New system launched to retain highly skilled employees across advanced manufacturing and engineering sectors

A new national web based system, Talent Retention Solution (TRS), will help match skilled employees facing redundancy to UK companies in growing sectors of advanced manufacturing and engineering who are recruiting, Minister for Business Mark Prisk has been announced.

The easy to use system comes as a result of work undertaken by the Skills and Jobs Retention Group (SJRG) and Semta (the Sector Skills Council for Science, Engineering and Manufacturing Technologies) to support defence engineers who may be struggling to find work in today’s difficult economic climate.

Business and Semta are providing in kind funding for staff resources to support TRS implementation and the UK Commission for Employment and Skills (UKCES) have awarded £450,000 under the Employer Investment Fund. The system is business led and will be fully funded by business from January 2012.

Following a short implementation phase, TRS will become fully operational by January 2012, when it is expected that over 1500 employers across the UK will have signed up to the system, ranging from large organisations in each sector to the smallest SMEs. The system will provide live data broken down by skills and geography.

Manufacturing and engineering companies which have already signed up to the system and who are recruiting over the coming year include Rolls Royce (1000), Siemens (500), Nissan (200) and Airbus (600). Supply chain companies will also be able to use the system for redeployment and recruitment.

Launching TRS, Minister for Business and Enterprise Mark Prisk said:- "The defence sector makes a substantial contribution to the country’s skills economy through high value jobs and as a key sponsor of apprenticeships and training. This easily accessible web based system will play a vital role in ensuring that these skills are not lost by redeploying highly skilled workers into growing sectors of advanced manufacturing such as automotive, energy, infrastructure and aerospace."

Allan Cook, Chairman of Semta and the SJRG, said:- "The UK operates in a competitive international market. Success in these markets is dependent upon providing the best products, services and solutions for their clients. We rely totally on highly skilled staff to design, develop and produce these products and services. It is imperative for future success and economic growth that we do all that we can to retain, recruit and motivate our employees within the advanced engineering and manufacturing sectors. This new web based talent retention system will assist businesses in the high growth engineering and manufacturing sector to recruit the staff they need to compete successfully in the international market."

At present the demand for skilled engineers far exceeds supply. TRS will complement existing commercial recruitment activity by creating a talent pool of skilled defence employees who need redeployment. The intention is to then expand the scope of the system so that it can redeploy skilled employees from across the advanced manufacturing and engineering sectors and will be an important tool in situations where large scale redundancies are occurring.

“Let’s do lunch”, says children’s charity in Liverpool

LADIES in Liverpool are invited to a lunch date with a difference on Friday, 22 July 2011, when the charity behind Liverpool Junior Mentoring hosts a special fundraiser in the city.

The team of Action for Children staff, who are based at the project in Walton, are hoping for a big turnout to the event, which will held at the Marina Bar & Grill on the Albert Dock. For just £20 per ticket, ladies will be treated to a two course lunch with a glass of wine, followed by an afternoon of quality entertainment from singer Alan Cross and actress, Eithne Browne, of Brookside and Brick up the Mersey Tunnels fame. There will also be great prizes to be won throughout the afternoon. All the proceeds will help the charity to continue funding the innovative and highly successful junior mentoring scheme.

The project matches children aged between 5 and 11 with a carefully trained adult mentor who volunteers their time and meets with the child on a weekly basis for one year. These sessions help children, who are often struggling with behavioural difficulties, to build communication skills, try new or different activities and have valuable problem free time with someone independent of their family or school.

Lesley Stopforth, Project Manager for Liverpool Junior Mentoring, said:- "We’re really looking forward to this event - a light hearted afternoon with plenty of fun and laughter. We’d love to have a full house down at the Marina Bar & Grill because we’re raising money for a very important cause. Mentoring makes a real difference to families in Liverpool and without the funds we won’t be able to match children who are struggling with our incredible mentors and see real transformations take place."

The event is one of a programme of fundraising activities which are aiming to raise the £120,000 total needed to junior mentoring going in Merseyside. It takes place at the Marina Bar & Grill on Coburg Wharf on the Albert Dock from 12pm til 4pm.

Tickets can be purchased from Christine Lewis by telephone on:- 0151 523 8718 or via email.

