A European Union grant of £109,000 to Leeds residential home Donisthorpe Hall will fund training for young locals looking for a career in social care.

Donisthorpe will be recruiting 12 trainees aged between 17 and 25 for a 14-week project which includes work experience at a care home in Malta.

Chief executive Carol Whitehead was “thrilled” at the success of its funding bid. “We are looking forward to working with our partners in both the UK and Malta to provide a valuable transferable training experience in care. We have already had a lot of interest in the project.”

The trainees will work towards an NVQ level 2 in health and social care. Funding is also coming from the Leeds Education Business Partnership and Care Malta.Training starts at Donisthorpe in September.

Donisthorpe ran a similar scheme last July with 30 students from Poland, 10 of whom subsequently took up posts at the care home.