Waterfly

THE WATERFLY SEES THE REFLECTION IN THE WATER. IT TAKES NOTE AS THE WATER SHIFTS. HERE’S THE LATEST GOSSIP FROM THE EDUCATION AND EMPLOYABILITY SECTORS

PPE or simply continuing to generate tax revenues. They demonstrated the entrepreneurial spirit we will need to get through these tough times and they deserve our support and praise.’ But in channelling the entrepreneurial spirit of his next-door neighbour, has Hancock gone a step too far? Hunt didn’t say.

when he heard about Kickstart, but was put off from applying altogether.

“When I actually started to look into it, I saw that you needed 30 people, had to go via Job Centre Plus, and didn’t know who you were going to get. Businesses way bigger than mine have been put off by it,” he said.

Uneventful times

Spare a thought for the live events industry. Waterfly spoke to its leading light Hamish Jenkinson, the brilliantly imaginative founder of The Department. His last job before the pandemic struck was to plan a party for Facebook for 5,000 people in a circus big top tent in Dublin.

That seems a long time ago. Jenkinson tells Waterfly that “Rishi Sunak’s announcement in March 2020 - that £12 billion would be made available to help the arts - was the point I realised that it wouldn’t help an agency like ours.”

That night, Jenkinson went home and watched Contagion: “It gave me an indication of the situation we were facing.” Things began spiralling downwards from there. “I went into the office to let half of the team know they would be made redundant,” he says.

“That took its toll personally.”

But were there positives? The pandemic also afforded Jenkinson the time to “raise investment for, and start planning, a new immersive experience”.

Immersive theatre, according to Jenkinson, was already becoming “the dominant entertainment experience, outside of the superstar touring experiences”.

“I firmly believe that we will experience our own Roaring Twenties after the pandemic is over, much like the world did after the last great pandemic, which saw an explosion of culture and creativity.” May that be so.

Google it Gaps in access to education continue to worry Chair of the Education Select Committee Robert Halfon MP, especially when it comes to the availability of crucial technology.

“The government has supplied around 600-700,000 computers already, but it’s taken a very long time,” he tells Waterfly

Part of the reason for this has been that they’ve had to buy thousands of laptops and get them made from scratch, which they say is a “really difficult thing to do”. So what would Halfon recommend?

“Personally I would have just given teachers vouchers, or picked Google Chrome books instead of Microsoft computers, which cost less and don’t need special software.” Page 1-Gates 0.

In sickness and in health

Jeremy Hunt has not only watched as the health secretary Matt Hancock has conducted his old job, as Chair of the Health Select Committee, he’s also scrutinising his performance of it. “I certainly don’t envy him,” Hunt tells Waterfly, adding that he gets job satisfaction from the new role. “I can hopefully make a difference to the way the government handles the coronavirus pandemic and I can continue to work on areas I’m passionate about like patient safety and mental health. So I wouldn’t swap positions with him no!”

And what role should business leaders play? “Those who have found innovative ways to keep going during the crisis not only served their customers and staff well but the country as a whole, whether that was through supplying critical

Collectively Concerned

Tough times for the gym business. But Core Collective Gyms CEO Jason de Savary, a company which has sites in Kensington, Knightsbridge and St John’s Wood, explains why online provision is attractive to customers: “People like to feel that someone is watching them or that they’re there with other people, it keeps them a bit more accountable.”

But the future, he says, is still in the gym. “Just being in one place can feel imprisoning, you eat at home, work at home and exercise at home. It can be very depressing.”

And it’s hard for de Savary to stay connected to the workforce. Core Collective works with freelance trainers, and many freelancers have found it difficult to access government support.

“It’s tricky,” de Savary admits.

“The reason they’re freelance is because they have their own personal training businesses and other incomes so we can’t do anything for them, but they do seem to be coping well. We do weekly check-in’s and group workouts together.” Dust off that gym bag then.

A major comparison

Professor Lee Elliot Major, the UK’s only social mobility professor, makes the point to Waterfly that it’s not about the apprenticeships you can create but how you react to them: “In terms of the links between education and the workplace, we pale in comparison to most other education systems: Australia has, for instance, developed much stronger vocational options and headteachers celebrate the students who get really good apprenticeships as much as those who go to top universities.” Major adds: “We still suffer from a cultural assumption that academic success is somehow the be-all and end-all.” Touché.

Kickstarting Kickstart

Waterfly has discovered that since Kickstart began, many potential placements have been jammed in a slow process which stopped small businesses from applying directly for funding; instead, they’ve had to bunch together and apply via a mediator.

Ben Taylor, founder of a home working portal called HomeWorking Club, was keen to give young people a chance to learn the ropes of internet marketing

Those who did proceed experienced difficulties. Bay Burdett, founder and CEO of food provider Bay’s Kitchen, experienced a “huge delay” in the process. “We sent our application in October and were told we should hear back in four weeks,” says Burdett. “We heard nothing, and then in December we got a generic email from Adecco, our chosen gateway provider. We’re only just managing to get the ad live this week.” Something for Rishi Sunak to mull over during the summer.

The art of nursing

In an original response to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic the Barber Institute of Fine Arts, founded in 1932 by Lady Barber, is set to become the first ever museum with its own “Nurse in Residence”. In a creative twist on the familiar concept of the artist-in-residence the organisation will welcome Jane Nicol, Senior Lecturer at the University of Birmingham’s School of Nursing and a registered nurse who has specialised in palliative and end of life care. Art is sometimes described as a healer, but during a pandemic it makes sense to plump for the real thing.

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