Exciting new office, exciting new apprenticeship!

Leading construction, services and property group Kier, have offered yet another apprenticeship as part of their commitment to community investment.

David Llewllyn from Cardiff has been offered a three year carpentry apprenticeship with Kier, joining the UWHA Cardiff office renovation team, for his first project. David impressed the team during a work trial day, helping to fit a kitchen at UWHA’s Adamscourt residence to a high standard. Construction Design Manager Tyrone Feeley commented, ‘David really shone during his work trial, he demonstrated a wide range of skills and a commitment to learning, so we are delighted to welcome him to the team.’

David will be working alongside the team, to create a new office which will provide a bespoke staff, tenant and community facility that reflects the high quality environment provided at UWHA head office Y Borth. The development will make a positive and long-term commitment to the re-generation of the local area and ensure UWHA maintains a high quality profile in the principality. With an anticipated completion being the summer of 2012, David is looking forward to getting started on site towards the end of the month.

Above: Tyrone and Alan

Currently working on site

David will be the third apprentice with Kier engaged in Integrate’s targeted training and recruitment project. To keep up to date on the progress of the new Cardiff office and to find out how David is settling in onsite, remember to bookmark the blog as a favorite on your tool bar and come back soon!

Clare-Integrate

Secretary of State visits Coastal's Urban Village Regeneration Scheme

Press Room
Secretary of State for Wales visits Swansea regeneration project
( Last Updated: 07-02-2012 )
Cheryl Gillan the Secretary of State for Wales visited the Urban Village project in the centre of Swansea last week as part of her tour of South-Wales, visiting companies, projects and initiatives that are bucking the economic trend. As part of her tour the Secretary of State spoke at length to representatives of the Midas Construction team, who are delivering this high profile scheme, Coastal Housing Group and a range of apprentices and trainees who are involved on the scheme.
The purpose of the visit focused on promoting an agenda of innovation, job creation, collaboration and lateral thinking that is helping to sustain the local Economy and return it to growth.
Coastal Housing's £25 million Urban Village is being developed in phases with a series of new courtyard spaces linking off street parking, flexible ground floor retail and commercial space, shops and offices with food and drink outlets and 76 new apartments for rent.
At the centre of the village, The Hub, Wales' first "creative cluster," - is a purpose built office block for creative commercial businesses - architects, artists, fashion designers, musicians, media professionals and leisure software designers - allowing the creative supply chain to be situated in one place in a dedicated commercial and supportive environment. These creative industries will help create a vibrant place to work, shop and live. Many of the apartments will be let to people working in the hub industries
Coastal Housing is working alongside the City and County of Swansea and the Welsh Assembly Government, with the latter providing financial help from their Strategic Regeneration Area funding programme.
Development director at Coastal, Gerraint Oakley, said: "There is already strong demand for commercial space at the creative cluster. We have got people signed up, and we can be really flexible about space and welcome enquiries from the creative and retail sectors. We also aim to create some destination shopping outlets at The Village that people will want to travel to including clothing and delicatessens etc. Gerraint added: "On the development front the scheme will have generated around 320 construction jobs and a number of apprenticeship positions over its five years duration, plus around 426 full and part-time jobs once completed."
Alan Hope the Chief Executive of the Midas Group said:"We are delighted that the Secretary of State for Wales chose to visit the Urban Village scheme. It is a highly progressive mixed use regeneration scheme that clearly shows that Affordable Housing providers like Costal Housing are alive to the idea that the future for the sector is about diversification and sustainable live work communities".
The scheme is due to be completed in Summer 2012 and the Secretary of State expressed a desire to return to the Urban Village to see it opened and fulfilling its role in the revival of the city centre community.


web link


Secretary of State for Wales visits Swansea ... - Midas Group
Coastal Housing's £25 million Urban Village is being developed in phases with ... Alan Hope the Chief Executive of the Midas Group said:"We are delighted that ...
www.midasgroup.co.uk/Secretary-of-State-for-Wales-visits-S...

Mitie are recruiting

Mitie held a recuitment day on Wednesday 27th July 2011 between 2 - 8 pm where anyone could "pop" along and register their details for employment opportunties.

Mitie had a range of support staff available for people to talk too , including HR, Mangers, Directors etc.

Did you know that in the UK 1 person in 600 is emplyed my Mitie - WOW !!!

Watch this space to see what happens next...................................

Article from Newydd - AWARD WON

Housing Association awarded for innovative chapel conversion development

Newydd Housing Association has won an award for their innovative and high-quality development that unusually included a chapel conversion.

Newydd won the Social Affordable Housing category at the Vale of Glamorgan Council Building Excellence Awards 2011, organised by the Vale of Glamorgan Council Building Control Group, with their Court Road development in Barry.

