The next generation of voters have been given the opportunity to get first hand experience of how decisions are made by local councils at a Gwynedd Council event, organised in partnership with Careers Wales.
Around 50 youngsters from Coleg Menai attended the Cabinet Workshop at Siambr Dafydd Orwig in Caernarfon to learn more about the work of Gwynedd Council.
They met senior officers and councillors and had the opportunity to discuss and consider the various challenging matters the Council deals with every day.
Councillor Brian Jones, who leads on children and young people’s matters on Gwynedd Council said: “Many aspects of the Council’s work affects the everyday lives of our young people and this workshop provided an ideal opportunity for the students to see for themselves how and why decisions about these services and resources are made.
“We can always learn from the views of young people. They have a fresh perspective and experience that can challenge positively our own more traditional views perhaps as councillors and officers. I hope this experience was of interest to them, and provided them with a great opportunity to learn more about local democracy.”
Justin Jones, BTEC Diploma in Business student at Coleg Menai said: “I have found today very interesting and useful, it has helped me understand the difficult tasks the council face to spend our depleting budgets. It also gave me the chance to give my opinion and share my ideas of what I would like to see being improved in our local towns.”
Carwyn Jones, Business Studies Lecturer at Coleg Menai added: “This was an excellent opportunity for the Coleg Menai business students to gain an insight into the varied work Gwynedd Council does. Who knows, one day our future Council leaders may come from this group.”
