Welcome from Cllr Martin Watson
Hello and welcome to the June edition of Warwickshire Means Business.
Skills are very much to the forefront of this month’s edition with a number of articles outlining support delivered by our excellent team at Warwickshire Skills Hub in collaboration with partners in the region.
We feature the Electrification Skills Network which is at the heart of meeting the challenges of ensuring that businesses have access to all the skills they need as technology gallops forward. Whether you are an employer, a training provider or in education, please have a read and see how you can get involved.
Apprenticeships will always be a core way to train and upskill employees. We bring the story of how Hertz Electrical Contractors, in Rugby, is preparing its workforce perfectly for the future with the support of Warwickshire County Council’s Future Apprenticeships: Salary Support Programme.
We also feature the very positive way in which business are getting involved with Warwickshire Careers Hub projects to make a real difference to the lives of young people. The Teacher Encounters programme has proved a great success while students throughout Warwickshire are gaining valuable guidance in all sorts of sectors from the Career Hub’s pool of Enterprise Advisors. These include our own Brian Halford, editor of Warwickshire Means Business, an accomplished sports journalist of longstanding, who will attend The Polesworth School’s careers fair next week.
In this edition we also celebrate the 20th anniversary of Coventry & Warwickshire Reinvestment Trust which does such wonderful work on behalf of SMEs across the region. Many congratulations to all the team at CWRT and I look forward to the County Council working with them to support small businesses far into the future. Their impact is sure to be an enduring component of the Warwickshire Economic Growth Strategy, of which the Delivery Plan is featured in this issue.
Atherstone, where the Big Weekender earlier this month was an outstanding success, is featured in our Talk Up Our Towns section. Our Guest Columnist, Evie Baker, argues that our county and region’s rise as a creative powerhouse has well and truly busted the myth that London has a monopoly on creativity and innovation. We reflect on well-attended recent skills and business events in Coleshill and Nuneaton and, also from Nuneaton, hear how a forward-thinking start-up is blossoming thanks to Business Ready support.
All this plus comprehensive round ups of the latest news-in-brief and upcoming events and much more, including all the links to need for information about all available business support, in our June edition.
MARTIN