12 April 2010

Church Village Bypass, a Costain project, has created an impressive 70 new jobs for economically inactive individuals in the county borough of Rhondda Cynon Taf.

While many jobs have been lost during the recent economic downturn, the Council's contractor Costain continues to fulfil its contractual arrangements to employ 70 individuals during the course of the contract.

In April 2008, the first person was employed and since then the range of jobs filled have included engineer assistants, security officers, land surveyor assistants, traffic management operatives, forklift drivers, chefs and groundworkers.

In each case there is an intention to provide a minimum level of training up to NVQ level 2 standard to ensure that at the end of the contract each of the employees, if not retained by the host employer, have the skills to seek and secure employment elsewhere.

The type of training provided includes health and safety, CSCS accreditation, first aid, computer skills and other professional training associated with their role. In two cases the employees have engaged with their new roles to the extent that they have enrolled for degree courses in engineering and quantity surveying.

One of those new jobs has been filled by Philip Johnson from Cardiff, who joined Costain as a trainee quantity surveyor in November 2008 and has worked exclusively on the £90million Church Village Bypass project.

His duties in Costain involve measuring the costs associated with design drawings, competitive tendering and sub-contract management.

Philip explained: "Costain has funded me to start the Civil Engineering Foundation Course for surveyors in conjunction with the University of Glamorgan. I am also studying towards a Graduate Diploma in Quantity Surveying at the University of West of England (Bristol UWE).

"I will soon be working to secure a chartership and the support, encouragement and opportunities afforded to me by Costain, thanks to the Church Village Bypass project, have been superb."

Rhondda Cynon Taf Council's Cabinet Member for Transportation and Customer Care, Cllr Andrew Morgan, said: "Church Village Bypass is already having an immediate effect on unemployed individuals throughout the county borough by creating 70 new posts.

"As part of our contractual agreements, we have ensured that these job opportunities are made available, particularly during this difficult time, and also support businesses throughout the South Wales region by sourcing materials directly from them."

 

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