most cost effective educational resources available, the Story Search Reading Scheme.

Another competition, Just the Job, has some great book prizes on offer for 14-19 year olds who can draw up an action plan, telling us how they would apply for a job advertised in the Telegraph.

And to mark Newspapers in Education Week this year we'll be producing a special Spotlight on East Lancashire local history educational supplement which will include a free hard-back book, Images of East Lancashire.

Schools have already received information and for full details on all the NIE projects, contact co-ordinator Rita Shaw on 01254 678678 extension 255.

The Lancashire Evening Telegraph runs the NIE project in partnership with the East Lancashire Training and Enterprise Council to give young people an awareness and understanding of local industry and, in particular, the newspaper industry.

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