report by Sarah Steel

In October 4 members of BWL took part in a 100km trek along the Great Wall of China, to raise funds for charity. Nicki Gray (Best of Lincoln), Katherine Armstrong-Short (Style Guide) and Sarah Steel (The Old Station Nursery) raised over £5000 for Macmillan Cancer Support and Emma Kershaw (Trading Standards) raised over £3000 for St Barnabas Hospice.

 

 

Enormous thanks must go to everyone who sponsored the trekkers and helped them to raise such a fantastic total for great causes, whilst having the experience of a lifetime. If anyone out there is tempted to try something similar do have a look at www.discoveradventure.com - you won't regret it!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

College Wins Top Award For Working With Employers - report from Rachel May

 

 

Lincoln College has been recognised with a national award for its work on training for those in employment.  It joins a select group of Further Education Colleges nationally who have achieved the Training Quality Standard, the ‘kitemark’ in this sector. The Training Quality Standard (TQS) recognises and celebrates the best organisations delivering training to employers.

 

 

The award comes after a rigorous assessment period.  Several hundred companies current training through the College were approached by TQS and asked to comment on the quality of the service they had received.  The College’s success demonstrates that this feedback was extremely positive. Three major strands of evaluation focussed on responsiveness, flexibility and expertise.

 

 

The College was judged on its performance track record and customer endorsements.  One Lincoln based company that has seen the benefit that training offers is the Gelder Group.  Training Manager Mike Johnson commented, “We were happy to be approached by TQS to talk about our experience of training with Lincoln College.  We have worked with them over a period of many years and have always been happy with their excellent service and the training we have received”.

 

 

Claire Kempson of The University of Nottingham has also seen the benefit of training: “Lincoln College has enabled us to offer our staff a wide range of NVQs.  Through work-based learning, staff who have traditionally shied away from learning have been given an opportunity to gain a nationally recognised qualification in their area of work.  The impact on our organisation has been very positive; not only are our staff NVQ qualified, they feel confident and valued as employees”.

 

 

But it is not only large companies who stand to benefit, Brook and Mayo based in Lincoln with 45 employees have also benefited from training.  General Manager, Paul Scattergood commented “During a recession, companies can be tempted to cut training for staff but we have found that investing at this time is crucial.  Not only do we need highly qualified skilled electricians to help with gaining contracts, investing in our managers has increased the leadership skills that are essential to remain ahead of the competition”.

 

 

Rachel May, Director of Employer Engagement at Lincoln College said, “One of our key strengths is that our first task is to sit down with the company and understand how they want to maintain or grow their business, and the skills they will need to make this happen.  We then identify where there are skills shortages and put in place an action plan for the company to move forward”.

 

 

Principal of Lincoln College, John Allen said, “We are thrilled that the good work we do with employers has been recognised with this prestigious national award.  I hope this accolade will encourage even more companies to approach the College to see how training can help to achieve their business objectives.  This national initiative is a great way for employers to decide who to use for their training needs, as the quality of the training provided is assured”.

Don't believe everything you read!

I was idly flicking through my e-mails in October when I found one of the many marketing e-mails I get from SAGE, who provide all my business accounting and payroll software.  Usually I send them on to my lovely Finance Manager, in the hope that she will find them more interesting than me, but on this occasion the headline ‘Return of TV’s toughest game show’ caught my eye and I found myself clicking on a link that took me through to ITV’s website and an article about the return of the Krypton Factor after a 13 year break.  SAGE are sponsoring the new series, hence their involvement. 

A couple of days later I had a call from the Krypton Factor team and to cut a long story short, found myself in a very wet and windy wood in North Yorkshire at the end of November, taking part in a fairly muddy and demanding assault course.

I should at this stage confess that after 7 years in the Army (in a former life) I wasn’t too phased by this, but was pleasantly surprised by how unfit my (at least 10 years younger) male contestants were!

Overall it was a good challenge, as it’s always good to push yourself to try something new – and my 2 children were chuffed to bits to be filmed as part of the background brief and thought it was quite cool to watch Mummy on the TV!  We also got some great business PR out of it, with several articles in the local press and 6 local radio interviews. However, I have to confess to being hugely relieved that I didn’t make it through to the semi-finals, as the prospect of spending another 3 days of my life away filming, plus all that stress was less than appealing. Instead, it has been filed away as a ‘for posterity’ experience and will serve as a good reminder that junk e-mails should really be deleted without reading…..!