Secretary of State for Scotland Donald Dewar on Monday officially launches ScottishPower's New Deal programme, the biggest in Scotland, which will provide places for 250 unemployed young people.

ScottishPower's objective is to improve the employability of the recruits following their six-month and one-year training programmes. In addition, up to 100 of them will be offered jobs within the ScottishPower group, including its Manweb and Southern Water subsidiaries, in areas such as information technology, administration, call centres and leakage detection.

The first arrivals were welcomed at ScottishPower's operational headquarters Cathcart, in Glasgow by the Secretary of State and ScottishPower Chief Executive Ian Robinson, who also chairs the Scottish Advisory Task Force on Welfare to Work.

"ScottishPower's commitment to the New Deal stems from our strong sense of responsibility to the communities in which we operate, and builds on the company's successful track record in providing training opportunities to the unemployed through ScottishPower Learning.

"I firmly believe that giving young people new skills and boosting their confidence is a great way of helping them to define their potential and to fulfil it."

ScottishPower's New Deal programme will be run by ScottishPower Learning, which has supported the training of more than 650 unemployed young people since its establishment in conjunction with the trade unions two years ago to improve the career prospects of the unemployed.

ScottishPower invests £2 million each year in the business, which also helps schools in deprived areas and shares the company's resources and skills with the community, including access to ScottishPower's 46 Open Learning centres.

The New Deal recruits unemployed young people aged between 18 and 24 will join the company's programme during the current financial year following a Gateway introduction delivered by the Employment Service. The majority will be based in Scotland, though a number of places are being offered by Manweb and Southern Water.

ScottishPower will support all four New Deal options jobs, environment, voluntary sector and education and training and for each option work experience will be offered in ScottishPower or its partner organisations.

Through its franchise arrangements with the Prince's Trust Volunteers, ScottishPower will also offer places on a 12-week programme to prepare the clients for the world of work, which will be followed by work experience in the voluntary sector or with an environmental task force.