New scheme to settle worker disputes
A new Labour Relations Agency Arbitration Scheme will provide a voluntary alternative to an employment tribunal. The scheme results from a key recommendation emerging from the Department for Employment and Learning’s public consultation on systems for resolving disputes in the workplace. The scheme will facilitate the hearing of grievances but without the attendant formality and...
Matthew’s skills lead to prestigious final
An Omagh student has made it through to the prestigious Skillauto Final at the NEC in Birmingham in November. Matthew McKeown, a student at South West College Omagh Campus and trainee apprentice at Pat Kirks Ltd Omagh, topped his Northern Ireland heat this summer to win a place in the national final. Specialising in...
Firm has big plans for its new recruits
A Belfast-based planning consultancy is marking its first anniversary by growing its workforce and securing multi-million pound projects. Clyde Shanks, has won a range of major residential and commercial contracts, including preparing Northern Ireland’s largest biogas anaerobic digestion (AD) plant for planning – a £30million facility at Lisahally Port. The company has also just helped Gaelectric to...
Putting you on the right path to bright future
Thinking about a change of career? Support is available to help you make the right decisions. Anne Richardson from the Department for Employment and Learning’s Careers Service offers some useful advice IT might be that you find you’re just not enjoying your job as much as you used to, leading you to ask if...
Teachers plan a great boost for education
CHILDREN’S future employability can only improve thanks to the teaching jobs boost unveiled by the Executive, it has been claimed. Steven Savage, a P7 teacher at Cairnshill Primary School in Belfast, was speaking following news this week that six signature projects worth £26m will create more than 200 jobs across Northern Ireland for recent...
Apprenticeship Corner – Environmental E-learning
The National Skills Academy, set up in spring 2011by SummitSkills, is the UK’s leading network of energy efficiency and environmental technologies training. The Skills Academy has been busy preparing new services and has recently unveiled these new options to help installers and apprentices up-skill: * Handy pocket guides to a range of technologies are now...
Apprenticeship Corner – Electronics industry
Employers in the consumer electrical and electronics industry will soon be able to access new appliance repair apprenticeships for staff following SummitSkills’ development of the Consumer Electrical and electronic Products (CEEP) apprenticeship framework. Developed in conjunction with City & Guilds and the Household Electrical and Electronic Servicing Training Forum (HEEST), the frameworks will be...
Graduate Focus – Entrepreneurship still vital to help established businesses grow
Entrepreneurship still vital to help established businesses grow Entrepreneurship isn’t just for new businesses – it is essential to help established companies stay ahead of the competition. That’s according to a global business expert who will speak at Queen’s University on Monday. Ms Hanadi Jabado, Entrepreneur in Residence at the University of Cambridge,...
Graduate Focus – Top Employer List
Microsoft has topped a poll as the best employer as far as UK graduate employees are concerned. The survey, carried out by thejobcrowd, asked over 3,000 graduates employees to score their company on a range of factors including career opportunities, responsibility and training. Many of the top blue chip organisations came out in top places...
Graduate Focus – Health Innovation
A major event bringing together students, clinicians, software developers, and entrepreneurs will take place in the City Hall this December aimed at producing high quality software to improve health. Health Hack NI is based on a series of successful NHS Hack Days which have been hosted in other UK cities such as London, Manchester,...