DERBY'S Central Library and Quad arts centre will receive £20,000 to help realise their aim of working together to get people into work.

The organisations, working with the Shaw Trust, Derby Jobcentre Plus and Action for Employment, were selected as one of 13 pilot projects throughout the country to receive the money from the Arts Council.

Rob Colbert, business enterprise director for Quad, said: "We will be ... delivering workshops over the next year to help increase people's confidence and the skills they need to be able to do well in interviews and sell themselves.

"We will use acting skills to help with that."

Four separate workshops, each made up of three half-day sessions, will be held over 12 months from June.

While Quad delivers the training to improve confidence in those people seeking work, the library will help with composing application letters and CVs as well as giving information on how to search for jobs.

David Potton, from the city council's library service, said: "We are delighted that our successful bid to Arts Council England gives us the opportunity, through its Libraries Development Initiative, to further develop our work in this area."

Arts Council England is awarding a total of £230,000 to fund 13 library projects.

The organisation, which provides funding for arts groups, recently also took on responsibility for museums and libraries from the former Museum Libraries and Archives Council.

Peter Knott, regional director of Arts Council England, said: "Derby Libraries and Quad's application clearly demonstrates how the arts can be used to address social and economic problems, associated with unemployment.

"This new partnership should develop and cement the reputation of the cultural sector in the city as providers of enhanced services for local people."