Unemployed people could get a job at Gatwick Airport as part of an ambitious project.

Thousands of people who have been jobless for more than a year could apply to join the scheme, which can lead to full-time work.

It comes hard on the heels of complaints from employers at the airport that the new security vetting procedures make it harder for them to recruit staff.

However, all potential trainees would be properly vetted before they joined the scheme.

The project is called Employment Zone and has yet to be given full Government backing.

It has already been run at Stansted airport in Essex, where 4,000 unemployed people took part and one in 16 were offered permanent positions.

The scheme is being run by Reed in Partnership - an offshoot of the Reed recruitment group.

Managing director Chris Melvin said: "There must be many people in Brighton without a job who would love to work at Gatwick but don't have the skills, confidence or wherewithal to secure a job there. We want to give them a chance."

The workers would be recruited from local JobCentres and given two weeks of classroom training and four weeks of on-the-job training.

Employers at the airport will meet the recruits face-to-face and be able to pick and choose from the entire course. Reed will arrange for the necessary vetting before the trainees start work and help will also be given with rail fares to get the trainees to Gatwick.

BAA Stansted supports the scheme and it is likely its colleagues at Gatwick will follow suit if it takes off.

The Stansted scheme has been running for two years and there are four Employment Zones across the UK in Liverpool, Doncaster, Haringey and Newham with smaller projects in Glasgow and on Teeside.

The Government is expected to tell Reed whether or not it can run the zone in Brighton.