STUDENTS from Burnley have made an ‘invaluable’ and ‘exciting’ trip to Oman to help disadvantaged communities.

University of Central Lancashire under-graduates have helped mentors in the Arab state as part of the Global Youth Solutions programme.

It was their first visit to Oman, but they have delivered the same programme in Turkey and Pakistan and in a number of county high schools.

UCLan tutors Wajid Khan and Yasmeen Ali, from the Centre for Volunteering and Comm-unity Action at the Burnley campus, took eight students - seven on a community leadership foundation degree and an engineering student from Medina on the trip, which was staged in partnership with the International College of Engineering and Management.

Mr Khan said: “Our students have been delivering our week-long enabling programme that helps students to identify and execute solutions to social issues. It’s been a very exciting for the students and has provided them with some invaluable experience and will lead to further exchanges in the future.”

One student, Dean Edwards, 21, from Nelson said: “It was great to be able to visit a country like Oman and get the opportunity to understand what volunteering is like for the Omani people.

“We got them actively engaged in activities about leadership, teamwork, presenting and reflecting so they could learn for themselves and then take that forward and build on that in the future.

“We only had a very short amount of time with them but it’s amazing what they achieved.

The feedback was astounding and it’s really nice to know our help was greatly appreciated,” Dean added.