Inform

Chamber membership provides access to key information, expert advice and legal protection, enabling you to stay informed, legally compliant and free to focus on what you do best – building your business.

What if your company pension and benefits can support you on your journey to going green?

With the recent COP26 summit in Glasgow, individuals and businesses are more aware than ever before of the impact their choices make on our planet. Recently Steph Butcher, Director at EBCam Ltd, ran a session via the Chamber on how you could use your company pension and benefits to support your business in being greener. Some of the key items we discussed as part of this session are set out below: Benefits to consider that meet the green agenda: • Electric car scheme • Cycle to work scheme • Carbon Offsetting through payroll • Online benefits/total reward statements • Rewarding healthy behaviours with vouchers that could be used to plant trees • Assessing your pension and benefit providers and advisers to see if they are doing their bit?

Considering your pension scheme:

Every company that employs people now must have a company pension arrangement due to the Auto-Enrolment rules however have you ever stopped to consider how this is invested and whether this is in fact funding the climate crisis? Recent studies by Cushon found that the average pension pot finances around 23 tonnes of CO2 emissions a year through its investments (this is the equivalent of burning 1,100 coal fires annually or using 940 propane gas cylinders). In addition, their research found that: • 99.5% of employees have no idea how much carbon their pension contributes • 88% want their employer to take action • 62% would engage more with their pension if it was investing in positive change Pension arrangements investing in things such as fossil fuels or greenhouse gas polluters are causing an issue. Reviewing your pension and its investments are key to ensuring your pension invests in a way that will drive and fund positive change. Please contact sbutcher@ebcam.co.uk should you wish to discuss this further.

Is it time to re-imagine work experience as we traditionally know it?

Work experience in its traditional and simplest form is the perfect opportunity to see if employer and job seeker are mutually suited. While offering the candidate an insight into their chosen career and the chance to enhance their CV, it also gives the employer an opportunity to professionally gauge the capability and suitable of the job seeker. But as recruitment specialist Judith Broughton explores, have the pandemicled challenges of allowing people into the workplace forced a re-think when it comes to hands on work experience? Judith, who works for Peterboroughbased Anne Corder Recruitment, said: “We are all familiar with the benefits of work experience; offering skills and life lessons that cannot be taught in the classroom. “While many job seekers have enjoyed school, college or university placements with employers over many years, the pandemic has forced candidates, employers and recruiters to think again about work experience and explore different ways of measuring and demonstrating skill sets for all parties.” She added: “The lack of opportunity job seekers have had in recent months to physically enter a workplace, or for employers to see their prospects ‘in action’ in the workplace has been, and continues to be frustrating for those looking to gain employment and to recruit right now. “However, there are a number of ways in which job seekers can demonstrate their skills and show off their personality to employers who must also be willing to adapt to new ways.” Candidates can: • Update their CV to demonstrate any lockdown additions to their skillset • Create a LinkedIn profile which adds personality to their credentials • Show they are a team player with evidence of being part of a sports team, music group, community organisation etc. • Prove they have the ability to take a brief and get the job done, through a volunteering placement for example • Demonstrate self-motivation through learning a new skill or embarking on an external course • Show assertiveness through having held a position of responsibility, perhaps as a student council member or club captain. Judith added: “While employers may not have been able to share office space or hands on working time with candidates, there is now an opportunity to get to know them, consider their worth ethic and gain an insight into their personality through measures like role play exercises, work shadowing, re-introducing psychometric testing or even just asking them to answer the phone - personality and being a great fit may be just as important to the business as ability and capability.”

Fully Funded Training for Independent Businesses to Help You Grow

Small and medium sized enterprises in Cambridgeshire can take advantage of free training in a range of areas to upskill their workforce and drive growth. The training courses are delivered as part of the Skills Support for the Workforce (SSW) programme. Eligible businesses can benefit from: • Training needs analysis – identify the skills your employees need to support your business ambitions • Flexible training – pick full qualifications or mix and match individual units to suit your business • On-the-job vocational training - meet individual and business needs

including taught learning, workplace assessment, distance learning and online learning • Learning pathways for your employees - enable them to progress within your organisation onto higher level qualifications or apprenticeships • Recognised accredited qualifications and training courses to enhance your employees’ skills. SSW is co-financed by the European Social Fund (ESF) and the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA), which means you can access a wide range of training at no cost to your business. SSW has a wellestablished network of expert training providers who deliver a range of fully funded training courses and accredited qualifications to help businesses. The courses on offer include: • Digital Marketing • Health & Social Care • Warehousing • Construction

To find out if your business is eligible for the funded training programme, visit https://www.serco-ese.com/skillssupport-for-the-workforce or contact Howard Cordingley, Partnership Coordinator, at skillssupport@serco.com.

Full fibre connectivity can bring learning to life

The growth of the internet has brought with it endless opportunities to learn new things; whether it’s for work, school or a hobby, the online world means there is an infinite amount of information at our fingertips. It has changed how we learn, and new technology such as personalisation, virtual reality and artificial intelligence means that education is evolving into a whole new experience. Key to being able to access these new learning opportunities is connectivity. Access to a fast, reliable, high-capacity internet service is vital here - especially when it comes to new data hungry learning tools – and a full fibre connection, which is 100 times faster than most current UK broadband services, is the best technology for the job. This is why CityFibre is investing up to £4 billion across the UK to bring full fibre enabled internet access to more than eight million homes, 800,000 businesses, 400,000 public sector sites and 250,000 5G access sites. This includes in Cambridge where we are investing in the city to bring the fastest most reliable network technology to practically every home and business locally. Cambridge’s new full fibre network will make it possible for you to take advantage of all the benefits of online learning, from ease of access and controllable pace, to the ability to choose from a wider range of options that suit your own unique learning style and ambition. Immersive technologies, such as Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR), for example, are already transforming education, making learning a whole new experience. There are countless examples of this technology being used, which include The Unimersive, which is an app which uses VR to help people learn a new language, and the Gibson App which uses AR to help people learn guitar. Everyone learns in different ways; some need to read information, while others need to see it illustrated. So how do you deliver a learning experience which suits everyone? Artificial Intelligence (AI) is enabling the development of training programmes that are completely personalised to each person. Similarly, adaptive learning platforms are being used to meet the needs of each individual learner, ensuring that they can understand the information, learn at their own pace, and repeat any sections they don’t understand. Prodigy Math is just one example of this, the game, which teaches mathematics, uses an algorithm to match the learning to the student’s style and level. Another benefit of AI-enabled technology is that as it is largely based online, meaning you can get 24/7 access to learning. And, with fast, reliable connectivity, such as the services enabled by CityFibre’s full fibre network here in Cambridge, quality online experiences are accessible to all – no matter how data intensive. This is just a snapshot of how the way we learn is changing, and the massive opportunities which exist to develop new skills and experience new things. Our city-wide full fibre networks will future proof communities, ensuring that as the learning landscape continues to change and expand, people will be able to use the technology and take advantage of these remarkable innovations in learning.