'North West campaigners are making a difference on fish rules' - local Euro-MP

A campaign backed by thousands of people in the North West to change European fishing rules and prevent the collapse of fish stocks in British waters has been boosted today by an announcement of reform plans in Brussels.   The Fish Fight campaign, promoted by celebrity chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, has called for EU fisheries policies to be reformed to stop the practice of discards, in which dead fish are thrown back into the sea in order to avoid less valuable produce counting against a vessel's quota.  North West Euro-MP Arlene McCarthy, who helped publicise the campaign alongside Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall in Brussels, has welcomed an announcement by the European Commission that it intends to take action against the practice. Arlene said:- "The public campaign is having an impact, with the European Commission now recognising that the status-quo is not an option. The fact that the European Commission is talking about major changes is thanks to the efforts of campaigners across the North West, who have joined hundreds of thousands of others in piling on the pressure."  While this announcement demonstrates the European Commission's intention to take action on the issue, there are still months of negotiations to come, so the final outcome of any reforms will still be the subject of active campaigning.  Arlene added:- "This is an important first step on the road to reform, but there is still a long way to go until we have a fisheries policy that is fit for purpose. We must now look at the proposals in detail and see how they can be built upon through the coming months of negotiations to deliver a fisheries policy that is good for fish, for consumers and for the long-term interests of our fishermen."  Chris Davies who is the Liberal Democrat MEP for North West England and the secretary of the European Parliament's cross-party 'Fish for the Future' group said:- "The Commissioner has made a good start with these proposals, but we need to go further. Our seas are capable of supporting many times more fish than now exist, and it is not too late for the situation to be reversed, but we have now reached a crisis point. First we must stop overfishing, then we must put more fish back in the sea. That way we can ensure a future for fish and a future for fishermen. Powerful vested interests want to keep fishing in depleted seas until there are no fish left. It is as if we have declared war on fish and we’re winning. There will need to be some short term pain in Europe’s fishing industry to lead to sustainable fish stocks and a long term future for communities that live off the sea."

Liverpool honours creator of Liver Bird Legends

THEY are an iconic symbol of a Liverpool, recognised around the world and worn proudly on the chests of thousands of football fans.  But until now, the creator of the Liver Birds has gone largely unrecognised for his sculptures, so embedded in the psyche of Liverpool, it is said their demise would cause the city to fall.  Now, as the centenary celebrations of the Royal Liver Building draw near and the new Museum of Liverpool gets ready to open its doors, the city is ‘setting the record straight’ by acknowledging Carl Bernard Bartels’ outstanding contribution to Liverpool with a posthumous ‘Citizen of Honour Award’.

It would come as a surprise to most Liverpool people to discover that the creator of their beloved Liver Birds, which adorn the Liver Building, was a quiet and unassuming German wood carver who visited London on his honeymoon and was so enamoured with England he never returned home. But they would undoubtedly be shocked to learn that just three years after seeing his sculptures top the cutting-edge concrete skyscraper, Carl Bernard Bartels was forcibly removed from his London home in the lead up to the First World with many other Germans and taken to an internment camp on the Isle of Man before being forcibly repatriated to Germany.

During the Great War, anger against the Germans reached its peak with the sinking of the Lusitania, on its way to Liverpool in 1915. The fallout saw German properties and businesses in the city attacked and looted. Throughout the Second World War, the Liver Birds watched as much of the city was destroyed by enemy bombing. Bartels’ plans and blueprints for the Liver Birds were in turn destroyed; acknowledgement of their creator as a German was deemed impossible and unthinkable.  But as the Liver Building approaches its 100th birthday with a celebratory weekend of jaw-dropping 3D projections and music concerts, it is time for Carl Bernard Bartels to take his place as one of the great ‘honorary scousers’.

The Lord Mayor of Liverpool, Councillor Frank Prendergast, said:- "Wherever you go In the world the Liver Bird is recognised and associated with Liverpool. It is one of the most recognisable images which any city possesses. So, it is remarkable that the man who designed it has never been fully acknowledged in Liverpool. After far too long we are putting that right by posthumously making Carle Bernard Bartels an honorary citizen. I am very pleased that members of his family will be attending the ceremony at which we can, at lest, pay proper tribute to a man whose vision and artistry helped create such a magnificent emblem."

Tim Olden, great- grandson of Bartels said:- "It is wonderful that after 100 years Carl Bernard Bartels is officially being honoured for his contribution to the history of Liverpool. Current and future generations should know that it was 'Carl Bernard Bartels' who created the iconic Liver Birds that sit so majestically upon the Liver Building. If only it wasn’t such a troubled history that followed, he might well have been recognised earlier for his achievements."

Tim will visit Liverpool on 19 July 2011 on behalf of his great-grandfather to accept the award from the Lord Mayor, before a weekend of centenary celebrations for the Liver Buildings get under way on 22 July to 24 July 2011.