Investment pays dividends for placement students » Housing » 24dash.com

Connaught Partnerships commitment to providing thirty three weeks worth of adult work placements for every £1million invested through its Valleys to Coast (V2C) contract is proving a great success, with the company surpassing the target by 300 per cent in the first three months.

Earlier this year the integrated services provider pledged to provide an increasing number of Bridgend and south Wales adults with the opportunity to gain experience within the construction industry and has smashed the target by already providing a total of one hundred and thirty two weeks’ worth of work placements.

Connaught is working with adults from varied backgrounds including jobseekers involved with employment organisations including Want to Work, JobMatch and British Trust Communities Volunteers (BTCV), alongside students from the Construction Skills Centre in Caerau.

Connaught now hopes to boost this figure even further and offer a total of five hundred weeks’ worth of placements in trades including plastering, carpentry, electrics, gas engineering and plumbing by the end of next March.

One of those people to have undertaken a placement is Paul Middleton, 26 and from Blaengarw, who came to gain experience with Connaught after being referred by the Construction Skills Centre. He has been working with Connaught’s existing skilled labour force to gain experience in plastering, tiling and decorating. He said, “My previous jobs have mainly been in factories or working as a general labourer, but I wanted to gain more experience the right qualifications so that I could work within the building trade permanently.”

“Working on site with Connaught has given me the chance to try out different trades and learn more about the industry, which I couldn’t do just sitting in a classroom. It’s been a fantastic experience and I have certainly learnt a lot which I can hopefully take with me to gain a permanent role within the construction sector.”

Craig Thomas, Connaught’s V2C project manager, said: “As a company we are committed to providing support to the communities in which we work. This not only means upgrading local homes and facilities, but also providing the local community with the training and skills required to gain experience in the building industry where possible. We are delighted that our investment is allowing so many people to complete work placements with us and we look forward to welcoming more people in future.”
Peter Carnegie, area partnership director for Connaught Partnerships, added, “There are a large number of highly skilled people in the local area who want to develop their abilities. We are pleased to be able to support them whilst helping to ensure that there is no shortage of experienced tradespeople in Wales to upgrade homes and the communities in which we work.”
Connaught, which is one of the UK’s leading integrated services providers in the social housing, public sector and compliance markets, has been carrying out work on the Valleys to Coast (V2C) housing project in the area since 2004 and is working to upgrade 2,500 homes in the Bridgend area with new bathrooms, kitchens, electrical rewiring and gas systems.

Connaught Partnerships provides a range of housing maintenance and estate management services to registered social landlords and local authorities throughout the UK. With over 25 years experience, Connaught is a leading provider of planned and response maintenance, gas maintenance and installation, recycling, waste management, estate cleaning and void management services. It is committed to working with social housing landlords and local authorities to achieve the Welsh Assembly Government’s Housing Quality Standards 2012 target.