On Monday 21st December, Credo will be getting into the Xmas spirit by holding a charity “Bake Off” day where Credo staff will be baking, cakes, pies etc. There will be local knowledgeable judges deciding the winners and all proceeds (including entry fees and any donations) will go to our Charity of the Year – CLIC Sargent.
The day will commence at 1pm after the judging but run all afternoon. You are invited to come and sample the cakes here at our offices with a beverage ofsome description. We are wearing Xmas jumpers and there’ll be a party atmosphere, so please, if you are able, swing on by, come and see us, fill up on some Xmas cheer, maybe a few carols, lovely cakes etc. Would be great to see you if you can make it and help us raise some money for a great charity.
Save the date in your diary and we hope to see you here at Credo HQ on Monday 21st!!
SMS, a subsidiary of Alderley plc, proudly announces that they won the Great Business Growth Award, sponsored by the Great Yarmouth Mercury, at the Spirit of Enterprise Awards 2015 on Friday night. The Spirit of Enterprise Awards focus on recognising the achievements of business and enterprise in the Borough of Great Yarmouth.
SMS’s successful win was based on their sustained growth since 2010 in terms of employee investment, business turnover and profit.
Dave Howlett, Managing Director, SMS, comments, “We are delighted to have won the Great Business Growth award. All the companies shortlisted in this category had impressive stories to share and it was a great honour to be chosen as the winner.”
Dave continues, “I would like to thank all our employees at SMS, without them we would not have been able to continue growing the business and deliver well engineered and specialised equipment all over the world to exacting standards.”
SMS have been operating in Great Yarmouth for the past 16 years and are committed to Great Yarmouth as its business base and will shortly be moving to new premises on Beacon Park.
From pre-start to established businesses, New Anglia Growth Hub’s team of 10 business advisers have given 20,000 hours of their time to guide ambitious business owners to sources of funding, grants and services to enable expansion.
The Hub was set up in June 2014 by the LEP, as a one-stop-shop for business support. To date, it has engaged with nearly 5,000 businesses across Norfolk and Suffolk as well as individuals looking for help to start-up.
Suffolk Chamber of Commerce run the contract to deliver the Hub, on behalf of the LEP. John Dugmore, Chief Executive said: “The team has recorded an impressive number of hours between them and the service they offer is of the highest standard. To further ensure we are providing the most effective advice and support to local businesses, all advisers are working towards their Level 7 Diploma in Professional Business and Enterprise Support – nationally recognised by the Secretary of State for the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.
“With the excellent support of our colleagues at the New Anglia LEP, we look forward to continuing to provide the local business community with this successful and much needed service in 2016.”
Chris Starkie, managing director of New Anglia LEP said: “We set up the Growth Hub following significant demand for guidance from local businesses on how to navigate through the complex opportunities for funding and support. Our primary goal has always been to ensure business owners have access to a straightforward and professional service, regardless of size, industry or stage of development.”
Growth Hubs are a core part of Government’s plan to support businesses, with the closure of the national Business Growth Service (incorporating the Manufacturing Advisory Service and Growth Accelerator), New Anglia Growth Hub is now the primary gateway for business support across Suffolk and Norfolk.
Anna Soubry, Minister for Small Business, said: “Where taxpayers’ money is used to provide support, this is best done at the local level which is why we’re providing further funding to Growth Hubs and away from Whitehall.”
Easton and Otley College challenged youngsters in Norfolk to draw pictures of what they think a tractor will look like in 100 years.
Eleven schools decided to take up the challenge and over 600 entries were submitted.
Greg Smith from the Royal Norfolk Agricultural Association (RNAA), Ross Johnson from sponsors Ernest Doe and Sons Ltd and Dani Chatten from the college judged this competition.
They chose one winner from each individual school who entered.
An overall winner was then chosen out of all of the finalists and they received a 3D design of their tractor that was made by students from the University of East Anglia. All winners picked up a certificate, a goody bag and a trophy from the principal of Easton and Otley College, David Henley.
The overall county winner was ten year old Josh Kerrison from North Denes primary school in Great Yarmouth.
