Academi Adra celebrates first year of success

Academi Adra is our employment and skills scheme. The Academi Adra scheme has helped 70  people, including our tenants and those who aren’t our tenants in north Wales to access training and work experience. 29 have been supported with apprenticeships, 31 have access to training and 8 have paid work experience. 12 have also been supported into work with us or our contractors. 

At its launch in March 2021, Academi Adra aimed to support more than 60 people to develop new skills and access employment opportunities across North Wales by 2022. 

 Academi Adra focuses on developing skills and expanding employability options through apprenticeships, work placements, graduate placements and training schemes 

Two people who have benefited from the scheme are Lucy Mathews and Derwyn Jones. Lucy and Derwyn are our tenants and have secured a fixed contract position with our Repair Team as a Maintenance Assistant for a fixed period. 

Lucy and Derwyn got a job after studying an ‘On Site Experience’ course through Academi Adra. The course is funded through the CITB fund run by Procure Plus across North Wales. The training took place at Grŵp Llandrillo Menai, where they completed accredited courses followed by a week’s work experience on site with a Repair Team or one of our contractors. A portion of Lucy’s salary will be paid through the support of the Môn CF work placement scheme. 

Commenting on the course, Lucy Mathews said: 

“This course is a different experience and I’ve learned a lot. I’ve been learning how to plaster which will be a useful skill for the future. I have really enjoyed the course and hope that studying the course and having this opportunity through Academi Adra will lead to a job in the future. ” 

Kimberly Hughes has also started a job with us since January through the Academi Adra Kickstart scheme. She’s got a job at our Contact Center. 

Kimberly started on 25 hours of a contract paid through the Kickstart scheme, but has recently increased to 37 hours so she is now on a full time contract with us on a fixed contract basis. We are working with Gisda on providing Kim with employability support, she will have a mentor from Gisda who will work with her on any training needs and support her to seek employment after completing her placement with us. 

Elin Williams, our Communities and Partnerships Manager, said: 

“It has been a whole year since the founding of Academi Adra and it has been a successful year. 

“It is a pleasure to see people from our communities and customers succeeding through opportunities through the support of Academi Adra. We are so proud to be able to employ our customers and develop the skills of people who want to do this. 

“By working with our partners in the field, we have been able to develop worthwhile opportunities for our customers. We are currently advertising 24 energy warden jobs in various locations across Gwynedd, and several more new jobs will be created over the coming months with our contractors on our new investment and construction program. This will help to offer our customers more job and career opportunities within their communities. ”