This is the only organisation in Wales dedicated to providing practical support to people aged 50 and over who want to become (and remain) economically active.
PRIME Cymru was founded by HRH The Prince of Wales fifteen years ago in response to letters he had received from many people saying that they felt that after the age of 50 they were on the scrapheap and they had faced insurmountable problems in securing paid employment because of their age.
Indeed, economic activity amongst the over 50s is a critical problem in Wales with nearly a quarter of a million people not working (or 38 per cent of the total number of people in this age group).
That is why the work of PRIME Cymru is so important and through its staff, trained mentors and associates, the organisation provides clients throughout Wales with free tailored one to one support whether they wish to start their own business, return to the workforce or volunteer to develop skills and confidence to move closer to economic activity.
During the last year, it engaged with more than 11,000 over 50s in Wales who were interested in returning to economic activity.
More specifically, one-to-one support was provided to 2,298 individuals developing action plans to return to economic activity. Of this number, over 82 per cent gained a tangible positive outcome of starting a business, securing employment, undertaking further learning or volunteering to gain skills and confidence.
This means that in the past 12 months, PRIME Cymru has helped the equivalent of 2.5 people every day of the year to return to economic activity through securing employment or starting a business.
Last month, HRH The Prince of Wales visited one of the most successful PRIME Cymru supported businesses and to meet those who had helped to make it grow.
Coedcae Services in Bridgend is a sustainable woodland management and wood-fired, kiln dried log business run by Mr Dave Marchant and his team.
As would be expected, Dave is very passionate about his work but the tree and wood business has not always been his line of work. He had a very good career in I.T. but really felt that he had no quality of life.
Remembering how happy he used to be working outside in the woods with his grandfather, he decided at the age of 50, and with the support of PRIME Cymru, to chuck everything in and set up his own business in wood products.
Since then the business has grown quickly and has taken on more staff to meet the demand for its wood products.
Coedcae Services is a sustainable business based around the whole life cycle of trees – the firm plants thousands of trees, cut them down and makes furniture out of the very good wood. It also removes diseased larch trees and uses them in the wood-fired kiln to dry locally sourced wood, and then sells these logs to the public to heat their homes.
With investment in the business, the firm has expanded enormously in the past two years and now employs several staff with plans to significantly increase output next year especially given that kiln dried logs – which provide a consistently dry firewood - have revolutionised the firewood business.
Certainly, the visit to Bridgend by Prince Charles was a fitting tribute not only to the success of Coedcae Services but also to hard work and dedication of the mentors and staff of Prime Cymru. By working with those older individuals who may feel that nobody else is interested in them when they are thinking of setting up their own business, they are making real difference to the enterprise economy across Wales.