Careers Wales Port Talbot
Posted on Monday, October 20, 2008 at 5:47pm
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Last Friday I visited the Careers Wales office in Neath Port Talbot. According to the Manager I’m the first AM to have visited them at the Port Talbot office, so they will be putting a picture of me with the staff up as pride of place on the office wall. I was very touched by that! The visit had been scheduled for a while, but given the stark economic difficulties that we are facing in Wales, I took the opportunity to probe them about the effect of local rises in unemployment on their work.
They informed me about the way in which they go about assisting those who have been made redundant in finding new positions elsewhere. They also do a lot of pro active work, in that if they know a company or business is going to fold, or move jobs elsewhere, they will work with staff in advance to find them other positions in similar work. This all sounds very straightforward, but often the work cannot be found, and staff also take out their animosity to the news that they are to be made redundant on the Careers Wales officers tasked with helping them for the future. I experienced this somewhat when I held talks with Remploy workers last year, who were not pleased to be told that they should find positions in places such as local supermarkets by their bosses, or that they should accept that they may have to downgrade their skills.
Nonetheless, it was interesting to find out about the work that Careers Wales carries out, especially the development of their work with schools. In my day, we went to see a Careers adviser ( and ours was not the best, truth be told) and that was it- that was our one and only avenue of assistance. Now they have mentoring schemes in schools with local businesses and leaders in their respective fields, and also a chance to practise their skills in a job interview situation. They are also piloting an e- based system whereby staff at IBM are mentoring some of the brightest young people in our Welsh schools.
Careers Wales also help those people who have fallen out of the educational system altogether, and I met with some young people who were being helped to get their lives back on track by the youth adviser in Port Talbot. Admirable work, and work that I hope to keep an eye on during my ‘career’ as an AM!
