Football pundit Robbie Savage offers advice to new club

Match of the Day pundit Robbie Savage has been offering his brand of motivational skills to more than 20 members of a new club aimed at helping people get back into the world of work.

Participants keen to find work and develop work-based skills and get some valuable work experience with local employers benefited from the first ‘Our Club’ project to be run in Wales.

The project has been running at Swansea’s Liberty Stadium over the last couple of months and Savage, the former Wales and Leicester City star, played his part by joining club members for a motivational Q&A session and help them plan for the future.

The initiative was delivered by the Centre for Coaching Excellence (CCE) – established through the Morrison’s supermarket chain – and has been backed in Wales by Swansea Council and the Welsh Government’s Lift Programme.

Twenty-one participants who live in households where no one has worked for six months or more from Swansea, Neath Port Talbot and Carmarthenshire took part in the programme.

Cllr Will Evans, Swansea Council’s Cabinet Member for Anti-Poverty, said: “It is an inspiring project. ‘Our Club’ helped the participants to develop their confidence and self-esteem which allowed them to get involved in some more unusual motivational activities such as fire walking.

“I have met some of the participants on the scheme and I have seen how they have progressed in developing key skills for employment. I have also seen how the project has positively linked with the Lift programme and really motivated people in different ways.

“Securing employment is a key step out of poverty and this highlights the value of scheme like Our Club.”

Lesley Griffiths, the Welsh Government’s Minister for Communities and Tackling Poverty, said: “Employment is the best route out of poverty and can have a life-changing impact on people’s confidence and well-being. ‘Our Club’ is giving people who live in workless households a much-needed helping hand to gain the skills and experience they need to succeed.

“When I visited the project last month I was delighted to see how our partnership with the Centre of Coaching Excellence is having a tangible impact on local people.  I am very pleased to hear some participants have already secured employment thanks to their new-found confidence and abilities, and wish all of those who took part the very best of luck in the future.”