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Hugh Baird College students check in to Visitor Economy Week

HUGH Baird College, along with other Further Education Colleges from across the Liverpool City Region worked together this week as they took part in Visitor Economy Week. Now in its 4th year, Visitor Economy Week is aimed at inspiring students to consider a career in Liverpool's thriving visitor economy sector. Over the course of the week, young people from across the Liverpool City Region took part in a range of exciting activities that highlighted the diverse opportunities available in the Region's visitor economy sector.

Liverpool's visitor economy is a major growth sector and, in addition to sporting 53,500 jobs, generates ₤4.53bn for the local economy. It also brings both economic benefits and reputational advantages and makes Liverpool the world's 5th most popular City for overseas visitors.

Hugh Baird College's L20 Hotel School students alongside Travel and the Visitor Economy students kicked off the week by helping out at the Visitor Economy Week launch event at Liverpool Football Club. The students helped by serving breakfast canapés and greeting guests such as Liverpool City Region Metro Mayor Steve Rotheram and other leading figures from the Region.

Students were also treated to an 'access all areas' tour up the iconic St John Beacon's tower with radio DJ Simon 'Rossie' Ross from the Greatest Hits Radio Station, the tour gave students the opportunity to view the fantastic skyline of Liverpool and beyond and they even had the chance to sit in on a live breakfast show to learn about all things broadcasting.

Lale Tekgur, Hugh Baird College Travel and the Visitor Economy student said:- "I have always noticed the tower, but never had the chance to take a tour up it. It was great, we even met DJ Rossie! Getting the chance to experience behind the scenes really helps understand what goes on to make a successful radio show and the various opportunities that are on our door step."

In addition to once in a lifetime experiences, throughout the week, students also took part in multiple work placements at major Hotel brands such as the:- Hilton Liverpool, Malmaison, Radisson Blu and Aloft Hotels.  All these placements gave the students 1st hand experience of what it would be like to work in the hospitality industry.

Daniel Farrell, Hugh Baird College Catering and Hospitality student said:- "There are so many different job roles in a Hotel that I was never aware of, this week has opened my eyes to the different opportunities out there for me once I finish College. It has even helped me towards landing part time work whilst I'm studying."

Maria Stevens, Assistant Director of Business Engagement said:- "This will be our 4th year supporting the Liverpool City Region Visitor Economy Week in conjunction with the Local Enterprise Partnership. The Visitor Economy Week concept is growing from strength to strength and I am very proud to represent Hugh Baird College and the L20 Hotel School within the visitor economy industry. The purpose of the week is multi faceted, firstly it's important that Further Education Colleges and employers work collaboratively to raise awareness of the economy across the City Region, but it is also important that those myths associated with employment in Travel and Hospitality are dispelled during the week. The visitor economy is growing at a significant pace and to meet the growth demand, 1.3 million employees need to be recruited into the industry by 2024, therefore it's important we address the recruitment, retention and skills shortage issues now. I would like to say a huge thank you to our employer partners for their support throughout the week, we really appreciate it."

For more information on courses linked to the visitor economy sector, please visit:- HughBaird.AC.UK or call:- 0151 353 4444.

Audio interview about the alarming 10th Prince's Trust Youth Index findings

WITHIN our 9 February 2019 Edition we ran a report about the 10th Prince's Trust Youth Index. The study found that 58% of 16 to 25 year olds, within Merseyside say comparing their life to others on social media makes them feel:- "inadequate," while 59% think social media creates an:- "overwhelming pressure." As a follow up to this, we conducted a phone interview with Louise Cooney, Programme Executive at The Prince's Trust, on Merseyside, to find out more about the study. You can hear the interview via clicking on the audio player below. Also you can watch and download a basic transcript by clicking on here now.

You can find out more about the study visit the Prince' Trust website.  You can also find out more download the full report, from the Princes' Trust website, or via this link, along with finding out more about their new UK2030 initiative.

88% of adults in the North West back social network regulation as NSPCC launches plan to tame Wild West Web

9 out of 10 parents across the UK back regulation of social networks to make tech firms legally responsible for protecting children, a new NSPCC survey has revealed. 6 out of 10 UK adults do not think social networks protect children from sexual grooming, and the same proportion don't think networks protect children from inappropriate content like self harm, violence or suicide. The figures emerged as the children's charity released a detailed proposal setting out how a robust independent regulator should enforce a legal duty of care to children on social networks. The NSPCC's:- "Taming The Wild West Web" vision, drawn up with the assistance of international law firm Herbert Smith Freehills, proposes the introduction of a social media regulator to force social networks to protect children on their platforms.

The regulator would:-

► Have legal powers to investigate tech firms and demand information about their child safety measures.

► Require social networks to meet a set of minimum child safeguarding standards (making their platforms safe by design) and to proactively tackle online harms including grooming.

► Deploy tough sanctions for failures to protect their young users; including steep fines for tech firms of up to €20m, bans for boardroom directors, shaming tactics and a new criminal offence for platforms that commit gross breaches of duty of care (akin to corporate negligence and corporate manslaughter).

A huge majority of adults in the NSPCC's survey also backed a call for social networks to be legally required to make children's accounts safe, including the highest privacy settings by default, friend suggestions turned off, not being publicly searchable, and geolocation settings turned off.

Ruth Moss, whose daughter Sophie took her own life at the age of 13 after looking at self harm and suicide content on social media, is backing the NSPCC's campaign for statutory regulation. Ruth said:- "Sophie's death devastated me. No mother, or family, should have to go through that. It was so unnecessary; she had so much to live for. She was only 13. I found out that she had been looking at completely inappropriate things online. Some of the images were so graphic that even as an adult, I was shocked. She was also communicating with people in their 30s and pretending to be older than she was, under a made up persona. Whilst the internet was heavily controlled at home and at School, Sophie had free Wi-Fi when she was out, making it very hard to 'Police' her internet use 24 hours a day. Social networks should have a duty of care to protect children and vulnerable people from damaging material and self regulation is clearly not working. The protection of our children is too important to leave to the goodwill of large, profit orientated organisations. Statutory regulation is needed and as a matter of urgency."

Peter Wanless, NSPCC Chief Executive, said:- "The support for statutory regulation of social networks is now overwhelming. It is clear that society will no longer tolerate a free for all under which tech firms allow children to operate in a precarious online world with a myriad of preventable risks. Social media bosses should be made to take responsibility for the essential protection of children on their platforms and face tough consequences if they don't. Over a decade of self regulation has failed, and enough is enough. The Government's Online Harms White Paper must impose a legal duty of care on social networks. Our proposal to tame the Wild West Web would make the UK a world leader in protecting children online. We urge the Government to be bold and introduce these measures without delay."

Under the NSPCC plans, the regulator would have legal powers to demand platforms to disclose information so it could better understand the extent of the risk of harm and abuse and to investigate potential breaches. Tech firms would have a duty to risk assess its platforms and promptly notify the regulator if children had come to harm or been put at risk on their sites. Breaches of duty of care would result in enforcement notices and requirements to publish information on their platforms about the breach. In the case of gross breaches, tech firms would be charged with a criminal offence and directors overseeing the duty of care could face disqualification. The public can support the NSPCC's Wild West Web campaign by signing the petition now.  But what do you, our readers think about this?  Is this the correct way to go?  Please email us your thoughts and views, via:- News24@SouthportReporter.Com.