He said, “I wanted to make my design different from everyone else. So I added a static electricity source as part of the design. I had lots of ideas and I had an elevator for the stairs.” On winning he added, “This was the best I have felt since Christmas.”
Jenny Bellison is one of Josh’s teacher. She said, “It’s great that the school has been recognised – the competition was a great way to get young people inspired and I’m very proud of Josh.”
Organiser of the competition, Dani Chatten, said, “I’m incredibly passionate about farming and we thought this competition was a great way of engaging with youngsters in a fun way. We are very grateful to all the schools and students for supporting this and would also like to thank Ernest Doe and Sons Ltd for sponsoring and for judging. The RNAA for judging and the EDP for supporting us. We are delighted with the response and we very much hope to make this an annual competition.”
Lisa Blinkhorne from Ernest Doe and Sons Ltd, said, “We are very keen to work with educational establishments and share the love that we have for farming. As an industry and as a nation, we need to do more to encourage new generations into farming and this competition has been a great way of enabling us to get the message out that agriculture is incredibly exciting.”
RNAA Chief Executive, Greg Smith, said, “This is a terrific competition for Norfolk schools and it was a pleasure to be involved in the judging process. The RNAA support a number of projects that encourage a greater understanding of food, farming and the natural environment. This is a fun project that produced some very imaginative and exciting entries.”
Online job boards provide job seekers and interested parties with instant information about numerous different positions being advertised. They offer many benefits and are extremely useful for applicants seeking to make their next career move.
To be able to quickly and easily look at jobs being advertised is extremely convenient, whether you are actively looking for a new role, or just curious about current career opportunities in your industry. As well as promoting job vacancies many sites also offer the opportunity to upload your CV, allowing employers and recruiters to contact you direct if they think your skills and experience match what they are looking for. The aim is to save people time, increase their chances of finding jobs and to create more of a two way process.
However there are things to be aware of when posting your CV online, not least your privacy. Most sites have privacy controls which allow you to decide who will be able to access your personal details and career information. It’s important to look at these very carefully. Once your CV has been downloaded, you are likely to have less control over how and when it will be used.
In the vast majority of cases those who can access your CV will use it responsibly. However there have been come examples where this hasn’t been the case. It is important to realise that problems could arise when these CVs are accessed and are submitted for roles without the person knowing anything about it.
One example is a situation when a candidate has added a CV to a job board simply because they are interested in understanding what jobs are available that match their skillset. It is important to realise that their CV could be downloaded by a number of different agencies, without their knowledge, and sent to a range of accountancy firms in the area. This has the potential that the candidate receives a number of calls from agencies saying that they have arranged interviews, despite having no idea what type of role the candidate was looking for, or what sort of organisation they’d like to work for. This could also mean that the CV is received on numerous occasions by firms from a number of different agencies, each claiming the candidate was only working with them.
Although most employers will have realised that the candidate was likely to have been a victim of
this situation it is still potentially damaging for this to happen. It is important that candidates are aware of the potential pitfalls, as well as the benefits, so that they can make an informed decision.
Registeringwith a reputable recruitment agency can provide the same benefits as uploading your CV to a job board and can also add value to your job search by ascertaining the type of firm, type of role you would like and much more. They can save you time and maximise your chances of finding your next role by matching your skills and experience to the employer’s requirements. Utilising a recruitment company that is knowledgeable about the Practice market and the differences in the range of firms from a cultural and expertise perspective can be invaluable. At Pure we also pride ourselves on working withcandidatesand supporting them through their career journey. We have specialist consultants who are experts in the Practice specialism and also the commercial environment. This means understanding not just your skills, specialism and career profile to date, but also your aspirations and key values. We want to ensure that the recruitment solution we offer you meets your life and work objectives. We will only ever suggest roles that we believe are right for both you and the client.
Norse Commercial Services is sponsoring the 2016 Young Enterprise Initiative in Norfolk and Suffolk.
Young Enterprise is the UK’s leading charity that empowers young people to harness their personal and business skills, making business relevant to their daily lives.
