Cartrefi Conwy Invited to Skills Reception at 10 Downing Street

Katie Clubb, MD of Cartrefi Conwy and Andrew Bowden, CEO were nominated by Robin Millar MP to attend a Skills Reception at 10 Downing Street on Tuesday. This was in recognition of the work Cartrefi Conwy and Creating Enterprise do in North Wales to support apprenticeships, skills, training and supporting people into employment. The reception was hosted by Gillian Keegan, Secretary of State for Education, who shared her passion for apprenticeships and opportunity based on her own personal experience.

(Left to right: Robin Millar MP, Andrew Bowden, CEO of Cartrefi Conwy & Katie Clubb, Managing Director of Cartrefi Conwy)

It was great to get this recognition and a fabulous opportunity to tell our story and share the impact Cartrefi Conwy has had in North Wales. We talked about establishing Creating Enterprise and how it reinvests commercial profits into the Employment Academy which has now successfully supported nearly 700 people into jobs in the region. We were also proud to share that 15% of the Cartrefi Conwy workforce are our tenants who have been supported into roles through Creating Futures.

It was an honour to represent Cartrefi Conwy and be included amongst other champions nominated for their contribution. Katie and Andrew want to thank Sharon and Sioned and their teams who work tirelessly to achieve these incredible results and of course to everyone successfully completing programmes though Creating Futures.

Andrew Bowden said:
“We want to do more than look after our tenants and provide great accommodation which is safe and secure. We want to be properly embedded in the community and provide added value. This record of employing 30 of our own tenants is something that makes us stand out amongst our peers of actually being a great anchor organisation, a community based organisation that is making a real difference. This is about building the confidence of our tenants who are often among those furthest from the job market, giving them the opportunity to get a great job and to work with a great organisation. Essentially, this is about changing people’s lives for the better and that makes me incredibly proud.”