Helping Young People

In 2022, the Hub secured additional funding from the Welsh Government’s Young Person’s Guarantee to help and support 16 to 24 year olds into employment and/or training to develop lifelong skills.

The Hub partnered with employers to provide bespoke activity/careers days which enabled many young people to participate in action-packed fun-filled days whilst being shown the career opportunities available to them. One such event was with Ty Mawr Holiday Park, part of Parkdean Resorts which resulted in 6 of the attendees gaining employment.

Our officers worked with Penrhos Avenue, one of the three Social Inclusion Units in Conwy, to provide tailored employability support for Year 11 students. Penrhos Avenue provides an alternative provision for students aged 5 to 16 years old who have struggled with mainstream education whether that be through ill-health, behavioural issues or other difficulties. Its support covers the development of self-esteem, confidence and self-worth, and engaging them in education to provide qualifications so they can access future pathways. The Hub ran a series of CV and Interview Technique Workshops, discussed employment and training opportunities and supported a number of them to enrol on one of our training courses.

A number of Moving Forward Programmes were run in conjunction with Abergele Youth Shedz. These were a 6-week tailored pre-employment programme for 16-24 year olds and involved many partner organisations running sessions on mental health and wellbeing, confidence development, money management and team building, with the Hub’s team holding sessions on CV writing, interview skills and personalised support in finding suitable work placements.

We also attended Careers/Jobs Fairs at Conwy’s secondary schools to help guide and support those learners that don’t have their journey after school mapped out. This is an important role for us to play as it enables us to engage with those learners that might otherwise slip through the net after leaving school and help them navigate their pathway to training or work. On the back of these events, we were also invited to attend the information sessions for carers and parents to make them aware of the help and support we can offer.

We ran a niche marketing campaign aimed at Year 11-13 learners.  This included an advertising campaign on Facebook to help students find a summer job. One of our weekly Employability features on Bayside Radio focused on students awaiting their A-Level and GCSE Results. This was a round table discussion with Grwp Llandrillo Menai, Careers Wales and the Hub talking about options for young people and where to turn to if they needed advice, which was then backed up with a drop-in session on both Results Days at Bayview Shopping Centre.

As well as the above activities, we also worked closely with a number of key partners including other Education Services - Conwy Youth Service projects, Cynnydd, Oaktree Projects and TRAC, Youth Justice, Youth Shedz, 16-24 year old Advisers at the Job Centres, Scope, Jobs Growth Wales and Careers Wales. The Youth Engagement Progression Framework is playing an increasingly crucial role in engaging with those Year 11 learners who are most at risk of becoming NEET (Not in Education, Employment or Training) on leaving school and the activity we work on is year-round programme.

We are delighted that this invaluable support will be continuing into 2024-25 having secured funding from the Conwy People & Skills Key Fund supporting young people aged 16-19 years.