Your Career, Your Future

Construction with CMB Engineering

Education and employability team sitting together at a site visit open day. The Welsh Refugee Council Education and Employability (E&E) project supports refugees and sanctuary seekers across Wales including our main hubs of Cardiff, Newport, and Swansea. By increasing formal employment and offering opportunities for learning and skills development, we’re supporting integration at the heart of our communities. It’s a direct way to give people the skills to progress and elevate vulnerable individuals out of poverty through education, training, and employment. 

Building stronger futures together

Working with Cardiff IntoWork and the Onsite Construction Academy, we took a group of people with a keen interest in construction to Cardiff’s Fairwater Community Campus building site. This innovative and new education campus, worth an impressive £110 million, will host 3 separate schools on one site, making it the largest project in the Welsh Government’s Sustainable Communities for Learning programme. 

There are currently multiple job vacancies at the site through CMB Engineering and its parent company, BESL. To meet this gap in the workforce, our clients had direct contact with recruitment teams on site to have open discussions about jobs and apprentices. Our clients came prepared with their CVs ready to go. Once they arrived, they soon had real insight into what it would be like to work at the site, including:

  • Being provided with appropriate PPE (hats, high viz, glasses, gloves, and steel toe-capped boats)
  • An induction from the assigned site manager
  • A full guided tour 

Smiling employability team at CMB engineering site visit.Our group of 8 individuals were fully engaged with this opportunity. They have since received support from the Education and Employability team to apply for vacancies at Fairwater Community Campus, as well as at construction projects in the surrounding Cardiff area. 

A 5-star experience 🌟

Clients shared how much they enjoyed the event, which exceeded their expectations thanks to the practical advice from industry experts.

We were especially pleased to hear how much they valued the structure of the session, starting with their health and safety induction, followed by the opportunity to walk around the site. This provided the opportunity to see different elements of building equipment in service. Top marks to our guide for the day who provided a detailed explanation of the project’s progress, which all our clients appreciated.  

If you or someone you know could benefit from the employability programme, or if your business is interested in supporting refugee employment, get in touch with us today.