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Official opening for Warwick Trident College Centre for Product Creation
A new centre which will train the engineers of the future was officially opened on Friday 11 December at Warwick Trident College. Nick Rogers, Group Director Engineering at Jaguar Land Rover, cut the ribbon to officially open the centre, which has been purpose built to provide capacity to train hundreds of advanced and higher apprentices in the manufacturing, mechanical, electrical, electronic, automotive and product creation sectors. More than 200 apprentices from Jaguar Land Rover and SMEs are already enjoying the industry-standard facilities including engineering workshops, teaching labs, computer labs and specialist engineering
technology labs, which have been tailored to the high quality courses offered by the college. The £3m building was partly funded with £1.3m from the Coventry and Warwickshire Local Enterprise Partnership, the first Skills Capital project funded by the Growth Deal. The event also saw Warwickshire College Group announced as a partner in the Jaguar Land Rover Academy, alongside University of Warwick and EEF. This new academy defines career development programmes for all employees and aims to provide the skills the company needs. Angela Joyce, Group Principal and CEO at Warwickshire College Group said: “Our role as a college group is to support the local economy,
to meet the skills and educational needs of our localities and apprentices are key to this. We now have even more capacity to train the engineers of the future that the country needs.” Richard Hutchins, board lead of the Jobs & Skills Business Group at the CWLEP and director of Jaguar Land Rover Programmes at WMG, said: “The Growth Deal is investing in schemes across Coventry and Warwickshire and the opening of Warwick Trident College will help to improve the skills of the next generation of apprentices in the area. “Improving technical and engineering skills is one of the CWLEP’s key strategies and the skills the students learn will prove beneficial in their careers as well as providing employers with work-ready employees. “The facilities at the college are fantastic and will further enhance Coventry and Warwickshire’s reputation as a world-class area in advanced manufacturing and engineering.” Nick Rogers Group Director Engineering spoke at the event, which was attended by many of the Jaguar Land Rover apprentices who study at the new centre. He spoke of his own apprenticeship journey, saying: "I'm really proud to be able to open this centre. It is fantastic to see so much young talent and, having begun my own career as an apprentice, it's great that we now have 750 Jaguar Land Rover apprentices working with us."
Bit10 expand their digital offering through ‘10 Digital Studio’ Midlands-based award-winning digital agency bit10 is expanding their portfolio with the introduction of new services and a key International affinity partner under their newly created department called ‘10 Digital.’ 10 Digital has been created with a focus on digital marketing and communications and technology and will incorporate strategic and traditional digital marketing services, including search engine optimization, e-mail marketing, display, pay per click and content, together with technology solutions in augmented reality, 360 video capture and micro-location technology. In addition, 10 Digital will offer express ‘digital on the go’ services, enabling clients to mix and match services and to hire their digital experts for the day to investigate, analyse and solve their digital marketing problems, whilst providing a strategy for the future. The agency has seen a huge rise in business over the past year with a clear focus on user and customer experience through web, digital marketing and communications - and by building on its services and developing a strategic partnership with Localz, the leaders in using location technology, will ensure that it is
in pinnacle position in providing the best digital solutions for its clients. Localz, founded in Melbourne, Australia with its base in London provides the bridge between the physical and digital world delivering microlocation technology that triggers actions and notifications across multi-platforms and provides a greater user experience. The company set up by banking technologists to build robust and scalable solutions for enterprise will integrate its innovative technology with BIT 10’s solutions to deliver a greater holistic experience and customer journey for their clients. Mick McLaughlin, who is Head of Digital Marketing, Bit 10, said, "We are delighted to introduce our new services and partnership with Localz, the leaders in using location technology. “Digital and innovation are key drivers for Bit10’s strategy and with the introduction of our 10 Digital studio and by working closely with Localz we can provide greater user experiences allowing for a smarter online and offline journey.
“We are looking forward to sharing our creativity, enthusiasm, passion and innovative solutions to drive brands, increase engagement and generate real return on investment for our customers.” Jason Parnwell, Sales & Business Development at Localz, said: “We are excited to work with Bit10 as they understand the need to provide a seamless user journey from online to offline. “Bit10’s vision keeps their clients ahead of the pack by incorporating location technology to enable great user experiences."
Safeguarding vulnerable people Following the death of Olive Simcock, an elderly Staffordshire lady in a fatal house fire in 2006, the Olive Branch initiative was launched. The aim of the initiative was to help prevent unnecessary deaths like Olive’s by helping the Fire Service, Social Care and Health Service to work more closely together. It was determined that service managers and home visitors should be equipped with the essential tools, training and skills they would need to be the “eyes and ears” for partner organisations. Coventry company , E-Learning Studios, the leaders in learning technology created a training solution for Let’s Work Together in partnership with Staffordshire Public Services featuring an interactive, educational and stimulating e-learning course. Utilising leading virtual reality technology, E-Learning Studios created an innovative and engaging course which incorporated animations, 3D virtual home visits, interactive scenarios, real life stories and interactive activities, all designed to stimulate the learner and provide enhanced practical “real life” scenarios. The course featured five modules covering a variety of risks that home visitors may observe within a client’s home and how and who to refer clients to once the risks have been identified. The virtual reality element also allows the home visitors to learn through experience by being immersed in a “real life” environment. Sandra Payne, Let’s Work Together Project Manager, Support Staffordshire (Lichfield & District) said: “Working with E-Learning Studios has been invaluable in creating a really informative, engaging and interactive training solution to educate all partner organisations’ staff and volunteers with the essential skills they need, to enable them to support and signpost local people to help them live healthy and independent lives.” Nitin Thakrar, Managing Director, E-Learning Studios added: “We are delighted to work with Let’s Work Together, providing an engaging, informative, interactive cost effective learning solution to help identify vulnerable situations - we’re honoured to be part of the cause and an incredibly important partnership.”
In words and pictures After meeting at the C&W Expo in March, Tantamount CEO Gwyneth Box and Firefly photographer Jay Deeley were both sure there must be projects they could work on together. The apps and digital brochures that Tantamount produce are a perfect vehicle for show-casing high quality photographs - precisely Jay's speciality. Gwyneth is also working on expanding another side of Tantamount, offering complete digital and brand image services to writers, artists and other freelance professionals via authorbranding.co.uk. A poet herself, Gwyneth knows that time spent
www.cw-chamber.co.uk
learning technicalities eats into creative time: sometimes it's just easier to turn to an expert for help. Combining her writing and business activities, Gwyneth is Council member and digital advisor to the SWWJ, the UK's oldest professional association for women writers, founded in 1894. She has led writing and digital skills workshops for the SWWJ and Tantamount have worked with the Society and its members on projects including graphic design, corporate image and brand collateral for print and web. Seeing Jay snapping the proceedings at #LeamingtonHourLive, it occurred to Gwyneth to ask him to
take pictures at the Society's AGM at the National Liberal Club in London. Jay also does architectural photography and was excited about the “fabulous backdrop” the NLC's Victorian premises offered. His photos of the event will be passed to the Society to add to their extensive archive, which includes pictures of such household names as Joyce Grenfell, Nina Bawden and Vera Brittain. Current membership includes writers from our own area, too, including Nuneaton-based Ann Evans, a prolific journalist and young-adult writer. http://annevansbooks.co.uk
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