Who said Young People don't want to work?

Well, I can’t think of a funny title for this one off the top of my head. But Overwhelmed would be appropriate if not amusing.

SMK Building and Maintenance are about to take on two more apprentices to add to their staff and existing apprenticeship commitment. Through contracts with Taff Housing, CCHA and Cadwyn two more opportunities have been created for apprenticeships in the Taff Housing Community.

Through advertising in the Taff Housing newsletter and throughout community groups we had the most amazing response. That’s part one of the “overwhelmed” theme. In all we had 58 CV’s and countless more enquiries from young people chomping at the bit to take up these apprenticeships. The phone rang off the hook for days!

Last night we held an event in Butetown to meet the candidates who were invited to meet the contractor (SMK). Twenty young people from local communities had the opportunity to talk to Shaun and Al from SMK and get the lowdown on what they might expect from an apprenticeship. They also had chance to find out about Construction Skills, the benefits of registering and how to go about it from Kevin www.cskills.org.
Gareth from Careers Wales was on hand to give advice on “what’s next?” if this doesn’t work out. Gareth said “It’s so amazing to get to meet so many young people who are so enthusiastic and really want to get into work” www.careerswales.com

You guessed it, this was part two of the “overwhelmed” theme. The enthusiasm, positive reactions to all the contributors and a real determination to make the best of this opportunity was amazing to witness.

I believe everyone benefited from one part of the session or another.

We will be interviewing shortly to get our two apprentices and give them a chance to spend some time at SMK before they start college in September.

I will keep you posted on what happens next.