Norse Group HR Director Tricia Fuller said;” As part of our Corporate Social Responsibility strategy we are sponsors of the 2016 Young Enterprise Initiative in Norfolk and Suffolk. There are a number of schools in the Norfolk and Suffolk area taking part in this year’s programme, with young people running a business for an entire year.”
“This is a really exciting opportunity for the young adults who will be taking part and they will need lots of business advisors. Norse will be providing seven mentors, whose commercial expertise and skills covering a range of business disciplines that will help the students with the various challenges they will face. “
Norse will be providing mentoring for teams, which consist of 10 to 12 youngsters, from City of Norwich School, Norwich High School for Girls, Attleborough Academy and the University Technical College.
Daniel Vanstone, Head of FM Services at Norse has volunteered to assist in answering questions and giving business advice for a year 11 class at the University Technical College Norfolk (UTCN).
“These students are enterprising professionals, managers and business leaders in the making,” he commented. “This is a great way for students to realise that business is never straight forward and there will always be curveballs you must overcome to succeed. For me there isthe unique satisfaction of using my own experience to help develop the next generation of enterprising professionals.”
Linda Raphael, Key Account Director with Norse subsidiary n-able, will be working with City of Norwich School; “This initiative is giving young people an ideal opportunity to get involved in the commercial work world by taking their ideas forward to form a functioning company. It teaches them how to work and develop as a business, making decisions and working as a team. I volunteered to mentor in order to give something from my commercial experience back to the community, guiding and supporting the team through the various stages in the project.”
Glyn Manton, Subject leader for Economics and Business at City of Norwich School said; “Norse has been excellent support for our energetic team of year 10’s who meet after school. Advisers really helped the students during the ‘storming’ stage of group development. Now we are through that students now feel positive and, because of the support, are ready to take their companies’ products to market.”
East Anglian accountancy firm, Aston Shaw, have set their sights on further expansion after announcing plans to relocate their Norwich Head Office to a newly refurbished 7000 sq.ft bespoke designed office space, complete with state-of-the-art conference and meeting rooms and a capacity for 100+ members of staff, as of January 2016.
The new head office has been built to an extremely high spec with a modern, open plan layout that will pave the way for future growth and employment – allowing the firm to commit to recruiting a further 20 staff within the next two years. The space has been exclusively designed for Aston Shaw’s use and will transform the day-to-day working environment, levels of efficiency and overall client care.
Dominic Shaw, Director commented, “our growth in the last 5 years has been phenomenal and our new head office is something to show for all the hard work. The move will give us more visibility, make us more efficient as a business and enable us to provide an even better service to our clients. We will now look to build on our success in Norwich and translate that to our offices across the region”.
The decision to move from Aston Shaw’s former Head Office based on Thorpe Road (for over 40 years) to The Union Building on Rose Lane was taken with the interests of both clients and staff in mind. As well as being more accessible, clients will benefit from comfortable new meeting space that is both private and practical with digital screens to display real-time accounts statistics, as well as a much larger waiting area complete with coffee making facilities. Staff will have a much more spacious, bright and positive working environment, which will enable better collaboration as well as a quirky breakout area to relax and recharge in.
The new head office is the latest in a series of significant strategic expansion moves for the firm – including the recent acquisitions of Norwich based sole trader Richard Harris Ltd, local rival accountancy firm Roger Hopkins and the 2014 merger with Morgan Woods. The firm has no plans to slow its growth, and is always seeking ways to improve the service provided to its clients.
City College Norwich has celebrated the success of its first 8 trainees to complete the 8-week BBC Make It Digital traineeship. The young people were presented with certificates by BBC Look East presenter Susie Fowler-Watt at an event held at MINT in The Forum.
The new traineeship has been developed by the BBC, in conjunction with the Department for Work and Pensions, in recognition of the vital part that digital skills play in a huge range of job roles across all business sectors and organisations.
The trainees spent 4 weeks at college getting to grips with topics such as how to use social media platforms effectively, producing multimedia content for web sites, search engine optimisation, branding, budgeting, marketing and project management.
