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Business News Wales
21-05-2025
- Business
- Business News Wales
Welsh Top Skills Talent Takes on Europe's Finest at EuroSkills 2025
Six apprentices and learners from Wales are among a group heading to Denmark in September to test their skills at EuroSkills Herning 2025. Europe's largest skills competition will take place from 9-13 September. A group of 19 will make up Team UK. They are: Mechatronics – John Doherty & Jason McVerry, from Armagh, Northern Ireland Health& Social Care – Grace Longden from Macclesfield Restaurant Services – Yuliia Batrak, from Cardigan, Wales Industry 4.0 – Patrick Sheerin, from Portadown, & Caolan McCartan from Newry Electronics – Evan Klimazsewsk, from Holyhead Mechanical Engineering (CAD) – Stuart Lyons, from Lanark Hairdressing – Katie Sime, from the Forest of Dean CNC Milling – Tomas Ankers, from Wrexham Electrical Installation – Jonathan Gough, from Waringstown, Northern Ireland Web Technologies – Finn Gallagher, from Salisbury Cabinetmaking – Stanley Mackintosh, from Norwich Plumbing & Heating – Andrew McCann, from Aughnacloy, Northern Ireland Cooking – Gabrielle Wilson, from Rhayader Graphic Design – Melody Cheung, from Port Talbot Welding – Luke Roberts, from Haverfordwest Joinery – Jamie Mathews, from Ballyclare Painting & Decorating – Shelby Fitzakerly, from Accrington Selected and trained in skills excellence by WorldSkills UK, in partnership with lifelong learning company Pearson, the team will compete in a raft of skills disciplines. Team members have already been through months of competition and selection processes and now face the last crucial months of their intensive training programme for EuroSkills Herning 2025. Minister for Skills, Jacqui Smith, said: ' Congratulations to all those chosen for the EuroSkills team, it's a fantastic achievement and a unique opportunity to showcase the strength of UK skills on the European stage. 'These young people represent the ambition and expertise being developed through our further education system, which is central to building a workforce fit for the future. 'High-quality skills are at the heart of our Plan for Change, helping to grow the economy and support people into good jobs. WorldSkills UK does vital work to raise standards and ambition across technical education.' Team UK will compete in skills including Electrical Installation, Plumbing and Heating, Joinery, Cabinet Making and Painting and Decorating, as well as Mechatronics, Industry 4.0, Electronics, Mechanical Engineering CAD, CNC Milling, Web Technologies, Graphic Design and Welding. The UK's health, hospitality and lifestyle sectors will also be showcased on the European stage with Team UK participating in Health and Social Care, Hairdressing, Cooking and Restaurant Service. WorldSkills UK uses its participation in the EuroSkills competition to promote skills excellence across the UK and embed world class training standards. EuroSkills Herning 2025 is also seen as crucial litmus test to measure the UK's readiness to compete on the global stage at the WorldSkills Competition. Known as the 'skills olympics', the next WorldSkills takes place in Shanghai, China in September 2026. Ben Blackledge, Chief Executive, WorldSkills UK said: 'We are so excited to be supporting and nurturing this fantastic group of young professionals as they head for Denmark to compete. 'They will be tested to the highest standards, showcasing the skills that global employers are looking for, and will return to the UK with the knowledge and experience that will turbo charge their careers. 'EuroSkills is ultimately a test of how internationally competitive UK skills are. It gives us the impetus to raise standards at home and help more young people get high quality jobs.' Freya Thomas Monk, Managing Director of Pearson Qualifications, said: 'We are incredibly proud to support this inspiring group of young people as they prepare for the EuroSkills challenge this year. Celebrating the best of technical and vocational education and raising the prestige of the sector is very important to us. I wish Team UK the best of luck as they prepare to compete in Denmark in September.' Pearson is the official partner of Team UK for EuroSkills Herning 2025 and WorldSkills Shanghai 2026, following a successful partnership at WorldSkills Lyon in 2024. Held every two years, EuroSkills, organised by WorldSkills Europe, sees hundreds of young people under the age of 25 from 33 countries across Europe come together to compete for the chance to become the Best in Europe in their chosen skill or profession. Supported by Members, Sponsors and Partners, industries, governments, volunteers, and educational institutions, WorldSkills Europe is making a direct impact on raising the level of skills throughout Europe. WorldSkills UK is a four nations partnership between education, industry and UK governments. It is a world-class skills network acting as a catalyst for: Raising standards, through international benchmarking and professional development Championing future skills, through analysis of rapidly changing economic demand Empowering young people, from all backgrounds, through competitions-based training and careers advocacy.
