A helping hand which secured 3,000 jobs.

The growing success of new training consultancy JAA Associates has won the Bishop Auckland business an award for creating County Durham's 3,000th job.

The company, set up by Judith Moran and Ann Johnson, started life last month with support from Business Link County Durham under the High Growth Programme.

Business is going so well the women are already employing two full-time and five part-time employees with a third full-timer joining next month.

In the process, they registered the 3,000th job to be created by Business Link County Durham since April 2001, when A4E won the franchise.

BLCD chose the launch of National Enterprise Week this week to present Judith and Ann with an award to mark the job milestone.

The training consultancy specialises in many areas of training, including customer service, team leading, stress management and retail and it is rapidly winning contracts with companies and colleges around the UK.

Ed Smith, project manager for BLCD, said: "To hit the 3,000 job mark is a great achievement and all the new companies in County Durham that have contributed to this figure deserve congratulations.

"Judith and Ann are typical of the people who are coming to us with an excellent idea for a business but in need of some support to get up and running."

Judith and Ann were colleagues at Bishop Auckland College and the college has now become one of their first clients. With wide experience in specific areas of training and in distance learning, they spotted a gap in the market.

Ann said: "With growing emphasis on training and improving skill levels of the workforce, more companies are looking for expertise in this area and for bespoke courses to be delivered in-house."

Judith added: "We just couldn't have got the company up and running without the help from BLCD. The High Growth Programme gave us access to an adviser, Wendy Lund from Access for Business, and we're really grateful for the support.

"We knew we had a good business idea but needed guidance on things like finance, legal matters, a business plan, marketing and cash flow forecasts. We are both a bit surprised at just how quickly the business has taken off but we have been able to cope with it all because of the planning that has gone into our start-up."

Details of events planned in County Durham for National Enterprise Week are available from the Enterprise Team, Business Link County Durham on (0191) 374- 4000.