The Health and Safety Executive has produced a VDU checklist for safety reps, which should be of use to anyone doing checks on computer screens and the rest of the ‘human interface’.

An eight page pdf, 269KB, at http://www.hse.gov.uk/msd/campaigns/vduchecklist.pdf

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27 October 2008
© VoluntaryNews

Businesswoman Sally Robinson – who sells super-size bras online – says the Government has boobed by neglecting rural broadband internet connections. Sally launched her business AmpleBosom.com nine years ago in a remote part of north Yorkshire. She believes the Government’s failure to keep abreast of broadband technology has held back thousands of country businesses including hers. She is backing the Country Land & Business Association’s campaign for the Government to invest in proper rural broadband connections – and put pressure on British Telecom to stop under wiring the countryside. CLA member Sally said: “We were on a dial-up connection for years and it was hopeless for e-commerce. We have to pay through the nose for satellite broadband – and it is still slower than much cheaper broadband services in the city.” Sally says it has proved impossible to get BT to wire her up in with fibre optic cable in her base at Old Byland, north Yorkshire. “It’s a disgrace,” said Sally. “Government departments have the affront to insist you fill out forms online but do nothing to boost the size of broadband provision. I have a staff of 10 and, every year, sell tens of thousands of bras – stocking up to 58 chest measurement and everything up to L cup size – but the business could have been far bigger by now if we’d been properly supported.” CLA Deputy President William Worsley said even some mountainous areas in the Alps and remote parts of Spain have faster broadband than rural Britain. He said: “The internet is hugely important for the countryside. The Government needs to inflate its efforts on providing fast broadband for rural areas. Otherwise, businesses will simply go bust.”
The CLA believes the answer is a public/private sector partnership with the aim of achieving total fibre optic availability within 15 years. This would stop UK rural businesses falling flat compared with competitors in countries such as Japan, Sweden and the Netherlands, already well ahead of the UK in broadband performance. A report by the Government’s Department for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) - recommending no government investment in next generation internet access network – has been branded “seriously blinkered” by the CLA.

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22 October 2008
© CLA

Representatives from Higher Education and Industry met today as part of a Government plan to increase future ICT enrolments. ICT has been identified as an area of particular economic significance in Northern Ireland. This is in recognition of the fact that as well as being a sizeable industry in its own right, it also underpins many other sectors such as financial services and healthcare. This event, organised by the Department for Employment and Learning, and held at the Stormont Hotel, is an important deliverable of the recently launched ICT Future Skills Action Plan. Employment and Learning Minister, Sir Reg Empey, welcomed the workshop and said: “It is important that the Higher Education sector works with industry to ensure that employers’ skills needs are met. In order to grow and develop, our software companies need an ever increasing number of highly skilled graduates in key disciplines, such as computer science and software engineering, yet university enrolments in these subjects are falling and drop out rates are high. We must do our utmost to overcome these issues if we are to benefit from an improved flow of skilled workers in future years.”
 
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21 October 2008
© Northern Ireland Executive

An enhanced website is being launched this week to provide communities and individuals across the Highlands and Islands with up to date information and support about how to manage and develop their community land initiatives. An e-newsletter will be distributed later this month to complement it. Tarves based Walking-the-Talk will maintain and develop the Scottish Community Land Network - building on the success of an electronic communications resource piloted over the last two years which was aimed at the community land sector. The latest website and e-newsletter is being funded by the Community Land Unit at Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) which has built a high quality reputation for developing a range of community land initiatives including housing, renewable energy, woodlands and forestry from a grass roots level over the past ten years. The online resource will include regular features and case studies; details of training events, networking opportunities and courses; a search function and easier site navigation; preparation and submission of a monthly e-newsletter to subscribers; and the development of more effective communication methods for people and groups wanting to take their community land initiatives further. The three-year project will include monitoring, gathering and presenting information relevant to community land and asset management organisations, agency workers and others in a clear and accessible format. The site’s success will depend on the active involvement of those involved in community land initiatives themselves, who are encouraged to contribute and share best practice.

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14 October 2008
© HIE

A charity has launched a website to gather ideas on how people would like the countryside to be in 2020. RuralNet UK, a development charity, is encouraging the public to log on and share their visions for the future. A conference organised by the charity and Action for Market Towns was held in Skipton, Yorkshire, this month where 200 opinions were gathered. Simon Berry, Chief Executive of RuralNet UK, said visions can inspire, motivate, inform policy and influence strategy. “This is an opportunity for people to contribute to a collective vision for rural Britain - something quite unique and special,” he added. People are being asked to give their ideas on what they would like changing and preserving in the countryside in addition to new things they would like to see. RuralNet UK recently launched an initiative to gather ideas for an application to receive £1.5 million of funding to improve rural life in central Warwickshire.

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16 October 2008
© Charities Aid Foundation - CAF

An Australian web-based Resource Kit for Creative Community Engagement, where community organisations can find helpful online guidance, ideas and tools for developing and facilitating e-learning is at http://creativecommunity.flexiblelearning.net.au. Michael Gilbert of Nonprofit Online News says “The longer I explore this wonderful compendium, the more useful stuff it turns up, so I suggest that you just keep clicking”.

 
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15 October 2008
© VoluntaryNews

Simon Berry, Chief Executive of ruralnet|uk wants to know and is taking an innovative approach to find out. He is asking people to contribute their thoughts and ideas online at a new website launched today: www.2020vision.ruralnet.org.uk. Simon commented: “We want to do this collectively because many heads are better than one or two - and there is a great deal of significance to something that has been created by hundreds of people. Visions can inspire and motivate - and they can inform policy and influence strategy. This is an opportunity for people to contribute to a collective vision for rural Britain - something quite unique and special.” Simon is encouraging people to consider things that we’d like to see change; things we’d want to preserve and things we don’t have now that we’d like to have in the future.
 
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14 October
© ruralnet|uk

Everyclick and Clear Channel Outdoor have launched the 2009 Everyclick Charities Challenge, a competition that encourages charities to boost their fundraising efforts whilst competing to win the largest charity competition prize in the UK - a high-profile advertising campaign across 1,500 Clear Channel Outdoor sites,  providing estimated opportunities to view 192 million times. Charities of all sizes can register to compete at www.everyclick.com/awards. The competition starts on 15th October 2008. This is an outstanding opportunity for charities to win invaluable advertising and exposure for their campaign. Last year’s winners, Diabetes UK saw a three-fold increase in take-up of the Diabetes 2 risk assessment test, as a result of their poster campaign.

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7 October 2008
© WCVA

The charity has placed posters around the online virtual world to coincide with its Silent Assassin awareness-raising campaign. Users of the virtual world can teleport themselves to the charity’s virtual HQ where they can find information on the condition.

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9 October 2008
© Third Sector Online

A National Skills Academy for IT, announced today and due to open in 2009, will bring together an unprecedented, sector-wide collaboration of employers, educators and stakeholders to meet the skills needs of the IT workforce. Information technology (IT) skills are critical to the growth of the UK economy. There are currently over a million IT professionals in the UK, with 141,000 new recruits needed every year. The IT industry is predicted to grow at five times the rate of the workforce as a whole and recent research suggests that optimising the ICT capabilities of the UK economy is worth as much as £35 billion a year. Karen Price, Chief Executive of e-skills UK said: “e-skills UK is delighted to be working with employers across the sector to get the skills academy off the ground. It offers a unique opportunity for employers to take collective responsibility for the skills and accreditation of the IT workforce, with innovative development programmes and qualifications that are valued by the sector. I believe this will play a major role in helping the UK become a world leader in IT in the coming years.”

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8 October 2008
© e skills UK