A new project aimed at helping young people and adults into employment has been launched in Bridgend county borough to coincide with Saint David’s Day.

CELT – which stands for Connect, Engage, Listen, Transform – is a new project created in partnership between Employability Bridgend and the Youth Development service, that helps local people find employment by engaging with participants who are furthest from the labour market and mentoring them to improve their prospects of employability.

Funded by the UK Government Community Renewal Fund in partnership with Cardiff City Deal Region local authorities, the short project aims to work in collaboration with the community and will be supported by a team of dedicated officers – each of whom are allocated an area of Bridgend County Borough, in order to best engage with the community. The project is due to be completed by the end of June 2022.

The funding will be used to hire halls and meeting spaces across the county as venues to engage with people in their communities. For the launch of the project, CELT invited organisations across Bridgend with access to community spaces to get involved.

The people who find themselves furthest from the job market, through no fault of their own, deserve to be helped as much as possible.

Projects such as CELT engage with the community to help people who might otherwise slip through the net, providing them with a way back into employment.

As time is of the essence on this project, I would urge any venues that might be interested in getting involved to get in touch as soon as they can

Councillor Dhanisha Patel, Cabinet Member for Wellbeing and Future Generations