A social enterprise in north Wales is taking on more apprentices now that its order book is worth £68m over the next five years.
Creating Enterprise, based in Abergele, is a building and maintenance contractor providing a wide variety of property services to the public and private sector.
A subsidiary of housing association Cartrefi Conwy, it also specialises in building Passivhaus modular homes and makes timber frames, roof joists and fencing at its factory in Rhyl.
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As a social enterprise, the firm invests all commercial profits into its social purpose which is to help tenants and local people into employment initiatives.
It's five-year business plan has an order book of £68m of guaranteed workstreams which means it can forward plan the number of people to support through its Creating Futures Employment Academy.
The firm has helped more than 500 into work since it was set up in 2015 and is now looking to offer five new apprenticeships over the next 12 months.
Assistant director of property Wayne Bannister said the firm was looking to recruit more apprentices as its order book continues to grow.
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He said: "We have so much work on that we have accelerated out apprenticeship programme and we have work experience opportunities for volunteers and people coming through the employment academy. We want to bring the new generation through so our experienced staff can pass on their knowledge and skills."
Creating Enterprise is constructing modular homes as part of Cartrefi Conwy's strategy of building a 1,000 new homes between now and 2030. It is also building new houses for other social housing providers and local authorities in north Wales.
The firm has also taken on responsibility for maintaining and upgrading Cartrefi’s current portfolio of 4,000 houses and flats.
The community interest company was named the fastest growing firm in Wales at the 2020 Wales Fast Growth 50 awards, expanding by 664% from £1.2m to £9.8m between 2017 and 2019.
Mr Bannister said: "Overall we have around 85 people working in our building maintenance unit that looks after all Cartrefi’s 4,000 or so properties and we’re also fitting bathrooms and kitchens for Clwyd Alyn housing association in 160 of their homes. We are fulfilling Cartrefi’s mission by creating energy efficient homes, providing job opportunities and training for our tenants. We’re essentially creating a virtuous circle - this is profit with a purpose."
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He added: "The goal is to get tenants into work and provide them with a trade, and it can be totally life-changing. Our order book is expanding and we already have £68 million worth of work in Creating Enterprise alone over the next five years. As well as building the modular housing, we will be doing the electrics and the plumbing. We’ll be doing the groundworks and the fencing."
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Holly Joinson, 28, is among the latest apprentices. The Cartrefi Conwy tenant lives in Colwyn Bay and gained work experience as a volunteer while studying in college and working part-time.
She said: “Until now I’ve done whatever has fitted in the kids and I worked as a social care support worker but I wanted a career rather than a minimum wage job. I’ve got a few electricians in the family and dad has always done everything a home like DIY and I’ve grown up with that so I suppose it’s in my DNA. I am a problem solver and I have always wanted to have a trade so that I am set up for life.
“I have just got a Level 2 qualification at Llandrillo College and I volunteered with Cartrefi working with an electrician getting the empty properties up to standard before the tenants moved in. This year my youngest son has started full time in school so everything has fallen into place because I’ve got a four-year apprenticeship with Cartrefi."
Community and social impact manager Sioned Williams said: "Over the years we have helped more than 500 people into work. One of the important things to us is that those jobs are sustainable so we keep in contact with them and 95 per cent of them remain in employment.
"The reality is that there are a lot of jobs out there at the moment and the trick is to help people find the right jobs for them. More recently we’ve opened our hub in Llandudno so we are more visible to the community and everybody we support becomes ambassadors for us."
She added: “Holly is the perfect for ambassador for us. She has worked extremely hard – a single mum who’s been studying, working and volunteering at the same time, all to achieve that one goal. We’re all incredibly proud of her. An important element of what we do is to break down barriers and encourage women to work in areas that have traditionally been dominated by men.
“We also have Rebecca Davies in the gas team so it’s now going to be much easier for us to approach construction companies when we are doing it ourselves and showing that it works. Holly and Rebecca are trailblazers and we can only offer and support women when we are offering those opportunities."
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