Wales Social Enterprise of the Year, Creating Enterprise, is to open a new training centre for local people wanting to get back to work.

The organisation, which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Cartrefi Conwy housing association, runs an innovative employment academy which has already helped 29 unemployed tenants find full-time jobs and provided training support for almost 200 out-of-work tenants.

The new premises, which include a 3 room training centre with 4 job search workstations, has been supported by the European Regional Development Fund through Welsh Government. Work is being carried out by local companies Brenig Construction, from Colwyn Bay, and Just Imagine interior designers in Bodelwyddan. Creating Enterprise’s own painting and decorating team will be adding the final touches.

The new building in Mochdre, on a new business park on the site of the old dairy, will open before Easter. The training facilities will include a lounge space to drop in for informal advice, job search rooms for Cartrefi Conwy tenants to use computers, employer databases and online courses, and training rooms for useful courses such as employability skills and health and safety.

Business and Partnership Director Sharon Jones said:

We are very grateful for the £60,000 social investment from Wales Council for Voluntary Action’s Social Business Growth Fund. The money is covering the majority of the fit out costs and will help us to create six full-time jobs in the next 12 months, including a trainee post, trades jobs and office jobs.

The new centre will be an informal and comfortable setting for job hunting and training. It will be open 5 days a week, so tenants can pop in whenever it’s convenient for them to use the job search facilities, complete online courses and get advice.