School to train UK nationals in line with Tory policy of deep cuts in immigration and scrapping language of multiculturalism

The communities secretary, Eric Pickles, is to make a UK curry college that would teach British workers the secret of perfect pakoras a showpiece of the government's integration strategy to be published shortly.

Pickles's "curry college", as it is being called, would see the government backing a school to train British people from all backgrounds to become chefs specialising in Indian food as an answer to the crisis in the £3.2bn curry industry triggered by the Home Office's ban on bringing in chefs from Bangladesh, India and Pakistan.

The scheme is in line with Conservative policy to make deep cuts in immigration numbers on the basis "that we do not need to attract people to do jobs that could be carried out by British citizens, given the right training and support".

It also chimes with the position of Iain Duncan Smith, the work and pensions secretary. In July he appeared to echo Gordon Brown's infamous plea for "British jobs for British workers" but has since said that he rejects that in favour of a policy of "getting British workers ready for British jobs".

The idea is backed in the long-awaited integration strategy being hammered out between Whitehall departments, which says the government is to "support British excellence in the Asian and Oriental catering" sector.

The strategy, which has yet to get final approval by Downing Street, will see a distinct shift away from Labour's language in this area. Talk of promoting local community cohesion is out and talk of promoting integration is now in, with "tolerance" as the new watchword. It follows David Cameron's Munich speech earlier this year when he criticised "state multiculturalism" and argued that the UK needed a stronger national identity.

The integration strategy has taken months to get cross-government agreement and has still not yet been finalised. But Whitehall sources indicate Downing Street is taking an active interest and it should be published shortly.

The draft paper confirms the strategy will be broken down in four separate strands: establishing common ground; increasing social mobility; improving participation and countering intolerance and extremism. Among its proposals are believed to be:

• A new drive against "anti-Muslim hatred" in Britain and a recognition antisemitism is also growing.

• Events to celebrate the Queen's diamond jubilee and the Olympic Games that bring together different communities.

• An online integration forum, which includes a "barrier-busting site" to emove bureaucratic barriers and encourage different community and faith groups to come together.

• An initiative to establish common ground with Gypsy and Traveller communities.

Conservative ministers see the integration as an essential element alongside a much tougher drive to reduce immigration, including requirements for new family and labour migrants to be able to speak English.

After the 2010 general election, particularly the encounter between Brown and Gillian Duffy in Rochdale, discussion of immigration within political parties, including Labour, has moved on to questions of integration, especially about requiring new migrants to learn English and participate in society.

Outside the integration strategy discussions, ministers have separately been discussing a new "public interest test" to ensure that extreme or intolerant groups cannot gain public engagement or funding. The test under consideration, to be overseen by a cross-government body, would apply to all potentially extremist groups, including the far right, but also would target Islamist groups that support a caliphate, reject democracy and UK political institutions and call for the wholesale implementation of sharia law.

Pickles's curry college scheme falls under the heading of "increasing social mobility". An early paper for the "integration and tolerance working group", entitled Creating the Conditions for Integration, says: "The Indian restaurant sector has already approached the government to explore how they can be supported to recruit and train British workers. Changes must come from the sector but the government will work with them to identify barriers and short-term support."

Paul Goodman, a former Tory shadow communities minister, and executive editor of Conservativehome website, said the curry college plan was "very Eric Pickles". Goodman said: "He [Pickles] has a dream: namely to set up a curry college. It combines border control with foreign cooking. It would both help satisfy the apparently inexhaustible appetite for onion bhajis and prawn birianis while also providing justification for the squeeze on visas."

Goodman said it was also a reminder of Pickles's long engagement with communities from the subcontinent since his days as the leader of Bradford council.

Goodman, who has seen early drafts of the integration paper, added that the new emphasis on talking about "tolerance" suggested allowing behaviour which was generally disapproved of but was also being employed to define its limits and so set out what should not tolerated.

The Tory party co-chairman, Lady Warsi, the only Muslim member of the cabinet, has recently made speeches stressing that she wants to create a country where people were not embarrassed to say they believed in God or attended church. She has also argued for stronger links between the Muslim and Jewish communities.

The new drive against "anti-Muslim hatred", as it is called rather than Islamophobia, follows concern among ministers that, unlike other forms of prejudice, it may be starting to "form part of a public rhetoric".

It would involve the creation of a working group made up of organisations from the British Muslim population, senior civil servants and academics, that would report directly to ministers. It would also advise on the best way to engage British Muslims, including around local and international events that impact on that community.