They then undertook a 3-week work placement with an employer which gave the trainees the opportunity to put their skills into practice and gain valuable experience.
The traineeship concluded with a final week in college, where the trainees completed a team challenge, involving a live digital broadcast, bringing together the skills they had developed during the preceding 7 weeks.
Each trainee is moving on with a digital portfolio of their work and – as guests heard at the celebration event – greater self-confidence and a clear focus on securing a job or an Apprenticeship place as their next step.
One of the Make It Digital trainees is 22 year old Sam Kerr from Norwich, who found out about the traineeship through the job centre. She completed the placement element of the traineeship with Apprenticeships Norfolk, based at Norfolk County Council.
Commenting on the Make It Digital traineeship, Sam said: “I have learned about my own skills, like finding out that I had more confidence than I ever realised, learning how to do presentations professionally, networking as well. Meeting new people and making new friends has been a massive part of it as well. It’s been really good.”
Sam, who has now secured an Apprenticeship with Norwich-based Wide Angles TV, starting in the New Year, added: “If you’re into media, if you want to get into the media sector, this traineeship helps you so much with everything. Videos, photography, all of the digital side of it, there is so much to learn. Everything that we’ve done you wouldn’t think it’s possible to do in 8 weeks, but it is, and it’s really fun as well.”
Reflecting on the achievements of all of the trainees, Alison Harvey, Deputy Head of Employer Responsive Delivery at City College Norwich, commented:
“Over the initial 4 weeks that the trainees were in college we saw them blossom with the employability skills, with the technical challenges that they were doing, and in their confidence. During their placements they have all completed a social media project and done something really valuable with it. We’ve given them the tools and they’ve gone away and done it and that I think is what has impressed us most.”
City College Norwich is keen to hear from 16 to 24 year olds who would be interested in similar traineeship opportunities. The college would also like to hear from new employers who could offer a trainee a work placement.
For more information please contact City College Norwich’s Employer Responsive Delivery Unit on 0800 328 3616 or email employerpartnerships@ccn.ac.uk.
The New Year is an excellent time for businesses to begin proactively planning their recruitment strategy for 2016, and beyond, and a good recruitment agency can add real value to this process.
In depth recruitment planning could become increasingly crucial in 2016, as employers potentially face an ‘applicant drought’. If the economy continues to grow, more businesses are likely to expand and start recruiting new people, leading to increased competition for the best talent.
Planning ahead will help businesses to prepare for this shift, increase the quality of the recruitment process and minimise the risk of any expensive hiring mistakes. Experienced recruitment consultants will work with employers to ensure their business is well equipped for future growth.
Here’s a few examples of how a good agency can help to ensure that 2016 is a successful year for recruitment.
1. Extra industry insight
Consultants have their finger on the pulse of the industry they specialise in, acting as an employer’s eyes and ears in the market place. Whether its jobs being advertised by competitors, or shifting trends in salaries, this insight will help ensure your organisation offers the right package to attract the best talent.
2. Enhancement of employer brand
Promoting a company as a great place to work really helps to attract high quality candidates. A good consultant will not only highlight the benefits of working for your organisation directly to candidates, they will also provide ideas on how to stand out as a good employer. This could include showcasing your organisation as a socially responsible place to work, or suggestions of any employee benefits which could help to make your organisation more competitive.
3. Wider field of candidates
Consultants will have access to people who may not consciously be looking for a job and wouldn’t necessarily have seen that you were advertising. They will also be aware of talented people who may currently be looking for a similar role, but in a different location. With the right relocation package, which a consultant will help to advise on, they could be tempted to take their next career step in a new area.
4. Great culture fit
A good fit for your organisation’s culture is just as important as the right skills, qualifications and experience. Recruitment agencies can provide additional, complementary services, such as psychometric testing, to help identify the candidates who share your company’s values. Plus consultants will already have interviewed candidates and have a clear understanding of who they are and what they are looking for, saving internal teams time by only providing a shortlist of the most appropriate candidates for the role, and for the company itself.
