Valleys towns back to work bid

Miriam Davies is back in work after six years of unemployment

A scheme to help more people go back to work in the former coal and steel industry areas of Wales is being launched.

Already 1,300 people have been helped in the pilot JobMatch scheme, which focused on Blaenau Gwent.

It will now be extended to cover Torfaen, Caerphilly, Merthyr and Rhondda Cynon Taf.

It is hoped 10,000 people from the Heads of the Valleys area will be back in work by 2012.

Work gives you a routine - it makes you get up every day Miriam Davies

The UK government and Welsh Assembly Government initiative aims to help people get training, new qualifications, advice and remove barriers to work.

Miriam Davies, a former credit controller and petrol station cashier from Trevethin, Pontypool, said she has already been helped by JobMatch.

Now she works for Torfaen Mind after six years of unemployment due to health problems - she has had a kidney removed and later on had to have a heart by-pass operation.

Ms Davies has also suffered from depression.

But after finding part-time work, she said: "It's lovely, I really enjoy it. I am doing administration work and typing.

"Work gives you a routine - it makes you get up every day."

Ms Davies, who was on benefits beforehand, said she felt apprehensive and nervous on her first day back in work.

'Marvellous'

"They (JobMatch) look at your circumstances specifically, they helped me with interview techniques.

"That was marvellous when I went to the mock interview there were two people there and that was exactly the same situation when I went for my real interview so I felt quite confident.

"I am feeling back on track, maybe eventually getting back to full-time work," she added.

Leighton Andrews, deputy minister for regeneration, is launching the scheme at Llanhilleth Miners' Institute on Thursday.

The scheme is a key goal in a 15-year regeneration project, led by the assembly government.

Research has found more than one in three people of working age living in the Heads of the Valleys area are without a job - compared to a quarter for Wales.

And the local unemployment rate is 3% higher than for Wales as a whole.

Mr Andrews said: "JobMatch has an important part to play.

"After helping 1,300 people back to work in Blaenau Gwent, the roll-out initiative has already helped a further 600 people back to work and will now assist many more people across the Heads of the Valleys area - some of whom may have given up hope of ever working again."

Rachel Moxley, strategic employment manager with the Heads of the Valleys initiative, said 71% of people that have been helped in the pilot were still in work 12 months on.