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Scotsman
19-05-2025
- Business
- Scotsman
Plumbing trade sounds warning over lack of apprenticeship funding
Concerns over wider financial impact of recruitment woes Sign up to our daily newsletter – Regular news stories and round-ups from around Scotland direct to your inbox Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... Scotland's economy risks being damaged by a lack of funding which has left plumbing and heating firms unable to take on new apprentices, according to a leading trade association. The Scottish and Northern Ireland Plumbing and Heating Federation (SNIPEF) warned that eight years of frozen apprenticeship funding from the Scottish Government had led to many sectors reaching 'breaking point,' and said that without fresh investment, one of the country's most essential workforces would face 'increasing pressure'. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad In a stark warning, the federation's chief executive, Fiona Hodgson, said that while companies wanted to invest in new recruits, many are unable to do so without targeted support, putting them in a 'no win situation'. It said that while companies of all sizes were being impacted, those hardest hit were smaller firms and family businesses. A recent analysis carried out by the federation of its members in the first quarter of the year found that just 22 per cent of businesses are likely to recruit a plumbing apprentice in the next six months. This comes despite a critical skills shortage and, according to the federation, reflects deeper structural concerns, such as the cost of training, limited supervisory capacity and a lack of long-term confidence in the labour market. For the first year, John Doherty's firm will not be training new apprenctices amid the cost pressures. Picture: SNIPEF | SNIPEF Ms Hodgson said: 'These figures are alarming. Our members want to invest in new talent, but they can't do so without targeted funding support. Recruiting an apprentice should never have become a burden, but our members are in a no-win situation where rising costs, funding stagnation and the workforce shortage have made apprentice recruitment unviable for many. 'Business growth starved by years of government inaction' 'Years of government inaction have created a situation where business growth has been starved, yet the responsibility to secure the future of the profession continues to fall on businesses with ever dwindling means to do so. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'It is urgent that the government step in to support our businesses, re-opening that pathway for our apprentices to survive and forge meaningful and rewarding careers in an industry that is vital to the country's economy.' The warning comes as the federation - which has more than 750 member firms - is preparing to host the 50th iteration of its annual apprentice of the year competition, an initiative that has launched the careers of more than 1,200 apprentices since its inception. However, Ms Hodgson stressed that such progress was being put at risk as a result of the funding pressures, with businesses foregoing apprentice training for financial reasons. Fiona Hodgson, chief executive of the Scottish and Northern Ireland Plumbing Employers Federation | SNIPEF Apprenticeship model 'how I got my start in the industry' One example is the eponymous plumbing, heating and joinery firm founded by John Doherty in the West Dunbartonshire town of Old Kirkpatrick some 26 years ago. A long-time advocate of apprenticeships, he currently employs a team of 19 staff members, which includes three apprentices – two plumbers and one joiner. But this will be the first year he has not trained a new apprentice as a result of the cost pressures and a lack of funding. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'The apprenticeship model is how I got my start in the industry, and it set me on a career path to build my business to where it is today,' he explained. 'But for the very first time I will not be looking to recruit in the coming year. We did the maths on costs, and we reckon that our three apprentices will cost us £60,000 per annum, factoring in wage increases as well as general running costs such as tools and workwear. This is not sustainable for smaller businesses like my own. 