West Yorkshire Police is one of three forces to be given a slice of £2m of Government funding to train people to become interpreters, in a bid to improve the way it serves migrant and ethnic minority communities.

Bi-lingual adults are being sought to take part in the scheme, which has been awarded £300,000 from the Migrant Impact Fund to serve the West Yorkshire, North Yorkshire and Humberside forces.

Anyone aged 18 or over who is fluent and literate in English and one of 51 under-represented languages can apply to become an interpreter.

Marketa Moskvikova, of Bingley, has been an interpreter for the Czech community in West Yorkshire since 2001, and started working for the force in June.

She said: "I would encourage anyone who has a good command of English and one of the under-represented languages to consider becoming an interpreter for the police. I have worked with many victims to help them through difficult times and make things as easy as possible for them when English is not their first language."

It is hoped the new fund will help create a pool of interpreters who can be called upon to help.

Project co-ordinator Emily Wilson said: "Anyone interested in becoming an interpreter will have to attend a preparation course before they take the Met Test exam in London.

"This is free and a pass will place them on the National Register of Public Service interpreters, where they can work on a self-employed basis with police forces and local authorities."

The courses will run from April to July, with the Met Test being held from July 26 to 30.

Anyone interested in becoming an interpreter is asked to call 01924 292765.

Under represented languages across the region are: Albanian, Amharic, Arabic, Bengali, Bulgarian, Cantonese, Czech, Dari, Farsi, French, Fullah, German, Greek, Gujarati, Hindi, Hungarian, Indian Panjabi, Italian, Japanese, Kurdish Bahdini, Kurdish Kurmanji, Kurdish Sorani, Latvian, Lithuanian, Mandarin, Mandinka, Ndebele, Nepalese, Pakistani, Panjabi, Pashto, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Shona, Sinhalese, Slovak, Somali, Spanish, Sylheti, Tamil, Thai, Tigrinya, Turkish, Urdu, Vietnamese, Wolof, Yiddish.

Pakistani, Panjabi, Polish and Urdu interpreters are not required in the Bradford area.