The Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) has awarded £1.125m (US$1.4m, €1.35m) to the Scottish Waterways Trust (SWT) to finance a major skills and employability programme centred on three of the nation’s historic canals.

The SWT, Scotland’s only national waterways charity, is expanding its Canal College – an outdoor employability programme designed to help address youth unemployment by teaching practical heritage and environment skills to disadvantaged 16 to 30 year olds.

According to SWT, the Canal College has between 2013 and 2015 helped 162 young people, with 72 per cent of those people moving into work, further education, training or volunteering on completion.

The charity is aiming to reach 360 people for the scheme – double the number of its previous effort – by expanding the age criteria and locations offered to Falkirk, Inverness and West Dunbartonshire.

The training scheme will be made up of a series of 14-week programmes, with members of the local community invited to become volunteer mentors for participants. Learning through practical projects, volunteers will receive first-hand experience of working on some of Scotland’s most valuable heritage assets, gaining a set of new and transferable skills.

“Our heritage offers a rich resource for skills and education so the HLF is delighted to support canal college where it is being used in such an innovative way,” said Lucy Casot, head of HLF Scotland.

“Thanks to players of the National Lottery, the canals will provide powerful and memorable experiences for young people, making learning fun and opening their eyes to the heritage which surrounds them. We know from the success of the last project that the newly-learned skills will not only make a positive difference to their own lives but will play an important part in looking after Scotland’s canal network.”

The trust is now seeking additional funding for the £1.4m (US$1.7m, €1.6m) training scheme, with plans to open the college in early 2017 and running it until 2020.