Golden Futures – the mutual benefits of employing people with disabilities, is an event with one purpose and two audiences.
It’s purpose is to raise awareness and understanding of the mutual benefits to employers and employees gained from employing someone with a disability. Its target audiences are employers and the people with disabilities who want to work in their business.
Supported by partners in Norfolk Chamber of Commerce, Norfolk County Council, Easton & Otley College, Rthirteen Recruitment and the Department for Work and Pensions The event has two parts:
8.30am – 11.30am is a seminar aimed at employers, with presentations from current employers, and employees with disabilities and representatives from The BUILD Charity, Norfolk County Council, DWP, SERCO, Nelsonspirit and others sharing their own experiences as employers, employees or training and support providers to illustrate what support and benefits can be gained by positively thinking about the employability of someone with disabilities.
9.30am – 2.30pm is a Market Place aimed at people with disabilities, and those who support them where employers, training providers, welfare agencies and a recruiitment agency will be on hand to provide advice and information to people with disabilities about the kind of jobs they offer, the welfare implications and benefits, the training and support on offer along the journey to and into work, and beyond.
For more information, or if your business would like to have a free stall in the Market Place e mail: james.kearns@buildcharity.co.uk or call 01603 618029
The Innovation Grant Mentoring Project invites you to the first in a series of webinars.
Join IGMP and Chris Woodward, Innovation Growth Adviser for Innovate UK EDGE for practical advice on how to develop a successful R&D Grant funding application.
Applying for grant funding is highly competitive. This webinar will provide tips on how best to present your business proposition to benefit your application and increase your chances of accessing funding.
Chris will focus on what evaluators are looking for when assessing applications, with extremely useful insights into the evaluation metrics, clarifying the need to explain what growth and job creation outcomes your request for funding will achieve.
Chris will take questions at the end.
Who should attend: This webinar is for founders and senior managers of business who are seeking external funding from public sources to support their R&D and product development activities.
Chris Woodward is an Innovation & Growth Adviser with Innovate UK EDGE. Chris specialises in UK and EU R&D grant funding and environmental technologies.
Innovate UK EDGE is a key part of the UK innovation agency’s investment in the innovative businesses that drive economic growth. It complements Innovate UK project funding with intensive, specialist-led support for such ambitious businesses. Each high-potential, innovative business in our portfolio benefits from the objective perspective of a dedicated innovation and growth specialist local to them. Our specialist considers a business in the round and, working closely with its leadership, identifies the most productive ways to accelerate its growth. Innovate UK EDGE
Any Norfolk or Suffolk based business is invited to apply for help with their innovation grant application via the free Innovation Grant Mentoring Project webpage: IGMP
Register to attend this information-rich free webinar now. If you aren’t able to attend, a link to a recording will be sent to all registered persons within 24 hours.
The webinar event link will be sent to you 48 hours in advance of the event.
Many clients never get near a court, but if you do become involved in a court case it is important to know what expert evidence is, when it is needed and very importantly how it helps the court determine the outcome of a case. This webinar will provide you with an opportunity to get up to speed with the basics of expert evidence. Dispute Resolution partner Michael Frape will pose the questions that many clients are understandably afraid to ask to highly-regarded expert witness Fiona Hotston Moore.
Your ticket to a brighter future. Introducing funded CII qualifications…
Did you know your staff can now gain their CII qualifications through completing an apprenticeship? These BRAND NEW apprenticeships have been developed by the CII in coordination with other big players in the financial services industries.
Working in conjunction with the CII, Skills Edge are proud to be one of the first training provider’s in the UK to be able to offer funded CII qualifications through the delivery of apprenticeships across East Anglia.
Format of the evening
18:00 – Networking and canapés upon arrival 18:30 – An introduction from Skills Edge Managing Director & CEO, Simon Lampert 18:35 – The creation, development, and advantages of apprenticeship standards – Guest speaker, CII 18:45 – How to access funded CII qualifications, and what we can do for you – James Miller, Skills Edge
19:00 – Testimonial – Almary Green
19:10 – Question & Answer session from the panel of speakers 19:30 – Networking
We offer the following apprenticeships suitable for new and existing staff within the financial services sector:
L3 Financial Services Administrator
L4 Financial Adviser
L4 Paraplanner
L4 Insurance Practitioner
Come to The Assembly House on Thursday 26th October, 6pm, to find out how apprenticeships can benefit your company.
Goody bags and a business card raffle on the night!
