Wednesday 30th January 2008
(ref:
WLCT 08/2008)
Wigan Council Children and Young People’s Services (CYPS) is giving a helping hand to young people looking to secure construction jobs.
Anyone working on a building site must now hold a Construction Skills Certificate Scheme (CSCS) card.
Now the CYPS team is providing free CSCS training at the Wigan Connexions Centre on Standishgate and paying to put young people through the test you must pass to gain the card.
The test covers accident reporting, manual lifting, working at height, First Aid, using tools and all the key health and safety issues of working on a building site.
Billy Seddon, 18, from Scholes, says:
“I sat and failed the CSCS test twice before I began training for it here at Connexions. This course has been really good preparation and I’m now confident I will pass.”
The Connexions CSCS training has been funded through the Activity Agreement Pilot, a government funded scheme aimed at supporting long term unemployed young people move into further education, training or employment together with money supplied by the Learning and Skills Council.
Connexions Advanced Practitioner Denise Barker says:
“A lot of young people were coming into the centre asking for help gaining the CSCS card, so we’ve managed to find some money to cover the training and test costs.
“Fourteen young people have done the course so far and we’ll keep running it as long as we have funding.”
Anybody interested in finding out more about the Activity Agreement Pilot should speak to their Connexions Personal Advisor.
