Republic aims to create 200,000 new jobs through eight-year plan
An ambitious action plan to create 200,000 jobs over two four-year enterprise cycles has been unveiled by the Irish government. Taoiseach Enda Kenny claimed radical improvements in the way Irish government and business interact would result in a much-needed workforce boost in two swathes by 2020. The Action Plan on Jobs includes restructuring the country’s...
Ulster Business Awards celebrate our high achieving entrepreneurs
The high achievement of entrepreneurial local companies has been celebrated at a prestigious awards event in Belfast. Eight Ulster firms, including new businesses and successful exporters, have received prizes in the provincial stage of the Ulster Bank Business Achievers Awards, run in association with Invest Northern Ireland and InterTradeIreland. Seven firms from across Northern Ireland and one...
Cancer charity calls on schools to ‘veg out’ in health awards bid
The Health Action Awards are braced for a bumper entry this year to celebrate their tenth birthday. Organisers Action Cancer and independent retail group Centra are calling on all 1,600 of Northern Ireland’s schools to get involved. Action Cancer’s Health Promotion Manager Emily Magrath said the unique awards scheme gave nurseries, schools and colleges the...
Thousands flock to Met’s Essential Skills courses
Numbers enrolling on Essential Skills courses at Belfast Met are exceeding all expectations, it was claimed today. Last year close to 4,000 people enrolled on the free courses and now, only half way through the academic year, the college has matched that number. The Met hopes even more people will sign up to English, Maths...
New jobs at building supplier
Six new jobs have been created at a building supplier after it opened a new store in Lisburn in an investment of nearly £450,000. Murdock Builders Merchants (MBM), which now employs 200 people, said its ninth branch would offer a free landscape design service in partnership with Acheson and Glover. Ann Morgan, chief executive of...
Subway to create 6,000 posts at its new stores
Sandwich chain Subway has announced it is to create 6,000 jobs across the UK over the next three years, including some in Northern Ireland. The fast food franchise – famed for its foot-long submarine rolls – will open 600 new branches in the UK and Ireland by 2015, its president and co-founder Fred DeLuca said...
Star recruiters prove they’re good as gold with prestigious award win
A Co Down recruitment agency is the first in Ireland to receive the prestigious Gold Star Service Excellence award. Neal Lucas Recruitment of Hillsborough received the plaudit following appraisal of the company’s customer service before being independently validated by the Centre for Competitiveness. Gold Star is a division of the Northern Ireland Quality Awards, organised...
Fast food chain to create 50 new jobs
Mcdonald’s is to employ 50 extra staff in Northern Ireland as part of a wider recruitment drive during 2012. The fast food chain announced yesterday 2,500 new jobs in the UK this year and it expects at least half of the positions to go to young people under the age of 25 and around 30%...
Firm hails the creation of new ICT sector taskforce
WORK is underway to ensure the needs of Northern Ireland’s ICT sector will be met by the skills and qualifications of its workforce.Employment and Learning |Minister Dr Stephen Farry recently hosted the first meeting of the ICT Skills Taskforce which he set up to complement the action his department and Invest NI are taking in...
Teachers’ union welcomes training study to give pupils a brighter future
The Ulster Teachers’ Union has welcomed the study of teacher-training provision to |be undertaken by the Department of Employment and Learning. The review will examine the financial sustainability of current structures and explore the creation of a shared and integrated system for future delivery. “Any such study is an opportunity to look at how best...