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Southport Reporter® covering the news on Merseyside.

Date:- 22 January 2007

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Wingwalkers search Merseyside for ambitious high flyers..!

THE world’s only formation wingwalking team, Team Guinot, is scouring Merseyside for ambitious high flyers that would rather spend their time strapped to the wing of an aircraft than strapped to a desk all summer!

The team, who perform wingwalking displays across the UK, is delighted to have landed new sponsors for 2007. Skincare specialists Guinot are sponsoring four wingwalking biplanes and the team needs TWO NEW WINGWALKERS to join full time professionals Sarah Tanner and Lucy Foster.

“Wingwalking is the best job in the world” says 24-year-old wingwalker Sarah, “Standing on the wing of a biplane as it dives into a loop at 150mph is incredible! This is a great opportunity for Merseyside daredevils, we perform at Southport Airshow each summer so whoever lands the job would hopefully display at their home show; the sky really is the limit with this job!”

During summer 2007 four Guinot branded Boeing Stearman biplanes will roar into airshows across the UK and Ireland with wingwalkers standing on the top wing. The aircraft will display a breathtaking sequence of loops, rolls and turns while wingwalkers wave and perform handstands against immense wind pressure enduring over 4 G (gravitational pull four times their own body weight).

“This is a once in a lifetime opportunity.  There have been less than 20 professional wingwalkers in history. Wingwalking is about great performance and successful applicants will be trained to climb around the aircraft in mid flight and will choreograph dance routines to dazzle spectators on the ground. Wingwalkers need fantastic fitness and agility and of course a head for heights and nerves of steel.” said team leader Vic Norman.

Team Guinot are looking for wingwalking finalists from each region of the UK and Ireland, of course including Merseyside; successful applicants will be invited to a finals day at the team’s base in Gloucestershire in March to battle it out for the honour of their region and for the job!

To apply for the ultimate in highflying careers and land a slot as the Merseyside finalist pick up an application form from your local Guinot salon or call 01285 831774.  For further details regarding Team Guinot please contact Rhiannon Roche on 07833 302699.

Top tips for recruiting top staff in 2007

NEW year, new employees? Small businesses consistently rank attracting skilled staff as one of their main problems and ACCA (the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) says that many are now turning to their accountants to help them in the recruitment process. ACCA is the accountancy body which advises more small businesses than any other in the UK.

As well as being an expensive process, hiring the right person for the right job can also be time-consuming. It is essential to recruit staff who have the skills to fulfil a role, as employing the wrong candidate can be potentially expensive and damaging, especially to a small business.

John Davies, head of business law at ACCA said:- “Businesses should remember that dismissal can be a lengthy and costly process. In the unfortunate event of a bad recruitment choice a company will invariably find itself having to re-advertise the position resulting in further expense, on top of the disruption to the company’s business.”

ACCA’s 10 top tips provide good guidance for small businesses in their search for the right person who will help their business develop:-

1. Remember that discrimination in the recruitment process can result in a courtroom battle. There is a raft of legislation making discrimination on the grounds of race, sex and disability illegal. In October, the Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006 came into place now making ageism in the workplace, from the boardroom to the shop-floor illegal. All policies and practices relating to recruitment, promotion and retirement, including application forms and interview techniques must now be age-neutral. Employers need to assess the language and images they use in their recruitment adverts, so as to avoid appearing to target a younger audience or more mature candidates.

2. Think about the job role. You may be replacing a member of the team, but think about if the role has changed since the person took on the role. And is the role likely to change in the future?

3. List everything the job entails (as far as is possible) in a comprehensive job description. This means that you can test if the applicant has the skills required. Also, set a trial period of three months - this allows you the opportunity to test if the skills are right for your business without the hassle of going through a formal dismissal process.

4. Get twice as many CV’s as you think you need before you start the interview process. It is very difficult to tell what candidates will be like on paper and there will be many candidates you will disregard quickly.

5. Always have a 1st and 2nd interview as part of your recruitment process. The 1st interview allows the opportunity of an initial application sift and the 2nd allows you to go into more depth to ascertain that the candidate has the skills you need.

6. Give candidates a competence based test to ensure that they have the basic skills to undertake the requirements of the role. If, for example, you are recruiting for a sales role, give the candidate some briefing materials and set up a mock sales pitch - you should be able tell if they have the skills required for your business.

7. 2nd interviews are a great opportunity to not only confirm skills through more questioning but to establish that you and other staff can get on with the candidate.

8. Set a realistic salary. Look at the industry averages and set the salary at that level. If you’re paying much less than the going rate, you’ll only attract applications from poor quality and inappropriate candidates.

9. Check references. These should be checked and verified, and it should be made clear that this is a condition of employment. If the nature of your business means that security is a particular issue, it may be worth going the extra mile and conducting a police check.

10. Ask the candidate to provide proof of credentials. Education and qualifications can be checked simply by requiring the candidate to provide certificates.

Letter to the Editor:- "Support new standards for doctors"

"WE would like to thank local MPs, Lindsay Hoyle (Chorley), Timothy Farron (Westmorland and Lonsdale) and John Pugh (Southport) for supporting the launch of our revised guidance for doctors, Good Medical Practice, by joining over 60 MPs in signing an Early Day Motion (EDM) in the House of Commons.

Our guidance emphasises the importance of an effective partnership between doctors and patients. To ensure that patients are made aware of doctors' commitment to this partnership with them we launched a UK wide poster campaign. The EDM ‘encourages the prominent display of the Good Medical Practice poster in all general practices, clinics and hospitals across the UK’.

We are delighted that Lindsay Hoyle, Timothy Farron and John Pugh have chosen to support our campaign and would encourage doctors and patients reading this letter to look at the new guidance and to display the poster. The revised Good Medical Practice can be found at:- http://www.gmc-uk.org." Yours sincerely, Professor Sir Graeme Catto, President, GMC

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