100s of apprenticeships been gained

Hundreds of people have gained apprenticeships and employment on the back of a huge investment in construction projects, which have delivered new and improved housing, schools and leisure attractions in the county.

More than £400million has been ploughed in to local projects in recent years, all of which have helped boost employment and training opportunities for people of all ages and backgrounds.

Facilitated by Constructing Carmarthenshire Together – an award-winning partnership between Carmarthenshire County Council, Coleg Sir Gâr and Carmarthenshire Construction Training Association Ltd – around 70 apprenticeships have been created each year through various schemes designed to extract the maximum benefits for local communities. Many of these apprentices have gone on to find employment in the local construction industry, which has also seen an unprecedented boom, despite the current economic climate.

Schemes have been developed to create opportunities for people at all levels – from Building Your Own Future in Sir Gâr, which provides community taster sessions in the county’s most deprived communities – to Next Steps, a project run over the past four years which has put 15 people on apprenticeship placements.

Such has been the success of another Carmarthenshire-based Shared Apprenticeship pilot scheme, that a new regional scheme has just been launched, creating opportunities for 70 apprentices every year across south Wales.

Cllr Colin Evans, Executive Board Member for Technical Services, said: “We are immensely proud of all we have achieved through working together. From the outset, we believed that construction investment should not stop at just bricks and mortar, and through partnership and vision we have helped create futures for hundreds of people, as well as helping local construction companies to stabilise and grow.”

Visit www.constructingcarmarthenshiretogether.co.uk for more.