Kickstart is helping people into jobs

Three young adults have taken on roles at the Fan Gorau Unit in Newtown and at the Bryntirion Resource Centre in Welshpool, as part of the UK Government-funded Kickstart Scheme, with a fourth due to join them on August 16.

They will be providing administrative support to teams helping older adults and providing adult community mental health services for 25 hours a week, for the next six months. As part of their work placements, they will undertake a programme of learning, equipping them with skills and knowledge related to the health and social care sector.

Through the Academy, the Kickstart Scheme. set up to help businesses during the Coronavirust pandemic, helps create jobs for 16 to 24-year-olds on Universal Credit, who are at risk of long-term unemployment. Students will receive training to help them secure future employment and coaching from a workplace mentor.

Rhys Warburton, 21, from Llandyssil near Mongtomery has taken up a work placement at the Bryntirion Resource Centre in Welshpool. He was previously volunteering at the Severn Hospice Charity Shop in Newtown.

“I was really pleased to get this Kickstart placement and hope to develop a career in admin,” he said.

There are also Kickstart Scheme vacancies through the Academy for catering assistants and domestic assistants/porters at Llandrindod Wells, Newtown, Ystradgynlais, Brecon and Welshpool; for administrative assistants at Newtown and Bronllys; and health care support workers within therapies teams based in Newtown and Brecon. More roles across the health and care sector will come online in the coming months.

If you are keen to make a difference to health and care services in Powys, and are eligible for the Kickstart Scheme, get in touch with your Department for Work and Pensions work coach or email: Powys.OD@wales.nhs.uk Start dates for work placements are available until the end of this year.

Councillor Myfanwy Alexander, Chair of Powys Regional Partnership Board, said: “It’s great to see the Kickstart project helping young local people take their first steps to rewarding careers in health and social care. We know there are great pathways for ambitious people in this sector and we hope these three young people will take advantage of all the opportunities we have here in Powys.”

Powys Health and Care Academy also has apprenticeship opportunities for health care support workers, who would be based on in-patient wards in the county’s hospitals. To find out more, or for other enquiries about Powys HCA, please contact: Powys.OD@wales.nhs.uk