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Industry News
ScotGov: Scottish businesses of all sizes and in all sectors are to be given the opportunity to receive £1,000 to take on a new Apprentice. The latest strand of the 'Invest in an Apprentice' scheme and a national marketing campaign was announced ahead of the recent Jobs Summit - Keep Scotland Working in Glasgow.
The £4m scheme is time limited and will run from 11 January – 26 March 2010, reflecting views from employers & companies who say they need help now. The incentive is available for up to 4,000 employers.
Socitm: Underperforming websites could be costing UK councils collectively up to £11m a month as people unsuccessful in accessing online information & services turn instead to other, more expensive-to-service channels like the phone or walk-in contact centres. This finding comes from data collected in September 2009 by Socitm Insight’s Website Takeup service, and is published in its latest Customer Access Improvement Service briefing.
Socitm: Socitm Consulting has announced that the Welsh Assembly Government (acting on behalf of the Public Sector Directors of Finance Network) has commissioned it to deliver extended benchmarking services to up to 140 public sector bodies in Wales, including local authorities, emergency services, education services, NHS services and central government agencies based in Wales.
Socitm Consulting will be organising the benchmarking of participating organisations’ HR, Finance, ICT, Estates and Procurement functions against the Welsh Audit Agencies’ Value for Money indicators. Socitm Consulting experts will consolidate & analyse the raw data collected, publish a series of reports on the various functions, and then work with participants to identify best practice and help identify areas for improvement.
Press release ~ Socitm Consulting – Benchmarking services and Best Value ~ Value For Money in public sector corporate services - A joint project by the UK Public Sector Audit Agencies ~ CIPFA/KPMG VfM Indicators Website ~ Wales Audit Office
Ofgem: Almost 20,000 households could be connected to the mains gas networkdue to new partnerships between gas distribution networks (GDNs) and agencies that provide grants for central heating systems or help to make homes more energy efficient.
All 4 of Britain’s gas distribution networks have set up partnership agreements, approved by energy regulator Ofgem, allowing them to extend the network to fuel poor customers that currently rely on electricity, coal or fuel oil to heat their homes.
LDA: CompeteFor, the online 'business dating' website, is celebrating its second birthday with the 5,000th business opportunity advertised on the service since its launch in January 2008. It was designed by the London Development Agency (with the London Business Network and London 2012) to give SMEs the chance to go for contract opportunities arising from the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Together with the Olympic authorities and their main contractors, more than 600 'buying organisations' are now placing opportunities on CompeteFor.
Over 100,000 businesses across the UK have registered on CompeteFor to take advantage of the 5,000 opportunities ranging from printing to event management contracts and from training to abseiling services. Around 74% of contracts awarded have been placed with SME businesses and 18% of them have gone to businesses with 10 or less staff.
DCMS: In a press release issued on behalf of the Independently Funded News Consortia pilot Selection Panel, it has been announced that 8 consortia have been successful in the first phase of the selection process for IFNC pilots. 3 bids in Wales, 2 bids in Scotland and 3 bids in the Tyne Tees/Borders region met the published evaluation criteria and will now go through to the next stage of the procurement process.
MoD: Contracts worth £333M have been awarded by the Aircraft Carrier Alliance (ACA) to companies across the country to help to build the Royal Navy's new Queen Elizabeth Class aircraft carriers. 5 sub-contracts have been awarded to suppliers from Glasgow to Portsmouth for equipment to be installed on the ships and services for their assembly, bringing the total value of sub-contracts awarded so far on the programme to almost £1.1bn.
The 2 future aircraft carriers will form the cornerstone of the UK's Naval capability and will be the largest, most capable & powerful warships ever constructed in the UK. They will be a highly versatile and potent joint defence asset, able to meet the widest range of tasks around the world throughout their expected service life of around 50 years.
OS: The Welsh Assembly Government is one of the first organisations to sign up for Ordnance Survey’s new digital mapping product, OS VectorMap Local. The data will be used by the WAG to create geographic ‘mash-ups’ to support a range of activities; from new planning guidance for mineral resources & aggregates to safeguarding to rural payments and flood & river modelling. The agreement covers mapping data for the whole of Wales, as well as a buffer into England.
OS: A giant floor map the size of two badminton courts; a phone application that pinpoints locally produced, seasonal food; and a public climate change web portal are among the ideas shortlisted in the GeoVation Awards Programme.
GeoVation – an online initiative supported by mapping agency Ordnance Survey – aims to help individuals, businesses & communities bring their map‑based ideas to life. The Awards Programme, launched in October 2009, has attracted over 300 members and generated more than 220 ideas or ventures.
8 of those ideas have now been shortlisted by the judging panel, which includes Yahoo’s Gary Gale and Steve Coast of OpenStreetMap, and they will have the chance to win part of a £21,000 development fund at a ‘Dragons’ Den’ style event on 26 January 2010 at the Royal Geographical Society, London.
Newswire – IDeA: Local authority planning officers can help to kick-start local regeneration programmes by using their powers to allow developments to go ahead without the need for a planning application, if they can see that proposals meet previously agreed criteria. The process is called 'Local Development Orders'.
5 pilot programmes are already underway, and now the government wants up to another 7 local authorities to come forward to be the next phase of pilots. The deadline for initial expressions of interest is 8 February 2010 and funds will be available from April 2010 to help them.
The initiative is being managed by the Planning Advisory Service (PAS) - part of the Improvement and Development Agency (IDeA) - and the work is funded by Communities and Local Government (CLG).
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