Newydd converted and extended the chapel at Court Road to offer eight substantial 2-bedroom flats over three storeys, with an undercroft to allow vehicle access to the communal parking area. The development also includes four 4-storey terraced properties adjacent to the chapel and was highly commended for its standard of work and energy efficiency levels.

During the design stage of this first chapel conversion for Newydd, the views of the local community were influential in ensuring that the features of the disused chapel were retained in the new homes at Court Road. The commended design emphasises the attractive features of the chapel and includes traditional masonry walls, beam flooring and a conventional cut roof.

Rob Thomas, Head of Planning and Transportation at the Vale of Glamorgan Council, said: “It’s extremely pleasing to see quality schemes being constructed at what is a difficult time for developers. The quality of submissions, including Newydd’s scheme for the conversion of the chapel at Court Road, demonstrates a commitment to quality construction which is excellent news for the Vale of Glamorgan and for future tenants of the scheme. Conversions often pose challenges to contractors but this scheme has been carried out to a high standard and in a sensitive manner.”

As the winner of the Social Affordable Housing category, Newydd will now go forward to the LABC South Wales Building Awards in April.

Paul Roberts, Chief Executive of Newydd said, “We are very proud to be accepting this award from the Vale of Glamorgan Council for Court Road, now recognised as an award-winning affordable housing development. The attractive chapel conversion and adjacent terraced properties are testament to the hard work of our employees, the contractor; Tremlett and Griffiths and the rest of the design team. We hope that the local community are proud of the finished article and that our tenants will enjoy living in Court Road for many years to come.”

NB

Shane Jones our apprentice was on site for the period of the build adding even more value to the community by sustaining his apprenticeship.

One Woman Band

This is Naomi.

Naomi is the latest participant in the TR&T project for Cadwyn. She is currently studying for her carpentry qualifications at Barry College and is backing this up with some hands on experience with Cadwyn Works (Cadwyns DLO).


When I caught up with Naomi a few days ago she was about to sit her CSCS Card test that afternoon, this is the card need to work on new build or refurnishment sites. She had also been plastering the day before for a friend and showed me some photos of a hallway she had tiled. Noami seems to be most of the DIY SOS team rolled into one. We can't replace Billy the electrician though as we don't want her getting zapped, give her half a chance though and I'm sure she wouldn't say no.


Naomi caught the bug when she attended the Womens Workshop in Cardiff to do some taster sessions on carpentrey, tiling and plastering and now she can't seem to stop.

She told me that the Womens Workshop are responsible for her instiable need to DIY , build or be working. She is enjoying her time at Cadwyn imensely and does not want to leave, EVER! She says there is a wonderful atmosphere at Cadwyn and she wants to stay and develop her skills even further.

Noami has made a great impression at Cadwyn Works and Craig her line manager is very happy with her progress so far. It's great to see a woman in a van instead of a man in a van. On a serious note, the fact that Cadwyn Works now has a female oppertive also mets a demand from Cadwyn tenants e.g. The Older residents who may prefer the presence of a woman and people who are not able to be alone with a male operative due to their beliefs.

FOOTAGE TO FOLLOW

Skills Cymru - Over 20,000 in three days.....

That's a lot of talking and a lot of freebies!

It took a bit of coordinating to say the least but we got there. And what an amazing turn out.

Thanks to an fantastic response from staff in all departments of Taff, Cadwyn and United Welsh we had a diverse range of skills and experience represented at Skills Cymru 2010.

Skills Cymru was an event launched by the Welsh Assembly Government earlier this year to promote the skills base and opportunities available within Wales. Integrate and a few of its members agreed to take part in order to show that a career within a Housing Association is not limited to being a lettings officer or carrying out repairs.

Our stand was not as elaborate as some, well most to be honest however I’m sure spending thousands of pounds on a display stand is not the best use of our money. We spoke to hundreds of people over the three days. The team nabbed teenagers looking for a freebie to have a chat, we spoke to college students looking for ideas of what to do next. All of whom were astonished at what really is involved in housing.

There was a large attendance on Saturday of people who were looking to retrain or change direction following being made redundant or loss of business for the self employed.

The event as a whole has been celebrated as a real success and I believe the coming together of Integrate members, though this was a huge laearning curve was a credit to those involved.

THANK YOU ALL

Great clipping - Ministers visit Jacksons Quay

Deputy Minister for Housing and Regeneration Jocelyn Davies AM today showed Budget Minister Jane Hutt the Jackson's Quay development in Barry where public money has helped to create job and training opportunities. It is hoped the principles used on the development can be used on other Welsh Assembly Government contracts to create even more opportunities.

Newydd Housing Association’s Jacksons Quay development in Barry has been built using the i2i Can Do Toolkit which provides guidance to Registered Social Landlords working towards the Welsh Housing Quality Standard (WHQS) on making targeted recruitment and training a requirement of contracts.

