on the agenda
ALWAYS WANTED TO STUDY A DEGREE BUT DON’T HAVE THE REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS? STUDY AN ACCESS COURSE AT UCM
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pplications are now open for anyone looking to gain UCAS points, retrain or improve their career prospects through University College Isle of Man’s (UCM) Access to Higher Education courses starting in September. The access courses take one year to complete and are designed for people who wish to continue on and study at degree level. UCM currently runs two Access to HE courses, Humanities, which includes Sociology, Psychology and History,
and Science. On completion of the course, students will earn UCAS points which will enable them to continue their studies at Higher Education level at UCM or at other educational institutions off Island. Potential career prospects are wide ranging and can include biomedical science, social work and even psychology. Karen Davies, Head of UCM’s Wellbeing Faculty said: “It’s never too late to change career or return to
education with a more mature mindset, ready to take on new qualifications. Many of our Access to Higher Education students have dreamed about achieving a degree but because they didn’t obtain the required qualifications whilst at school, they didn’t think it would be possible, so they are delighted to achieve this by studying an access course and move on to degree studies.” Applications are now open for September, visit www.ucm.ac.im to apply online.
Work starts on Zurich House solar energy project
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ork has begun on a solar energy project which could generate approximately 70% of the electricity used at Zurich’s Isle of Man HQ, and has the potential to also provide power for charging electric vehicles. Building work on project - at Zurich House, Isle of Man Business Park - starts with a steel frame being erected at an existing car park and car port, followed by the installation of solar panels. The solar energy system is expected to be built, tested and operational before the end of May 2022. Jason Buckley, Facilities Manager at Zurich on the Isle of Man, recently welcomed representatives from Isle of Man contractors Ardern & Druggan to mark the start of building work. Daphne Caine MHK - Chair of the Island’s Climate Change Transformation Board - was also there and very pleased to see the project making progress and was looking forward to it being operational later this year. She said Zurich’s major commitment to harnessing renewable energy and ensuring
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a sustainable future for its Isle of Man headquarters, will help the Island to meet its climate change goals. Zurich has chosen to work with local
business Ardern & Druggan to install the latest photovoltaic cell technology with the capacity to generate over 200 kilowatts (200,000 watts) of electricity enough to power 2,000 100watt lightbulbs. The solar panels project is being jointly funded by Zurich on the Isle of Man and the Zurich Carbon fund which is part of Zurich Insurance Group’s sustainability commitment. In 2019 Zurich became the first insurer in the world to sign up to the UN’s 1.5 Celsius Business Ambition<https://www.zurich.com/en/ media/news-releases/2019/2019-0625-01>. Since then, the Group has created a Sustainability Leadership Council (SLC) and a 1.5 Task Force. The Zurich House solar power project aims to build on the company’s many achievements here on the Island to reduce waste and save energy. That includes the opening in 2018 of Zurich House which is one of only a handful of buildings here that are BREEAM accredited. BREEAM is the world’s leading sustainability assessment method for master planning projects. ON THE AGENDA
