GLYNDWR University has signed a ground-breaking deal to help create jobs and “re-skill” Wrexham.
The university’s new partnership with employment and training company Action for Employment Ltd (A4e) will see it working with businesses and the most disadvantaged in society.
The move could also see Glyndwr-validated qualifications being delivered across the world.
Glyndwr vice-chancellor Professor Michael Scott said: “In partnership with A4e we are building a new kind of global university – which both responds to the recession, yet looks to the future of skilling and ‘re-skilling’ the workforce.
“We will help people to find work, and will develop the skills of workforces.
“We will help people find new directions and transform their circumstances.”
The agreement was signed by Prof Scott and A4e CEO Andrew Dutton at the University on Friday.
The deal will be finalised over the next few months for work to start in January 2012.
“We’ll start with Wrexham and work step by step, which is the Glyndwr way,” said Prof Scott.
A4e is a UK company that helps people retrain and find work across Europe, Australasia and Asia. It has 250 branches in the UK, with 33 in centres in Wales.
CEO Andrew Dutton described the new deal as providing “education in its broadest sense”.
Glyndwr chair of governors Michael Cant said: “This is about making a shift fundamentally in how we do things. We have the commercial acumen and the academic expertise.”
He said there was no doubt the partnership would create new Wrexham jobs: “If we don’t create jobs we have failed. The question for me is, how many?”
Prof Scott said the agreement would also mean Glyndwr would be offering qualifications through A4e across the UK and Europe.
He added: “It fits with a social justice agenda and economic development agenda.
“There is responsibility on a university like this to ensure people in all communities should be able to get the same qualifications.
“I think it is a natural extension of what Glyndwr is – its vision and mission.”