'Direct funding for employers at national and local level is available, but these have their drawbacks as they have mostly been reduced to one-year grants with wage requirements that surpass those agreed upon by the Unite the Union and the industry itself. This puts businesses in a position of financial uncertainty, especially if they are unable to renew grant funding for an apprentice's second, third or fourth year at college.' Mr Doherty, whose clients include the likes of Scottish Water, West Dunbartonshire Council, and Hampden Stadium, expressed concern that the impact on micro-businesses and small firms would have far reaching implications. Mr Doherty's firm already includes several apprentices. | SNIPEF '80 per cent of our industry is made up of small businesses, so if the vast majority are finding apprenticeships unsustainable, what does that mean for the future of the industry?' he asked. 'If we have to rely on the largest companies to recruit, apprentices will find themselves in highly specialised or niche roles, lacking the experience to be effective in the wider industry. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Government 'must step in to secure next generation' 'The government must step in to support our profession to secure the next generation of plumbers. Employers need to know the government values our industry, so that we can provide the opportunities that we were once afforded. Otherwise, I fear for the future of the profession.' A spokesman for the Scottish Government said: 'We are engaging industries and employers across the country, and will continue to do so as we reform the skills system and introduce a new skills planning approach, which will enable targeted action to address national and regional skills requirements. 'Recognising the need to address current skills needs while reforming the system, we are providing £185m this year to support apprenticeships. But we are also looking at how we secure maximum benefit from this investment, including how public funding is utilised.
Irish Times
11-05-2025
- Irish Times
‘Nobody knew things were going to get so bad': Catholic RUC officer's defaced headstone at centre of Troubles exhibition
A graveyard memorial erected to honour a Co Donegal -born RUC officer that was vandalised within weeks is now the centrepiece of an exhibition recalling the Troubles. The deep gashes left by the angle grinder used to deface John Doherty's marble headstone took time to inflict, but those who stole it from his grave at Castlefin St Mary's Church in Co Donegal in 2023 had plenty of that. The damaged headstone, along with a memorial quilt commemorating some of the Troubles' dead, formed part of an exhibition at the Church of Ireland 's Synod in Naas, Co Kildare, which finished on Saturday. The headstone was erected on October 28th, 2023 to mark the 50th anniversary of the killing by the IRA of Mr Doherty, a Catholic Royal Ulster Constabulary officer, as he came home to visit his mother at their home near Lifford. READ MORE Within days of being erected, it was stolen under cover of darkness. A month later, similarly in darkness, it reappeared with the inscription defaced, with the harp and shamrock symbol of the RUC bearing cut marks. On the back, a text had been carefully chiselled: 'Remember All The Victims of RUC Collusive Behaviour and loyalist Paramilitaries. RUC/PSNI Sectarian Police – Enforcing British Rule in Ireland. Not Welcome'. The final line of the text on the back of the stone, which had been unveiled just weeks before in front of senior Garda and PSNI officers, had been filled in with the colours of the Irish Tricolour, with 'Up The 'Ra' written in green, white and orange. The defaced memorial stone to Donegal-born RUC officer John Doherty, who was killed by the IRA in October 1973 as he visited his elderly mother 'There's a casual cruelty about that that, isn't there? It's dark. Death is always supposed to be sacrosanct in Ireland,' says the exhibition's organiser, Kenny Donaldson, director of the South East Fermanagh Foundation (SEFF). Mr Doherty had joined the Metropolitan Police in London a few years before the Troubles erupted, but transferred to the RUC in late 1969 to be closer to his five brothers, six sisters and parents at their Ardnasool home. His brother Terry, who served for more than 25 years in the Irish Army, said: 'Nobody knew when he decided to come back that things were going to get so bad.' He told of how the family's home came under surveillance for nearly 18 months before his brother was killed, and his girlfriend wounded, as he turned his car on the narrow laneway on a Sunday evening. His mother rushed out to find him. The reverse face of the defaced memorial stone to Donegal-born RUC officer John Doherty A man with no obvious reason to be in Ardnasool had travelled the quiet country road so often in the months beforehand that he was given a nickname – the name of a country music singer – by Mr Doherty's siblings. 