AN innovative employment scheme in Bury is winning European recognition.

For this week Bury Employment Support and Training (EST) welcomed visitors from Hungary.

Katalin Bard and Emese Kovago from the Salva Vita Foundation in Budapest travelled to the town to discuss techniques for finding employment for people with disabilities.

The foundation is the only organisation providing a supported employment service in Hungary.

Explaining why she had come to Bury, Katalin said: "We have been working with our national authorities to extend supported employment in Hungary and we wanted to study the way Bury EST delivers its service to disabled people.

"We want to learn about how they work with local employers and strategic partners and the visit has been very successful. We have plenty to think about!"

Bury EST is involved in a European-funded Embracing Diversity project to help certain disadvantaged people into full-time employment and has been developing links with some of the new European accession countries. It also runs regular employer forums in Bury as part of the initiative.

Bury EST manager, Huw Davies, expressed his pleasure at the links with Eastern Europe. "It is important for us to develop closer links with projects from the accession countries because of the changes to European funding. We're also delighted at the interest in our services and it shows how our reputation is growing. We hope to continue the contact between both organisations."

Bury will also host two visits from the Czech Republic next year when ten staff come over to learn about the EST's success.

Representatives from a range of services and strategic organisations will discuss best practice, learn from Bury EST staff and meet with other local agencies.

Mr Davies has been invited to speak at a conference in Poland in January where he will also feature in a televised discussion on supported employment. In the meantime, he has been invited to speak in Western Macedonia, Greece, at a conference on local employment strategies next week.