Haringey women could soon be confidently mending a leaking tap or building a shelf, thanks to a programme of taster courses in construction skills here at CONEL.

We have won Capita's £10,000 Inspire Award to run a project which benefits the local community.

The College is using the prize money to develop taster courses for local women from black and minority ethnic communities, and those who are unemployed, lone parents or refugees. The short courses will be run by female trainers, so as not to exclude women who, for cultural reasons, feel more comfortable being taught by women.

Charmaine Brouard, CONEL?s Neighbourhood Learning Co-ordinator, said, "My idea was to take the training into the community. With this money, we will buy tools and mobile work-benches and run the courses in community centres. The construction industry is very under-representative of women - the percentage of women workers has hardly increased in 20 years."

Charmaine - pictured here with her award - hopes that the women will build their confidence about being able to tackle small household repairs and that some will consider going on to study for a qualification in their chosen skill. "Without this funding, we could not have run these taster courses. It has enabled us to set up this mobile women's construction training unit and take valuable skills out into the community. This is really important to help us connect with women who might not think of going to college and gaining such marketable skills."

The free courses will run at Broadwater Farm Community Centre, West Green Learning Centre, African Women's Welfare Group, Greek Cypriot Women's Organisation and Turkish Women?s Philanthropic Association. Crèche places are available on some courses and women can call Charmaine on 020 8442 3576 to book a place. The courses start in February 2008 and run during school hours.

Around 30 colleges submitted high quality proposals, with the winner chosen by a panel of experts. One judge, Andrew Thomson, Chief Executive of the Quality Improvement Agency for Lifelong Learning, said, "I was impressed with the range of initiatives but CONEL offered a strong community and student interaction as well as economic benefits. Construction is an area suffering from a skills shortage and this influenced our final decision."

Chris Cooper, Director of Capita Further and Higher Education, said, "We have worked in this sector for many years and see the great work colleges are doing to give something back to the community. We feel the Inspire Award is a way we can support and encourage such projects. We hope this will continue and flourish for a long time to come."