'John was a target for the IRA, but he loved getting home to see our mother. We always feared for him, but you always hope that trouble won't come to your door,' Terry said. His Catholic background had condemned him: 'By killing him, the IRA frightened a lot of other Catholics from joining the RUC, or frightened those who were already in it to quit,' Terry added. Nobody has been held responsible for the desecration. 'The guards did their best, but there was no CCTV and these spineless individuals operated in darkness, as they always do,' Terry said. The headstone and the memorial quilt were exhibited by the SEFF, which helps people on both sides of the Border who are suffering due to traumatic experiences caused by terrorism. John Doherty, the Donegal-born RUC officer killed by the IRA outside his mother's home in October 1973 The quilt, the eighth completed so far, honours, among others, the Quinn children killed by a loyalist paramilitary firebomb in 1998, along with Ross and Ann Hearst, a father and daughter who served in the RUC and were killed by the IRA three years apart. The quilts are brought by SEFF before schools and groups to tell the stories of those who were lost and who were left behind, including places where people 'may have perceived that we would have had difficulty, but that wasn't the reality', said Mr Donaldson. Last year, the organisation went to Latton GAA club in Co Monaghan, the home club of the late Fine Gael senator Billy Fox, who was murdered by the IRA in March 1974 when some of its members raided his girlfriend's house in Tircooney. [ 50 years on: Murder of Senator Billy Fox is remembered by his then girlfriend Opens in new window ] One of the earliest exhibitions took place in St Mary's College in west Belfast a decade ago, where some of those who visited 'struggled' when faced with emblems of Orange Lodges, GAA clubs, the RUC and the Irish Army on one quilt. Mr Donaldson recalled one young woman's initially negative reaction. 'I said nothing and let her continue to look. Then, she worked it out. She said to me, 'It's because they're all innocent, isn't it?'.' The quilts never knowingly commemorate anyone involved in the IRA, or other republican groups, or loyalist paramilitaries. 'And they won't be,' Mr Donaldson added. 'Those individuals signed up to a code which enabled them and empowered them to go out and to murder their neighbours. That's the difference. There's human choice.' The checks are, he said, 'easier to make in some cases than others'. 'Sometimes there is a challenge to doing so, but we have built an organisation on the basis of its safe space that it offers to victims and survivors. 'If we overnight were to introduce a perpetrator into that, it totally changes the dynamic of everything. Do I have, on a human level, sympathy for everyone killed? Absolutely, yes, I do,' he went on. 'These were young men or young women who were misguided, who were ideologically used by others. Often, they were the cannon fodder who went out and did what they did. But they are not innocents and cannot be classified as such.'
Associated Press
12-04-2025
- Business
- Associated Press
New to The Street Announces Bloomberg Television Lineup for Saturday, April 12 at 6:30 PM ET Featuring Health In Tech CFO Julia Qian, BIOVie's Dr. Joseph Palumbo, The Sustainable Green Team with Kevin Harrington and Tony Raynor, and eXoZymes Vice President Tyler Korman
New to The Street debuts its inaugural restaurant segment featuring BlackBarn with owner and chef John Doherty NEW YORK CITY, NY / ACCESS Newswire / April 12, 2025 / New to The Street, a leading financial media TV series, is excited to announce its Bloomberg Television broadcast this Saturday, April 12 at 6:30 PM ET, airing as sponsored programming. This week's episode features a dynamic group of innovators and executives transforming industries across healthcare, biotech, sustainability, and enzyme technology - with a special culinary segment connecting business and lifestyle. This week's featured interviews include: Segment Debut: 'Market Bites' This week also marks the premiere of New to The Street's new culinary lifestyle segment, 'Market Bites,' spotlighting renowned chefs who are also savvy entrepreneurs. In this debut, Chef John Doherty, the visionary behind BlackBarn in Manhattan, takes viewers inside his kitchen and mindset - blending