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Mismanagers wanted:

Foundation Modern Apprenticeship Scheme

Briefly touched on earlier this year, the Welsh Assembly Government's flagship apprenticeship programme provides the opportunity for young people with limited qualifications, those who are unemployed; or want to change their career; to develop skills and experience to help gain sustainable employment.

6-month placements have been created for 10 candidates (yes, that figure is 10) with 6 based in the Merthyr office and 4 in Cardiff.

First Minister Rhodri Morgan (earlier this year):

The scheme highlights how the location strategy can move skilled public sector jobs* out of Cardiff and provide good career opportunities for young people. Its success will be used to develop apprenticeship opportunities in other Government offices.

* average age of apprentices was 19 and they were given an Admin Assistant workload.

A nice gesture that means well. Based on results like this, in order to achieve fuller employment by 2020 [3020 more like] we would have to keep the birth rate down to a minimum.

Single child families as in China perhaps? That's me counted in at this stage.

Merthyr Tydfil Office: First Anniversary Propaganda

The Welsh Assembly Government’s plan to disperse civil service jobs across Wales has been hailed a success as the first anniversary of the opening of the Merthyr office was celebrated last week.

The building contains staff from Social Justice & Local Government; Corporate Procurement Services; Economy & Transport; HR Strategy & Change; and Records Service of the Welsh Assembly Government. It will eventually cost £22 million when ownership is returned to the Welsh Government in another 14 years.

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First Minister Rhodri Morgan said he was delighted with the way the move had gone:

The office provides an excellent working environment and staff are using
Merthyr’s urban facilities, thereby helping to contribute to the local economy.

After discussion with a member of staff the bulletin should read something like this:

The office provides an excellent working environment, except when managers are regularly having to travel to Cardiff in order to attend meetings. Staff are using Merthyr's urban facilities such as purchasing sandwiches for lunch and food shopping for the family, and petrol for vehicles when we travel home.

The Merthyr office at Rhydycar accommodates 450 staff. More than 390 posts were moved out of Cardiff and other offices last year, and a further 60 were created to support the office many of which were filled by people from the immediate community (READ: cleaners and low paid workers).

The new office has also created an opening for school leavers who had taken up places on the Foundation Modern Apprenticeship Scheme (READ: six apprentices - source).

Apart from the economic benefit to the town, many staff have carried out voluntary activities in Merthyr and the surrounding area. These include:

• Supporting the Pant and Dowlais Girls and Boys Club and the Engine House, Dowlais by planting 17,000 daffodil bulbs to help brighten the local area;
• Helping to refurbish the reception area of a local community centre;
• Painting a mural in a car park at a mental health resource centre;
• Working on a ball court at a family centre run by the Aberfan Youth and Community project;
• Participating in the Keep Wales Tidy Heads of the Valleys clean-up programme;
• Providing much needed support to women's refuge centres;
• Supporting the work of the Prince’s Trust;
• Participating in a leaflet drop for the Merthyr Tydfil Communities First team.

The office has also achieved an ‘Excellent’ score for sustainable development under the Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method.

This seems like a costly experiment to bring the Welsh Government closer to the people of Wales. Apart from the earlier negative aspect to this experiment, congratulations on the encouragement of volunteer work which is much needed in any community.

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Since writing this post I remembered what Valleys Mam said to me the other day, "The move to Merthyr was the same [as Llandudno]... created bloody traffic jams and not a lot else."