SCHOOL and college staff in East Lancashire are being offered specialist training to protect students from being drawn into extremism.

Blackburn-based company Victvs Ltd is providing seminars at its Eanam Wharf offices starting on Friday, January 22 running through to June.

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The are part of a national Home Office approved Prevent Duty programme of mandatory awareness training for organisations including schools, universities and prisons.

The company, which also has offices in Wales and London, has already trained thousands of frontline workers UK-wide. including 30 schools in Blackburn with Darwen, Rossendale, Ribble Valley and Bolton.

The new courses come as the government set up a new 'Educate Against Hate' website to advise parents and teachers advice on protecting children from radicalisation.

Education Secretary Nicky Morgan said it was one of several measures to keep children safe from 'the spell of twisted ideologies'.

There will be an escalation of Ofsted's investigations into and prosecutions of unregistered, illegal schools.

The website was launched yesterday at Bethnal Green Academy in East London.from which three female pupils are feared to have travelled to Syria.

The Victvs course provides understanding of what drives people towards violent extremism, and how to recognise the signs of radicalisation.

The firm's director Andrew Gregory, said: “The Prevent Duty was introduced six months ago.

"It highlights the importance of identifying people who are being drawn towards violent extremism, before they choose to act and teachers have a critical role to play.

"If a person is identified as at risk of radicalisation, then there are measures that can be put in place.

“Whilst there is no single solution to preventing terrorist attacks, awareness is the key to this.

"We already have bookings for 10 of the 20 places on our first seminar next week and 100 in all."

In July, a 15-year-old boy from Blackburn was convicted of plotting a terrorist attack on Anzac Day in Australia.

While in December Ednane Mahmood, 19, from Blackburn who attempted to travel to Syria to fight for Islamic State has been jailed for four years.

He was convicted last month by a jury at Manchester Crown Court of preparing terrorism acts after downloading videos showing British aid worker David Haines being beheaded, before fleeing from his home during the early hours to travel to Syria on September 18, 2014.

Since 2007 Blackburn with Darwen has been given government funding to prioritise the battle against Islamic extremism.

In 2009 Professor Ted Cantle, whose report into the 2001 Burnley riots talked about different ethnic groups living 'parallel lives', said Blackburn was one of Britain's most segregated towns.

Blackburn with Darwen education boss Dave Harling said: "We already do a lot of work in the brought to help teachers deal with possible radicalisation which includes right-wing extremism."

Lancashire Council of Mosques chairman Abdul Hamid Qureshi said: "We welcome anything that helps but we want the to government to focus on bringing up and caring for young people from the earliest age or it is all just a gimmick."