Welcome from Mark Ryder

Hello and welcome to the April edition of Warwickshire Means Business.

At the heart of all the business and skills support delivered by Warwickshire County Council is the objective to drive ambitious, sustainable and inclusive growth across the county. This month’s edition of WMB contains plenty of examples.

It’s great to report that Warwick Castle has become a Fair Chance Employer, underlining the commitment of Merlin Entertainments, owners of the castle, to inclusive recruitment and employment practices.

The castle recently hosted a number of customers of Warwickshire Supported Employment Service (WSES) and opened up their eyes to employment possibilities.

WSES, delivered by Warwickshire Skills Hub, does so much brilliant work and it’s inspiring to read the personal journey of Emma, one of the service’s customers. WSES thoroughly deserves the accreditation they were recently awarded from the British Association of Supported Employment.

Also in this edition of WMB we hear how sustainable growth in the Coventry & Warwickshire region will be promoted at the UKREiif event next month, and how Alcester pottery studio and coffee shop Spotty Pots has become the latest business to improv their energy efficiency and reduced their energy bills thanks to support from the Warwickshire Business Energy Advice Service.  

Our Warwickshire Women in Engineering 2025 series continues with fascinating interviews with Selin Tur, Chief Technology Officer at Williams Grand Prix Technologies, and Julia Rezende Falcao, in the second year of a five-year civil engineering degree apprenticeship here at the County Council.

We hear how Skills Escalator funding has proved invaluable to the growth of Cyber-Weld in Southam and the Smallpeice Trust in Leamington, and how Coleshill beauty salon and training academy, Faces, is targeting growth after receiving support from the Business Growth Warwickshire programme.

We also look ahead to some great events coming up: the Warwickshire Export Roadshow; Interactive Futures; A Guide to the King’s Award for Enterprise.  Those events are featured in detail while there is also the customary round up of all Upcoming Events, as well as the latest news-in-brief in the county.

MARK