From 1 January 2021 a new immigration system is in place, impacting how you can employ EU citizens in the UK. The background to this is the UK leaving the European Union, removing the end of free movement, and the decision by HM Government to put in place new rules. This issue is of huge importance to the transport and logistics sector where a significant proportion of the workforce are non-UK nationals and a large proportion are EU nationals. A recent logistics UK review of skills and shortages in the sector highlighted the sector’s vulnerability against the backcloth of driver shortages and the large numbers of in warehousing and distribution work, such as forklift drivers. So, how can EU nationals already employed continue to work for your businesses and how can new employees from EU countries lawfully work for you, within the UK? In this webinar we will explore and provide updates on the following areas:- • the EU Settlement Scheme for citizens already in the UK • new immigration routes from 1 January 2021; skilled workers, intra-company transfers and graduates • frontier workers • carrying out right to work checks, auditing your EU workforce and managing your EU nationals • apply for new sponsorship licences / reviewing your existing licence • how the skilled worker regime works: salaries, English language skills and points system (the major route to engage EU nationals for many in this sector) • how does the new immigration system treat the self-employed? • right to work checks and penalties for non-compliance – getting your paperwork and records right • do you have to check sub-contractors and third parties? This webinar will be of use to all those in the transport, logistics and warehousing application, but also be valuable to other sectors facing the same issues.
From 1 January 2021 a new immigration system is in place, impacting how you can employ EU citizens in the UK. The background to this is the UK leaving the European Union, removing the end of free movement, and the decision by HM Government to put in place new rules. This issue is of huge importance to the transport and logistics sector where a significant proportion of the workforce are non-UK nationals and a large proportion are EU nationals. A recent logistics UK review of skills and shortages in the sector highlighted the sector’s vulnerability against the backcloth of driver shortages and the large numbers of in warehousing and distribution work, such as forklift drivers. So, how can EU nationals already employed continue to work for your businesses and how can new employees from EU countries lawfully work for you, within the UK? In this webinar we will explore and provide updates on the following areas:- • the EU Settlement Scheme for citizens already in the UK • new immigration routes from 1 January 2021; skilled workers, intra-company transfers and graduates • frontier workers • carrying out right to work checks, auditing your EU workforce and managing your EU nationals • apply for new sponsorship licences / reviewing your existing licence • how the skilled worker regime works: salaries, English language skills and points system (the major route to engage EU nationals for many in this sector) • how does the new immigration system treat the self-employed? • right to work checks and penalties for non-compliance – getting your paperwork and records right • do you have to check sub-contractors and third parties? This webinar will be of use to all those in the transport, logistics and warehousing application, but also be valuable to other sectors facing the same issues.
I was asked to present a webinar to a business client about how to deal with stress in the workplace but without having the word stress in the title as apparently that puts people off attending.
We concentrated on ways to improve health and wellbeing and discussed what is and isn’t in your control, looking out for colleagues and what employers have in place to support both physical and mental health. We then finished the session with some simple stretches you can do at the desk to encourage movement during the day.
As usual, we sent a link to an anonymous online survey to receive feedback on the session and for the most part, the responses were positive saying the session was helpful and they particularly liked the stretches at the end. However, there was one person who was not impressed, who felt it was delivered in such a way that put responsibility for stress management entirely on the employee. I dispute that, but putting that aside, and putting aside my huge over-sensitivity that somebody did not agree with my presentation (I took it so personally) I realised this was someone who has grievances with their employer but who also made some valid points in their criticism.
What this person was saying was factors causing stress were out of employees control, such as excessive workloads, unrealistic targets, unworkable deadlines and salaries well below sector average. They felt the session would have been more effective if it had been had with managers and those responsible for allocating workloads, highlighting to them the impact it has on staff and to work through some strategies that they could put in place in their management to reduce stress among staff.
I could tell just from those comments in the survey just how passionate this person felt about it. Unfortunately, I believe it is a fact that many good people leave their jobs because of these kinds of frustrations and it is such a shame.
We need to take on board what the pandemic has shown us and that is burnout and stress due to factors such as unrealistic workloads or little mental health support has led to employees seeking employment opportunities elsewhere, where the link between mental health and physical health are dealt with as one.
It’s all very well, thinking up new ideas of what you can implement to improve staff wellbeing but the fundamentals have to be in place. It’s no use offering different activities, and I include those that we offer as a company, if staff don’t feel comfortable taking part and they won’t be comfortable taking part if they are under so much pressure with their workload or time restraints.
What would it cost to implement regular one to one meetings with staff to talk through these issues? A once a year appraisal is not enough. Have regular forums between management and employees for open discussions without fear of reprisals. Give everyone an opportunity to say how they feel and encourage participation in discussions to increase feelings of engagement and control over their workload.
