Secondary school pupils from around the county have spent the last five months working closely with young children as part of the Teens and Toddlers programme.

The course, which was founded in London six years ago, allows both boys and girls to experience the pressures and responsibilities of being parents.

It successfully cut unwanted pregnancies among under-18s in London, and Northamptonshire County Council has become the first local authority outside the capital to adopt the scheme.

After a successful trial which saw all 24 teenagers graduate at an award ceremony in Kettering, organisers hope it can become a permanent fixture.

Co-ordinator of the council's teenage pregnancy strategy Jane Waite said: "This course was all about giving young people a new, exciting opportunity to learn about the realities of parenthood and the pressures it brings.

"The first pilot has been a great success and we would like it to become a mainstream activity in Northamptonshire in the future."

Teenagers spend 20 weeks working with young children at nurseries and primary schools to get an idea of what parenting is all about.

Jade Coe, 14, from Wellingborough, said: "I have learned to be patient with kids and that they need as much respect as we do.

"I definitely will wait until I'm a lot older to have children because it is stressful just spending a couple of hours with them."

According to Teens and Toddlers director Peter Hein, the figures are proof of the programme's success.

He said: "In the first year there were 200 teenagers on the course and none had become pregnant or involved in a pregnancy by the time they reached the age of 18.

"In the second year only three out of 400 were involved in a pregnancy before they were 18. Overall, Teens and Toddlers has a 97.5 per cent success rate at preventing pregnancies, which speaks for itself."

The people behind Northamptonshire's Teens and Toddlers programme have pledged to nearly halve the county's teen pregnancy rates by 2010.

Latest figures published by the Office of National Statistics show 42 girls aged under 18 out of every 1,000 fell pregnant in the county during 2005.

The most recent figures which break down the births by area are for 2002.

They recorded that 59.4 per 1,000 of 15- to 17-year-olds in Corby were becoming mums, compared with 50.7 in Kettering, 38.5 in East Northamptonshire and 55.2 in Wellingborough.