28/03/11
Agreement brings new jobs and major growth for top trainer
The agreement with the Welsh Assembly Government, worth up to £19 million in 2011/12, will see a huge increase in the number of young people and adults trained at the company’s centres across the country.
A significant portion of the training will be part-financed by the European Social Fund.
As a result of the new skills programme, just announced by Minister for Education and Lifelong Learning, Leighton Andrews, ACT will recruit 50 trainers and assessors directly and a further 50 will be taken on by its network of partners and contractors in different parts of Wales. This adds to the firm’s existing staff of 128 at centres in Cardiff, Bridgend, Caerphilly and Risca.
In line with Assembly Government priorities, the bulk of the training will focus on jobless and low-skilled youngsters who will benefit from the new Traineeships programme, designed to give them the core skills needed to compete for work. The firm has one of the best track records in Wales for delivering this kind of training, with almost 80% of those undergoing the course gaining a job or moving to more advanced training.
ACT will also greatly increase the number of apprentices it trains for occupations such as construction, auto-engineering, catering, office administration, hairdressing and animal care.
In addition, the firm will double the number of unemployed adults it trains. Most of these will receive support through the new Steps to Employment programme.
The firm works regularly with more than 400 employers, who provide either work experience placements or employment for its trainees.
The new agreement is part of a large-scale restructuring exercise designed to concentrate the delivery of work-based learning on a smaller number of providers who can meet higher quality standards set by the Assembly Government.
ACT managing director, Andrew Cooksley, expressed delight at news of the contract. He said: “This has been in our planning for years and the team here have put their hearts and souls into this bid. This is the outcome of their hard work.
“We are very conscious of the huge responsibility we have to deliver skills to such a large number of people and give them the opportunities to secure good quality jobs. What we do in our centres will make a big difference to the lives of individuals and help achieve the Assembly Government’s aim of a high-skilled, more competitive workforce in Wales,” he added.
Following the award of the contract, ACT will be expanding its existing facilities and opening a new centre in Newport. It will also deliver training through partnerships with providers in other parts of Wales or through specialist providers.
These include the Military Preparation College, Blaenau Gwent Training Centre, Rathbone, Deeside College, Smartcare. and Freshbaked Training.
It will also expand its capacity to train Health and Social Care, Child Care and Teaching Assistants. All of these are areas for which there is growing demand for qualified staff in Wales.
ACT, which was set up 23 years ago, has been growing at an impressive rate over the past four years. It doubled in size between 2007 and 2009 and this latest agreement will result in another 100% increase in turnover.
In addition to its work on publicly-funded programmes, ACT delivers a growing volume of training for private sector clients.
For further information on this press release, please contact Working Word and ask to speak to a PR consultant.
Working Word is a full service communications and PR/public relations company based in Cardiff which represents a number of public sector and business clients. Working Word provides public relations consultancy for fast growing companies in Cardiff, Swansea, Newport, Bristol along the M4 corridor of England and across south Wales.
Our public relations and communications services are provided from our central Cardiff office in Southgate House, located adjacent to Trinity Mirror’s Media Wales news headquarters. Conveniently located near to Cardiff Bay and Cardiff city centre, our offices are available for client use when required. We are home to the largest operational PR team in Wales and are the current - and second-time - holders of the CIPR (Chartered Institute of Public Relations) ‘Outstanding PR Consultancy in Wales’ award.
Our in-house graphic designer enables us to offer graphic design, website design, advertising, branding and marketing solutions.
Our social media consultancy division has helped clients scoop awards for their ground-breaking efforts in harnessing digital media to communicate with their audiences online. We also provide search engine optimisation services to ensure our clients achieve the SEO results they need using organic search keyword strategies. The best thing is, we provide all of these services as a seamless, integrated communications package with one point of contact. We get to know you, then make sure your audiences get to know you better.
Please contact our Cardiff public relations office for more information on PR campaigns.
