Young people in Port Talbot looking for work can get jobcentre support, mental health and housing help, careers guidance and introductions to hiring employers in a single building — and that building is getting more money.
The DWP Youth Hub, run from the Community Union building in the town, receives £250,000 today, with the UK Government saying up to £5 million more could follow.
The hub supports 16 to 24-year-olds, run with Neath Port Talbot Council, the Welsh Government, Community Union, employers, charities and training providers.
The government says the money will fund new technology for young people to find jobs and apprenticeships, dedicated support into sectors it calls the jobs of the future, and an expansion of the employment, skills, housing and health support already on offer.
Those sectors include steel, advanced manufacturing, financial services and green industries — among them floating offshore wind, where ABP’s £64 million hub plan has promised 5,000 jobs at the town’s port.
It also says the money will build outreach hubs in smaller communities across Neath Port Talbot — places where, in Community Union’s words, geography itself is a barrier to finding work.
A ceiling, not a commitment
The £5 million is a ceiling, not a commitment. The government’s own notes say further funding depends on the Transition Board’s normal processes and the roll-out of other schemes, including its Economic Growth and Investment Fund.
The money is not new either — it transfers from the £122 million fund the UK Government and Tata Steel set up for workers and businesses affected by the move to greener steelmaking.
‘The heart of the area’s economic renewal’
Secretary of State for Wales Jo Stevens, who chairs the Transition Board, announced the funding on a visit to the hub today.
She said the expansion “puts young people at the heart of the area’s economic renewal.”
“The initial investment of £250,000 will help get the hub up and running, kickstarting the provisions to help young people build the skills they need to access Port Talbot’s jobs of the future, like steel and our green industries,” she said.
“With up to £5 million available, this investment will unlock new job opportunities for thousands of young people in the area.”
Work and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden said the investment was “exactly the kind of targeted, locally delivered support that makes a real difference to young people’s lives.”
“By putting resources directly into communities like Neath Port Talbot, we’re giving hope to young people while ensuring businesses have the skilled staff they need as we transition to clean energy,” he said.
“Every young person should have the chance to thrive, and initiatives like this one will deliver on that ambition.”
‘Transformative’
Community Union’s national secretary for steel, Paul McKenna, said the funding would be “transformative to the Youth Hub and ensure greater employment opportunities for young people in Port Talbot.”
“It is very positive to see the UK Government investing in the future of the next generation,” he said.
He also welcomed the outreach hubs, saying it was “great to see that wider outreach youth hubs will be developed in smaller communities where there are often added barriers to securing employment due to geographical limitations.”
The wider transition
The UK Government says its investment in Port Talbot — more than £700 million, including £500 million toward the electric arc furnace — has protected 5,000 Tata jobs, and that there has been no rise in unemployment benefit claims in the region since the blast furnaces closed.
The transition has not been smooth: the furnace timetable slipped, drawing cross-party demands for answers at the Senedd — while one Baglan steelworker who rebuilt his career after redundancy shows what the retraining road actually looks like.
