Long-term jobless scheme offers 5,000 training places

[EC]

Via the BBC: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-26706021

A new programme aims to give training and job opportunities for people from Welsh homes where no-one works.

Up to 5,000 long-term unemployed will benefit from the Lift scheme which will be piloted in eight disadvantaged areas across Wales.

Minister Jeff Cuthbert said it would help "some of the most hard to reach people in our society ... improve their life chances".

Some who have already taken part say the scheme has changed their lives.

Abbey Ashman has been on a pilot of the Lift programme at Tredegar Fire Station in Blaenau Gwent.

Once she was sleeping rough on park benches when drugs such as mephedrone - known as Meow Meow - took a hold of her life.

She described the life she lived then as "horrible - something I wouldn't want anyone else to go through".

But she said the six weeks of training had provided her with new hopes and dreams, the prospect of a full-time job and a plan to apply for a university place in September.

She said: "Before I started this course I had no confidence.

"I didn't think I was going to have much of a future because of my past. I didn't trust anyone... I just thought I was going to be a down and out for the rest of my life. This course has been brilliant, changed me completely."

More at link.

I both approve of this and am furious that it is actually needed.