New centre to teach skills for local jobs

Mar 20 2008 by Peter Collins, South Wales Echo

A TOP-CLASS education centre to help teenagers qualify for highly skilled jobs like those on offer at the multi-billion pound defence training academy at St Athan is to be built on the Barry Waterfront.

The learning centre, which will concentrate on 14 to 19- year-olds, will form part of the Innovation Quarter on the Waterfront. The Quarter is designed to bring together education, business, the community and tourism.

The purpose-built centre, which will cost several hundred thousand pounds to build and will be open to teenagers throughout the Vale, will provide a range of courses addressing specific areas of need identified by local employers.

Rob Quick, the Vale council’s chief planner, said the centre would also train “young people with the skill needed to take advantage of the opportunities for training and employment at the defence training academy.”

He added that the aim of the proposal would be to integrate the site within the Innovation Quarter.

This fitted in with the National Assembly’s Planning Policy Wales vision, he added.

This aims to “increase social inclusion, reduce the need to travel and make towns safer for people both day and night”.

Mr Thomas said the education centre would be a crucial part of the second phase of the Waterfront development which includes restaurants, cafes and other leisure developments.

The centre has been welcomed by Barry Town Council, the Metrix consortium which made the successful bid to the defence training academy, and Vale MP John Smith.

All of them say that training youngsters for jobs at the academy will be vital to its success and the success of the local economy.

peter.collins@mediawales.co.uk