5. Ongoing support
Here at Pure, we don’t just place someone in a role and then walk away. We continue the relationship to ensure the candidate settles in to the new role as quickly and effectively as possible. This includes offering services such as induction support and transition coaching.
Kickstart (Norfolk) is now the largest and only sustainable wheels to Work scheme in the country, having started back in 1996 with a couple of bikes we now have a fleet of over 300 Honda vision 50cc mopeds and 110cc scooters. Recognising transport as being a major contributor to employment issues in rural communities we can supply a fully insured and maintained moped from only £4.29 per day. All the individual needs is a provisional licence, a one day training course (CBT) and suitable motorcycle clothing, the cost of training can usually be covered by a third party funder if required.
As a registered charity & non-profit organisation we have assisted over 5000 individuals with transport to either start work, maintain current employment, attend education or improve their quality of life if in foster care. Having built strong relationships with local Job Centres and work programme providers Kickstart is often the difference between an individual starting work and remaining an unemployment statistic.
2015 has been our busiest year ever peaking at 285 bikes in use at any one time and still hovering around 274 bikes in use entering the winter months, although motorcycling tends to be seasonal because our clients need transport for work they use their bikes all tear round.
Our focus has been on the end user appealing directly to those that may need transport to start work or are in danger of losing a job due to transport issues. Being a member of the Norfolk Chamber of Commerce it’s time to expand our marketing to potential employers, there must be a number of rural business within Norfolk that struggle with recruitment and staff retention due to their location and lack of public transport to the area.
Do you have issues with staff absenteeism because their lift has let them down, Struggle to fill shifts because there is no public transport coinciding with the shift times, do you hire candidates because of where they live rather than because they are the best person for the job? Perhaps Kickstart can assist you & your employees. If you are interested in finding out more or have any questions please visit our websitewww.kickstartmopeds.org.ukor ring/email 01362 699923,barry.lynes@kickstartmopeds.org.uk
In a bid to change a life this Christmas, Signs Express has donated enough money to fund a child’s whole support experience with Nelson’s Journey, including a two day therapeutic residential weekend and 1 to 1 support.
Nelson’s Journey, a charity dedicated to supporting bereaved children and young people throughout Norfolk, was founded in 1997 in the county. Since its establishment, the charity has helped thousands of children between the age of 0 and 17 who have experienced the death of a significant person in their life. This year alone, the team at Nelson’s Journey has helped over 600 children across Norfolk deal with their grief.
Signs Express, a franchised network of signs & graphics businesses situated across the UK and Ireland, is headquartered in Norwich and is a long-term supporter Nelson’s Journey. This year, the company’s HQ decided to donate its Christmas card money – topped up with a little extra – to a good cause. The £522 that the team donated is enough to fund a full assessment into a child’s bereavement needs, attendance on a therapeutic residential weekend and ongoing one-to-one follow up work.
Craig Brown, Managing Director of the Signs Express group, highlighted his pride in supporting such an important local charity, “Everyone has been affected at one point or another by bereavement, but it must be unimaginably difficult for children and teenagers. The work that Nelson’s Journey does, gives these young people a solid support structure and ensures that they never feel alone, which is crucial to their well-being. We are proud to support Nelson’s Journey and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.”
Signs Express HQ has been supporting Nelson’s Journey for four years and have so far raised just over £6,000 for the cause. With the ambition to continue supporting the organisation for years to come, Signs Express and Nelson’s Journey have formed a close relationship and a passion for supporting local children and teens to manage their grief effectively. Any money donated to the cause is gratefully received and goes a long way to helping those in need.
Gena Moore, Corporate Funding and Marketing Officer told us why the support was so important, “We were so surprised and thrilled to receive such an amazing contribution from Signs Express at such a difficult time of year. This year, 470 children and young people in Norfolk will be experiencing their first Christmas after the death of a parent. The support given to us by Signs Express really will help to change the life of one of these bereaved children, helping them move forward positively with their lives. It’s thanks to this amazing local business support that helps us keep up with the growing demands on our service.”