flavor with business strategy in an inspiring interview filmed on location. This week's broadcast is supported by the following featured commercial sponsors: This eclectic and visionary lineup reflects New to The Street's commitment to showcasing thought leaders and entrepreneurs with actionable insights and big visions for tomorrow's economy. About New to The Street New to The Street is one of the longest-running U.S. and internationally syndicated TV platforms featuring public and private companies. With more than 650 episodes aired, it reaches millions of households weekly on major networks including Bloomberg and Fox Business as sponsored programming. Subscribe to New to The Street TV on YouTube and join over 2.4 million loyal viewers discovering 'Opportunities To Consider™" each week. Media Contact: Monica Brennan [email protected] SOURCE: New To The Street press release
Yahoo
12-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
New to The Street Announces Bloomberg Television Lineup for Saturday, April 12 at 6:30 PM ET Featuring Health In Tech CFO Julia Qian, BIOVie's Dr. Joseph Palumbo, The Sustainable Green Team with Kevin Harrington and Tony Raynor, and eXoZymes Vice President Tyler Korman
New to The Street debuts its inaugural restaurant segment featuring BlackBarn with owner and chef John Doherty NEW YORK CITY, NY / / April 12, 2025 / New to The Street, a leading financial media TV series, is excited to announce its Bloomberg Television broadcast this Saturday, April 12 at 6:30 PM ET, airing as sponsored programming. This week's episode features a dynamic group of innovators and executives transforming industries across healthcare, biotech, sustainability, and enzyme technology - with a special culinary segment connecting business and lifestyle. This week's featured interviews include: Health In Tech (NASDAQ:HIT) - CFO Julia Qian breaks down how her team is reshaping the health insurance model using next-generation technology to streamline care access, cost efficiency, and real-time claims processing. BIOVie Inc. (NASDAQ:BIVI) - Dr. Joe Palumbo provides updates on groundbreaking advancements in neurological and hepatic treatment, highlighting late-stage clinical trials and their impact on public health. The Sustainable Green Team (OTC PINK:SGTM) - Chairman Kevin Harrington and CEO Tony Raynor share their multi-year vision for environmental transformation, revenue growth, and how green infrastructure is becoming investable. eXoZymes - Vice President Tyler Korman discusses the company's breakthrough bio-enzyme technologies that are poised to disrupt agriculture, cleaning, and industrial markets by making traditional chemical processes cleaner and more sustainable. Segment Debut: "Market Bites"This week also marks the premiere of New to The Street's new culinary lifestyle segment, "Market Bites," spotlighting renowned chefs who are also savvy entrepreneurs. In this debut, Chef John Doherty, the visionary behind BlackBarn in Manhattan, takes viewers inside his kitchen and mindset - blending flavor with business strategy in an inspiring interview filmed on location. This week's broadcast is supported by the following featured commercial sponsors: Acurx Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:ACXP)Leading the fight against antibiotic resistance with next-gen antibiotics. Learn more: PetVivo Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PETV)Revolutionizing veterinary care through its patented SPRYNG™ biomaterial device. Visit: Roadzen Inc. (NASDAQ:RDZN)AI-driven vehicle insurance and risk management, reshaping mobility safety. Discover more: The Sustainable Green Team (OTC PINK:SGTM)Environmental innovation at scale through organic waste solutions and eco-infrastructure. More info: This eclectic and visionary lineup reflects New to The Street's commitment to showcasing thought leaders and entrepreneurs with actionable insights and big visions for tomorrow's economy. About New to The StreetNew to The Street is one of the longest-running U.S. and internationally syndicated TV platforms featuring public and private companies. With more than 650 episodes aired, it reaches millions of households weekly on major networks including Bloomberg and Fox Business as sponsored programming. Subscribe to New to The Street TV on YouTube and join over 2.4 million loyal viewers discovering "Opportunities To Consider™" each week. Media Contact: Monica BrennanMonica@ SOURCE: New To The Street View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire Sign in to access your portfolio
