Local people achieving their goals

Communities Minister Lesley Griffiths, has today visited an innovative training course at the Liberty Stadium which is using sport to help long term unemployed people from Swansea, Neath Port Talbot and Carmarthenshire into work.

Backed by former Wales football international, Robbie Savage, ‘Our Club’ is a six-week employability course run in partnership by the Welsh Government’s Lift programme and the Centre of Coaching Excellence, which is helping twenty local people develop the skills and belief they need to get a job.

The course involves two weeks employability training at the Liberty Stadium in Swansea, followed by four weeks of work experience with a variety of local employers, including Morrisons, DVLA, Gwalia, William Hill, Wheelies and Dawnus.

The aim is that through undertaking a combination of sports based team work, skills training and job placements, participants’ new found confidence and abilities will impress prospective employers and lead to offers of permanent employment.

Communities Minister, Lesley Griffiths, today visited the Liberty Stadium to meet participants and hear about their experiences of the scheme.

Lesley Griffiths said:

“Employment is the best route out of poverty and can have a life-changing impact on people’s confidence and well-being. Our Lift programme is giving people who live in workless households a much-needed helping hand to gain the skills and experience they need to succeed.

“As I have seen today, our partnership with the Centre of Coaching Excellence is having a tangible impact on local people. Participants have told me how they now have belief in their own abilities and feel they have the skills they need to get a permanent job.”

The ‘Our Club’ project in Swansea has received support from Welsh football pundit and former player, Robbie Savage.

When he visited the scheme earlier this month, Robbie said:

“It’s been great to see so many enthusiastic people of all ages with the desire to get back, or into, full time employment and  this course gives them that opportunity. It’s great to be here today and I’m looking forward to hopefully seeing some of the people I’ve met today get into work.”

‘Our Club’ has proven extremely successful elsewhere in the UK, with some projects reporting a hundred per cent success rate of getting participants into permanent employment.

The Welsh Government and the Centre of Coaching Excellence have worked in partnership to bring an ‘Our Club’ project to Wales for the first time as part of the Welsh Government’s Lift Programme.

Paul Dowd from the Centre of Coaching Excellence said:

“We are delighted to be working in partnership with the Lift Programme in Wales. The ‘Our Club’ programme is born out of a belief that everybody has talent and can contribute positively within their communities.

“Our programmes are based within an iconic sporting environment where we promote and link a healthy lifestyle to personal achievement.

“We have a great track record of changing people’s lives for the better across the UK, taking them on a development journey, uncovering the key life skills needed for the world of work and ultimately securing employment.”

Lift aims to provide 5,000 training and employment opportunities by the end of 2017 for people living in households where no-one is in work.

The programme supports those who face the greatest barriers to becoming employed, such as young single parents, adults with few or no formal qualifications, people with poor employment records and disabled people.