A leading North Wales social enterprise that provides jobs and training opportunities for people with learning disabilities in their own community is being hailed for supporting a bilingual workplace.
Antur Waunfawr, based in Waunfawr and Caernarfon, employs 120 staff and supports 64 adults with learning difficulties, whilst also providing valuable reuse, recycling and health and wellbeing services to the communities it serves.
The social enterprise aims to create an innovative, equal, productive and low carbon society by nurturing a family of sustainable local businesses to support resilient communities and wellbeing for all.
Antur Waunfawr’s businesses recycle waste, provide a confidential paper shredding service, repairs and recycles furniture, reuses and recycles textiles and hires and repairs bicycles as part of a health and wellbeing centre. The company has customers across the whole of North Wales.
“Welsh language is part of our identity as a company and we are proud to be a place of work where the language can be used naturally,” said Antur Waunfawr’s senior manager Haydn Jones. “Most of our service users are first language Welsh speakers.”
All of the staff speak Welsh and seven are currently working towards apprenticeships, delivered by pan-Wales training provider Cambrian Training Company and Progression Training.
One employee is completing an Apprenticeship Level 3 in Business Administration, which is being delivered totally in Welsh. Two employees are seeking a Foundation Apprenticeship in Sustainable Recycling Levels 2 and 3 through WAMITAB and four are working towards City & Guilds Apprenticeships in Health and Social Care Levels 2 and 3 bilingually.
Antur Waunfawr has been highlighted by Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol and the National Training Federation of Wales (NTfW) as a champion of bilingualism in the workplace.
Amy Edwards, Cambrian Training Company’s head of sustainable resource management and energy, described Antur Waunfawr as a “fantastic company guided by its mission statement”.
“The services they deliver for the community and the way they go about it are brilliant. They are very supportive of training and upskilling their employees, 18 of whom have achieved apprenticeships with Cambrian Training over the past eight years.
“Part of the reason the company chose us as their training provider for waste management is because we have Welsh speaking training officers and assessors who can deliver the apprenticeships bilingually and support learners who have additional learning needs.”
The Apprenticeship Programme in Wales is funded by the Welsh Government with support from the European Social Fund.
