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The Armed Coventry training provider growing after successful 2020 despite pandemic Forces Covenant is good for business A ‘Call to Arms’ to all Employers and Businesses… Our mission; to encourage businesses to sign the Armed Forces Covenant! Why? Because pledging support for the Armed Forces Covenant (AFC) makes sound business sense. Aligning values to those of the Armed Forces Covenant can bring tangible rewards, both hard and soft, and we are keen to see if we can accelerate the rate of awareness amongst businesses and organisations from Coventry & Warwickshire who are business leaders and can influence. As members of the Chamber, YOU ARE THAT COHORT! Businesses strive to recruit applicants who can demonstrate good leadership and resilience, who possess skills in organisation, communication, problem solving and teamwork, as well as demonstrating a strong work ethic. Members of the Armed Forces community, which not only includes Service leavers, Reservists and veterans, but also military spouses and those that volunteer to support the nation’s Cadet Forces, all have these key personal attributes. Members of the Armed Forces are trained in a variety of diverse trades, which can help add value to your workforce. At the West Midland Reserve Forces & Cadets Association we build and maintain relationships with employers in the region by creating strategic partnerships. Promoting the skills that our Armed Forces community can bring to your business and encouraging employers to cement this partnership through the Armed Forces Covenant: a voluntary pledge, which builds a two-way relationship between business and Defence By supporting the Armed Forces in any or all of these ways, you are supporting and directly contributing to the UK’s Defence operational capability and its people agenda, in a positive and extremely valuable way. When you do so Defence is keen to reward and recognise that support through their Employer Recognition Scheme, but more about that in a future edition! If you would like to learn more, please contact our Regional Employer Engagement Director, Bobby Birdi via wm-reed@rfca.mod.uk
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A leading Midlands training provider is set to build on virtual development with some very real growth in 2021. Coventry-based PET-Xi is to expand its team across the UK with eight new senior roles, after a successful 2020 despite the disruption caused by the pandemic. The firm works with adults and young people in schools to teach them key skills to help them find quality work and fulfil their potential. But over the last year, PET-Xi has had to adapt massively to the challenges posed by the coronavirus crisis. It moved much of its training work online by developing its own virtual learning environment, with features that allowed for better interactions between trainers and trainees than were available on standard platforms. PET-Xi loaned out more than 750 laptops to leaners who were not able to access the virtual learning environment from their homes. It meant that more than 400 adult learners found work after completing PET-Xi’s courses, and more than 1,000 young people took part in NEET (not in employment, education, or training) programmes.
PET-Xi’s support in training people during the pandemic also saw it awarded a UK Business Heroes Stamp after being nominated by the Coventry and Warwickshire Chamber of Commerce. Its commitment to quality online learning has seen the firm finish 2020 in a stronger position that initially expected, and it is now adding to its team to reflect that success. Simon Fitzgerald, Head of Funding at PET-Xi, said: “Like many other businesses, the pandemic forced us to find new ways of doing things to keep going. “A year ago, we were planning on improving our online capabilities to give our trainees more options when it came to accessing our courses. “This ended up being a crucial decision when the country went into lockdown and the pandemic caused all sorts of problems for our trainees. “Thanks to our specialist virtual learning environment, we have been able to deliver our courses to trainees remotely without compromising on the quality of our teaching. “With further demand for our services because of the upheaval caused by COVID-19, it was especially important that we were able to find a way to help as many people as we could.
“Because we were able to use our online platform successfully, we are now in a position to strengthen what we have at PET-Xi by creating eight new jobs to help bolster our company. “Receiving the UK Business Heroes Stamp was a lovely surprise too – it’s really nice to be recognised like that after such a tough year. “We’re very proud of our success in 2020 and we hope to continue to help as many people as we can get the skills they need to get back into work as we head into 2021.”
How can an intellectual property audit help your business? Pure Ideas recently carried out an IP Audit with a Warwickshire based company called torcProtective Ltd. The audit is to help them identify the intellectual property within their growing business portfolio and how best to protect and commercialise this to meet their future growth plans. One way that we assist clients with an audit is via the IP Audits Plus Scheme, which gives financial support to businesses who are looking to identify opportunities across all aspects of their IP. The scheme covers the “lions share” of the Audit costs (providing you meet the criteria) and gives your business a really
good insight into all of the intellectual property that you own and what you should consider protecting for the future. We often find that business owners are unaware of the commercial value of their intellectual property. Our advice is that you carry out a simple audit of your company’s intellectual property to check that you are properly protected. This can be from the more obvious things like patents and trademarks to discussing licensing opportunities. This is what the CEO of torcProtective Ltd had to say: “We have now worked with several members of the Pure Ideas team following our other Company being granted
a European Patent. The whole experience to date has been a very enjoyable one with their approach being very personable but still extremely professional and instructive whether that be handling the validation process or discussing a range of IP opportunities going forward. I would be very happy to recommend the services offered by Pure Ideas to any company contemplating entering the Intellectual Property minefield.” Gary Blundell CEO, torcProtective Ltd & torc2 Ltd If you would like to find out more, please contact Pure Ideas. Katia.douglas@pure-ideas.co.uk www.pure-ideas.co.uk
Glide Group strengthens leadership team
Glide Group, a market leader in ultra-fast broadband connectivity and deployment of fibre infrastructure, has announced the senior leadership appointments of Sean Lowry and Phil Duggan. Sean joins as group chief technology officer (CTO) and
Phil Duggan takes on the role of chief operating officer (COO). Sean joins Glide having previously worked in the student broadband industry at Keycom and most recently as CTO at business internet service provider, Solar Communications. In his new role as group CTO, his experience will complement all of Glide’s market segments: student, residential and business. He will lead and direct Glide’s product innovation, future technology strategies, and software development and data insights. Sean said: “I am confident that our team will continue to grow our fibre footprint rapidly whilst driving innovation and change which the UK deserves.”
Phil Duggan has more than 25 years’ experience deploying and maintaining large infrastructure projects at large tier one carriers. In his new role at Glide, he will be responsible for all operations including logistics, provisioning, fibre delivery, field maintenance and customer services. He said: “I am excited to be joining the Glide Group at a time where best-inclass connectivity is more important than ever. I look forward to helping our team deliver a superior customer experience to UK and European customers.” Tim Pilcher, Glide Group CEO, said: “We are delighted to have Sean and Phil joining us here at Glide during this
exciting growth period. They both have outstanding backgrounds in the fibre sector, plus a strong track record of outstanding operational performance. “We look forward to scaling our business growth to meet the flourishing fibre demand in 2021 and beyond.”
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