CRUMBS! Shift-workers at a Blackpool biscuit factory can now learn new computer or language skills at any time of the day or night.

Blackpool South MP Gordon Marsden performed the official opening ceremony at the New Horizon Centre - Horizon Biscuits' £50,000 new open learning facility on Friday (September 3).

The centre, with courses run 24 hours a day by tutors from Blackpool and the Fylde College, offers a wide range of opportunities and the latest hi-tech equipment to help the Devonshire Road company's 620 staff and their families improve their qualifications and enhance their careers.

Set up with support from the Blackpool Challenge Partnership, Lancashire Colleges Consortium, training organisation Lawtec and TUC Bargaining Skills North West, the centre will also be open to Blackpool residents in the New Year.

Training manager Andrew Saunders said: "Horizon Biscuits is an avid supporter of the concept of lifelong learning. The possibilities are almost endless for the development of our employees and we are looking forward to a new millennium of learning."

Mr Marsden said: "I'm delighted Horizon has taken this initiative. It's very much in line with the importance the government attaches to lifelong learning.

"I particularly welcome the opportunity for people who may have been out of employment for a long time to have the chance to pick up skills in computing and languages. It's a lot easier for staff working on shifts to do some learning conveniently on-site and fit it in round their working hours."

He also welcomed the partnership between the management, college, trade unions and supporting agencies.

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