In this year’s budget Caerphilly County Borough Council put aside £485,000 to invest in providing training and development opportunities for young people.
Immediately following this decision in February, officers were tasked by Cllr Allan Pritchard – Deputy Leader & Cabinet Member for Human Resources and Constitutional Affairs to explore both internally and externally how they could put in place one hundred placements for people aged between 16 –25 yrs.
Cllr Allan Pritchard said ” I am really excited with the ideas being put forward. Thirty-eight people are set to take up training places in the authority in April; eighteen of those are young people who will work in our parks service.
He continued “The colleges linking up with my colleague Cllr Ron Davies – Cabinet Member for Regeneration and Planning, have shown great enthusiasm to join with the council in forming work placements for their students. We met with Kate Sullivan of the Prince’s Trust who showed enormous interest in working with the council to maximise work experience for young people they link with.”
Cllr Judith Pritchard – Cabinet Member for Social Services also greeted the news of how much could be achieved with some very simple steps, she said ” Albert Heaney – Corporate Director – Social Services has told me his ideas of providing the first steps into Social Care field and then setting out a pathway for these young people to work with the private sector. It is definitely the way forward.”
Cllr Allan Pritchard said ” The whole Cabinet is backing this and so are Corporate Management, we will use the local job centres and make sure we apply a fair process to anyone who wants to apply to get their foot on the first rung of the job market. We will of course want to make sure local Caerphilly County Borough people are given preference in this scheme.
In concluding he said “If today (23/3) the Chancellor follows through on his promise to create opportunities for innovating council’s like ours, to provide apprenticeships and training, then together with the First Minister’s promise to release 4,000 places in Future Jobs Fund in May, we know Caerphilly County Borough Council is ready to move and give our young people the best chance of gaining real employment for the future.