Employers taking on board effective management methods to reduce the stress and to have communication on a regular basis with employees ensures no-one feels under immense pressure, and will increase positive feelings of wellbeing and less health issues.
Get the fundamentals right with employee health and wellbeing, then build on top of that other wellbeing strategies employees will want to take part in and you will have the beginnings of a great health and wellbeing programme.
Learning Technologies for Transnational Research Networks
Julian Study Centre, Room 2.02, UEA
The School of Education and Lifelong Learning presents a series of research seminars from five key speakers in the field of Education. The first will be given by Dr Jude Fransman, Leverhulme Research Fellow at the Open University who will look at existing and innovative approaches to strengthening global research networks that now characterise our academic landscapes.
This seminar responds to a recent drive promoting large and complex (trans-national, cross-sectoral and mutli-disciplinary) research partnership to produce more relevant and impactful research. It argues that such partnerships might be improved by moving beyond institutions; beyond instrumentalism; beyond linear, short-term projects; beyond research production and communication; beyond traditional outputs; and beyond notions of ‘effectiveness’ and ‘success’ and explores the role of educational technologies in supporting these shifts.
Sandwiches and canapes will be provided at 6.30pm. All seminars are free to attend and open to the public but booking is essential as places are limited. Please email: edu.support@uea.ac.uk
The Norwich Bubble Rush is back! Help us make it the best one yet and cover Earlham Park in coloured bubbles.
The course features four Bubble Stations along the 2.5km route, you can do one lap or double your enjoyment by completing the circuit twice to make 5km. Each Bubble Station has a cannon which pumps out coloured foam to create a 4ft deep bubble bath! There are three wave times for you to choose from:
Purple Wave – 11 am
Blue Wave – 11:30 am
Orange wave – 12 pm
Every course is family friendly, so you can run, jog, walk, dance or toddle through the foam. Pushchairs and wheelchairs are more than welcome! The events are not timed, so you’re not racing anyone – the most important thing is that you enjoy your time in the bubbles and finish with a big smile on your face – and everyone gets a medal included in their ticket!
There’s no official fundraising target for Bubble Rush, but we ask all of our participants to try and raise a minimum of £15.00. By doing so, you’ll help EACH to provide specialist care and support for children with life threatening conditions.
Please be assured we will make the event safe for everyone involved and in-line with the very latest government advice. We are confident the events will be able to go ahead however, if we are forced to postpone any events due to the impact of coronavirus, you will receive a full refund if you are unable to attend the new date. You can read through our Covid safety plans here, which we will continue to keep up to date.
‘Coffee Means Business – relaxed, informal business networking for all local businesses. No membership, no pressure, just great networking over coffee.
Programme: · 9:30 am – help yourself to coffees and teas, meet with other businesses · 10.00 am – a welcome from Genix · 10.05am – time for more conversation · 10.30 am – short presentations from local businesses · 10.40am – who will you meet? · 11:30 am – time to go…
Bring plenty of business cards!
“The most cost-effective networking I have ever done”.
For more details call us on 0800 096 3013 or email info@genix.org.uk
If you are interested in history but haven’t studied for a while then the part-time History Bridge Course is for you.
This 12-week evening course has been designed to ‘bridge’ the gap for those looking to progress on to an undergraduate degree in History, but who have, for a wide range of reasons, had a break from their studies.
To find out more information, visit our Open Evening on Tuesday 12 December from 6-8pm.
Do you have a great idea for a new business? A business plan can help you think things through to maximise your chances of success.
About this Event
Do you have a great idea for a new business? Putting together a business plan can help you think things through to maximise your chances of success.
In this Spotlight workshop, experienced MENTA business trainer and businessman John Clarke takes you through the important elements of a business plan. You’ll be shown how to use well-proven formats to write a professional looking document and you’ll be given the opportunity to discuss your own particular ideas with tips on establishing and growing your business.
Topics covered:
Business plan structure
Top tips on presentation
How to undertake market research
Legal considerations such as the difference between limited company and sole trader status, business names and working from home
How to develop a marketing strategy
An introduction to presenting the finances
The course will also include a business plan template and professional financial spreadsheet – so if you’re thinking of starting a business, book yourself a ticket!
This one hour session is free but booking is essential.
This session will be held remotely, and you do not need to visit a library to attend. Once registered we will send out details on how to join the event nearer the time.
For more information about any of our events, please email the BIPC team at bipcnorfolk@norfolk.gov.uk or telephone 01603 774708