During National Apprenticeship Week we look how senior Low Level Waste Repository Ltd (LLWR) executives benefitted greatly from apprenticeships as teenagers. Two of LLWR’s most senior personnel are fine adverts for what can be achieved by going down the apprenticeship route after leaving school. CEO Designate Martin Walkingshaw and Becky Ruddy, Head of Infrastructure, were both given a solid grounding in the nuclear industry as Sellafield apprentices. Martin, currently Deputy CEO, hailed his apprenticeship with British Nuclear Fuels as a “great foundation” for his subsequent career. Martin said, “I occasionally tease people who went down the university route that when…
Author: sme-admin
The government has today announced the appointment of Sir Kevan Collins as the government’s Education Recovery Commissioner, to oversee a comprehensive programme of catch-up aimed at young people who have lost out on learning due to the pandemic. The reopening of schools is a national priority. The Prime Minister recognises that school closures have had a huge impact on children’s learning and has pledged to work with parents, teachers and schools to develop a long-term plan to make sure pupils have the chance to make up their learning over the course of this Parliament. Sir Kevan will lead this work.…
Investment group MML Capital has announced it has invested £40m into Western Global, the leading provider of industrial liquid storage and dispensing solutions. The deal represents the latest in a series of transactions which has seen MML successfully complete 15 transactions in the last 12 months. Founded as a family business in the UK, Western Global has grown impressively expanding across Europe and North America. Today, Western Global is the leading provider of portable tanks and dispensing equipment for the storage and handling of fuels, lubricants and other fluids. With safety and the environment high on its agenda, Western Global…
More than 150 companies have now signed up to be a part of Highways England’s A303 Amesbury to Berwick Down upgrade past Stonehenge.The company launched the A303 Stonehenge business directory in December, extending an invite for small and medium-sized businesses to get involved in the transformational dualling scheme and tunnel project, and in less than two months a total of 161 companies are now registered – half of those from the Wiltshire locality. A virtual Meet the Buyer event was held on 21 January, in which more than 130 people heard from Highways England’s project team and preliminary works contractors…
Construction work has started on an innovative scheme to improve Tilbury’s flood defences with the installation of new dual function flood lock gates. In a project of national importance, the existing port lock gates will be replaced with pioneering dual function lock gates, and the Environment Agency’s tidal barrier will be removed. This is a major joint project between the Environment Agency and The Port of Tilbury that will safeguard thousands of homes and businesses in the local area. Work started in January and is expected to last for 18 months with the new lock gates planned for installation in…
Highways England has awarded Jacobs the £162.5m Integration Partner contract which will see the company act as a catalyst for collaboration between Highways England and the Lower Thames Crossing’s three main works contracts responsible for delivering the most ambitious road scheme in a generation. The Lower Thames Crossing will improve journeys by almost doubling road capacity across the Thames east of London, with 14.3 miles of new road featuring two 2.6-mile-long tunnels. The scheme will help to unlock a wealth of economic benefits by supporting over 22,000 jobs during construction and creating better connections to the region’s ports, distribution hubs…
The UK Government has today, Monday 1st February, signed a deal for a further 40 million doses of Valneva’s promising vaccine candidate. The deal takes the total number of Valneva vaccines to 100 million and means that the UK has now secured early access to over 400 million total doses of vaccines for 2021 and 2022. The 100 million doses of Valneva vaccine will be manufactured at Valneva’s site in West Lothian, Scotland, supporting 100 highly-skilled jobs. The decision to purchase 40 million extra doses is based on the UK’s strategy to take a wide approach, using different technologies and…
A Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) co-ordinated global review of randomly selected websites has so far found that 40% of green claims made online could be misleading consumers. The International Consumer Protection Enforcement Network (ICPEN) hosts an annual sweep of websites, which gives consumer authorities across the world the opportunity to target fraudulent, deceptive or unfair conduct online. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) and The Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) led the latest sweep, focusing on misleading environmental claims for the first time. This comes as the CMA’s own investigation into misleading environmental claims is ongoing, to better understand…
Leading UK business advisory firm, FRP Advisory, has helped in supporting the future of aerospace manufacturing in the South West having organised the sale of a group of supply chain businesses out of administration. Andrew Sheridan and Jonathan Dunn, Partner and Director in the Restructuring Advisory team, were appointed Joint Administrators of AVPE Investments Ltd, and of Avon Valley Precision Engineering Limited and Redcliffe Precision Limited. Headquartered in Bitton, Bristol, AVPE Investments Ltd acted as parent company to aerospace component manufacturers, Avon Valley Precision Engineering, and Redcliffe Precision and to AVPE Durham, an engineering business with a broader sector focus.…
New £1000 cash support for businesses to help with the cost of providing a traineeship. Employers can now apply for a £1000 cash boost to help them take on new trainees, Apprenticeships and Skills Minister, Gillian Keegan has announced today (27 January). The new scheme will support young people to gain the skills and experience they need from the very start, helping them to get a job, an apprenticeship, or pursue further study. The cash boost – which is available until 31 July 2021 – will help businesses with the cost of providing a high-quality work placement for a trainee. This includes…