AN ANGUS organisation hopes to boost young people’s job prospects by opening a learning and information centre.
Voluntary Action Angus (VAA) chief executive Gary Malone told The Courier he hoped communities throughout the region would be able to unlock opportunity in a new centre.
The group, the product of a merger involving Angus Association of Voluntary Organisations and Volunteer Centre Angus, has applied to open a learning and information centre in the former Universal call centre in Forfar.
“Angus has now become one of the most buoyant areas for volunteering and community work in Scotland,” Mr Malone said.
“In Angus, especially for young people, this is an important time.
“In this society, times are particularly hard for youngsters already without a job, and one of the major ways to go about getting a CV built and getting into work is through volunteering.”
Mr Malone believes great work has been done among groups in Arbroath, but Forfar, Kirriemuir and Brechin is in need of a dedicated volunteering centre.
VAA’s planning permission request mentions developing “premises for learning/information centre” as a “gateway for third sector and volunteer development in Forfar”.
“This will definitely provide a desperately needed opportunity for Angus,” said Mr Malone.
“If we can replicate the popularity of our Arbroath projects, it will be a success.”
The ambitious plan follows the closure in January 2011 of the Universal Group centre, one of the local high-profile casualties of the recession.
The operation, at 1-3 St James Road, was the first call centre in Angus when it set up in a former print works.
Universal, based in England, brought around 60 jobs to the town when it arrived in 2000, and staff dealt with business for Scottish & Southern Energy and 5G Communications, formerly Universal Telecom.
Mr Malone said there are many young people in Forfar and further afield who would benefit from schemes such as the Praxis programme in Arbroath, which matches newly-retired joiners with those keen to learn a trade.
“The big challenge around the region is the rurality of places, where it can involve three buses to get to a training opportunity,” he added.
“There’s also the subject of caring for the elderly. We did research where 60% of people we surveyed in inland Angus said they’d like to help their older neighbours but didn’t know how to go about it.”
The change of use application is yet to be determined but hopes are high the St James Road centre will be doing business within six weeks.
riwatt@thecourier.co.uk