The contractors at Jackson’s Quay, Mi-Space, have employed five apprentices during the building project as a result of the guidance. One apprentice has used the opportunity to develop his experience through further work placements with the construction team.

Students at Barry College have also been using the site on a regular basis as part of their studies, for example twenty-five Construction Design Technology students have been able to experience ‘tool box talks’ where they visit a site at all stages of construction to see the development at first hand.
A report on the first year of the Can Do Toolkit (Sept 2008 -2009) shows that 487 job and training opportunities have been created in the twelve organisations that have adopted the model. The report concludes that if the model was used across the £4bn annual public sector expenditure in Wales, this would create 4000 job and training opportunities a year.

The Deputy Minister said, “This is an excellent example of how an innovative approach can bring real benefits and contribute far more than just a roof over people’s heads.

“Wales is leading the way with this and is taking the model further to help small and medium enterprises and local employers to benefit from the investment we and our partners are making in Housing. I am delighted that I have been able to show the Business and Budget Minister how this scheme is working and how other areas where the Assembly Government is involved in letting contracts could follow this excellent model.”

Paul Roberts, Chief Executive of Newydd Housing Association said:

“We are delighted to be welcoming Jocelyn Davies AM, Deputy Minister for Housing and Regeneration and Jane Hutt AM, Minister for Budget and Business, to our exciting new housing development at Jackson’s Quay, Barry Waterfront.

“The Jackson’s Quay development, and all our developments across south Wales, reflects our commitment to tackling deprivation and economic inactivity by offering recruitment and training opportunities in partnership with our contractors.
"Working in partnership with contractors using the i2i project and the Can Do Toolkit means that together we are able to support the community ensuring that local people are given vital opportunities to learn and work in their own locality.”

May the (Heat)Force be with you

A few weeks ago I told you all about the new apprentices, Gemma and Kate starting at Heatforce Plumbing and Bathrooms. I'm glad to say everything is going very well.


They turned up so early on their first day their mentor Tony was thinking of giving them the office keys to open up the next day. I've spoken to them both a few times since they've started their apprenticeships, they're very happy with the mix of their day training at college then out on site at Taff and United Welsh properties. Kate told me "I get ribbed the same as everyone on site, I feel right at home already. I've also been surprised at how much hands on work both Gemma and I have had right from day 1"

The picture above was taken at about 8.00am one day last week for Heatforce and Construction Youth Trust, some of us don't exactly look our best at that time but Gemma and Kate(5th and 6th from left) have normally been on site an hour by then. Everyone joined in wearing the now legendary Pink Ladies hard hats and Hi Viz. At least it will give you a laugh.

Clare Watkins

Integrate Targetrd Recruitment and Training

Renovating property & Generating jobs with Cadwyn

Integrate member Cadwyn have just secured three new apprenticeships through their WHQS works at Princes and James Howel Court. On visiting the site very recently I found a hive of activity throughout.

In one flat were Hanif Yagoob and Lewis Dite(pictured) two of Cadwyns new carpentry apprentices who have been employed in partnership with Willis Construction. They've been thrown in at the deep end, starting college in Dumballs Road on Monday and then their first on site experience on Thursday. Thankfully both still show the same great enthusiasm which made them the successful candidates at interview. Hanif has ambitions to be MD of his own property development firm very soon...watch this space.

I also caught up with Jonothan Pahl, the electrical apprentice employed in partnership with A Payne Electrical and Data Services. He was so keen to get on with the job I barely got him to stand still long enough to take his picture. I keep using the word but it's such a buzz to see such enthusiasm from all the partners involved as well as the apprentices. Marc Payne(not surprisingly from A Payne Electrical) said, "We already encourage the employment of apprentices and are glad to be able to create new opportunities for people within Cadwyns communities."

Integrates aim to maximise the opportunities for jobs and training through its procurement is going full steam ahead. You can see from the apprentices that this is an initiative that's a Win Win all the way. Either that or Glyn from Willis Construction is hiding in the background telling a good joke.

Clare Watkins

Integrate Targeted Recruitment and Training

Integrate Targeted Recruitment and Traing Project

Integrate Consortia have been successful in securing funding for 3 years from Social Housing Management Grant and match funding from Integrate and partner agencies such as JobMatch to deliver Targeted Recruitment and Training (TR&T) within the procurement process for all 9 Housing Association members.

Pictured here from the left

Carol Rees-Spear -Integrate Consortium Officer

Michelle Smith - TR & T Manager

Ian Layzell - Integrate Consortium Director

This project will aim to secure local employment and training within our new development, maintainance, and WHQS programmes using Social Inclusion Clauses as a core requirement of each contract. The project will be overseen by a project steering group with representives from each member housing association.

Given the scale of Integrate's investment within our programe of works we are hoping to have a big impact in our communities where they can benefit from local employment and training opportunities as a direct result of our contracts and investment.