Kirklees College student lands Nestlé role

Working hard pays off.

Tom Davies, a West Yorkshire student, would have never said he was academic, but that never stopped him from working hard.

The BTEC scheme at Kirklees College suited him down to the ground.  It allowed him to work at his own pace and research lots of things until he understood what was required of each topic.

On top of that he had worked his way right through the Scouting group at 4th Golcar Scouts, from cubs to Scouts to Explorers and now a Young Leader.

And then volunteering for things like Golcar Lily Day.

Well it had all paid off with an excellent apprenticeship with Nestlé.  A great starting salary but more important is the investment they will be making in his further education. Working towards a degree qualification and working out of their various business units across the group (with accomation provided when at other parts of the country including Sheffield), the successful dozen candidates have a bright future ahead of them.

Good to see an employer making such an investment into their staff.

Have a look at what Kirklees College have had to say about it.
http://www.kirkleescollege.ac.uk/news/134

Well done Tom.

SMileS funding helps to give Kirklees woman a brighter future

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Prince’s Trust is helping young people back into work in Kirklees after a generous donation of 18k to the youth charity.

This comes as more than one in five young people in Kirklees (23 per cent) are struggling to find a job. Across the district the number of young people trapped on benefits for more than six months has more than doubled since before the recession.[1]

Kirklees based text messaging provider SMileS SMS, has donated 18k to fund The Prince’s Trust Development Awards, which are cash grants of between £50 and £500, to help disadvantaged young people access work, training or education.

Annabel Ruddiman, 19, from Huddersfield, was unemployed before a Development Award helped her get a job at a local swimming pool.

Last year she was made redundant from a hair salon and spent the next six months searching for work without any luck.

SMileS features in the ‘Business Link’ Magazine

Business Link magazine focus on the happenings of businesses within the Yorkshire & Lincolnshire area. The magazine is published monthly and  they have a webpage where the magazine can be accessed as well (www.blmforum.net).

Business link is a valuable resource for individuals working within the business sector and who live within the area. The magazine generates a list of contacts that the reader can draw upon to build up a network of contacts. It also uses keeps individuals inform with relevant market industry information.

SMileS ran an advertisement in this month’s ‘Business Link’ magazine in the ‘Business Telecommunications’ section. Below is a copy of our advertisement;

MyNetwork – Mid Yorkshire Net

 ‘MYnetwork’ stands for Mid Yorkshire Net; you can find us on Twitter (http://bit.ly/ns9e7i) and Linked In (http://linkd.in/MYnetwork). MYnetwork is a friendly and informal network of business people across Calderdale, Kirklees and beyond. My network is sponsored by ‘The Media Centre’, ‘The Mid Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce’, ‘Ramsdens Solicitors LLP’ and lastly us (ME Consultancy Ltd/Smiles). The daytime meetings are often held at Café Ollo in The Media Centre and we provide a SMS reminder service to inform members of all the relevant information people attending the event may need such as start time and date. Evening meetings will usually be held at a local business within the Kirklees or Calderdale area. For example, the next evening event will be held at the launch of the ‘Huddersfield Food Festival’ on the 11^/08/11 at 5.30pm.

The overall aim of MyNetwork’ is to strenthen the business community and to get business people together. The whole ethos of the event is to have fun, chat about topics of interest and swap business cards in a friendly and informal environment. We love being a partner of MYnetwork as it helps us meet with potential new customers and it helps generate more business within the area.

 The first event, sponsored by local legal firm Ramsdens Solicitors LLP, was held at the Kirklees Business Conference at the Galpharm Stadium back in September 2010 and was an immediate success with many attendees requesting subsequent events. This prompted Sinead Sopola Marketing Manager at Ramsdens to organise an event co-opting both SMileS and The Media Centre to help and later become partner of this network. Since then the group has taken off and been a great success.  Feel free to learn more about Mynetwork and current events we have coming up via Twitter or Linked In, we always look forward to meeting new faces at the events so why not come on down and see what where all about  at our next meeting on the 20/7 at 10am at the Media Centre, Huddersfield.

Kirklees and Calderdale LinkedIn drinks evening

The Kirklees and Calderdale LinkedIn group gathered for an evening of drinks, chat and networking. There were attendenees from businesses around Kirklees and Calderdale who have joined the LinkedIn group. It is a chance to chat and discuss business in a relaxed atmosphere whilst enjoying a drink or two.

The drinks evening was sponsored by The Media Centre, Ramsdens, SMileS and MYCCI and was held at the Media Centre Huddersfield

Check out the Kirklees and Calderdale LinkedIn drinks evening in images here.

Jenna Fair Trading with SMileS & Kirklees Council

Just to prove that we do what we say we’ll do here at SMileS – this picture is living proof that Jenna Harrison one of our telesales team was ‘donated’ to the Fairtrade cause last Friday (13th Aug) in Huddersfield. Jenna was tasked with visiting shops and offices in a section of Huddersfield Town Centre, promoting Fairtrade goods and asking for staff commitment to buying Fairtrade products for the business and for themselves.

Jenna found that most people recognised the Fairtrade logo and also knew a little about the Fairtrade initiative; plus she managed to convert many to looking for Fairtrade products in shops and supermarkets, as well as talking about Fairtrade to friends and family.

35 names were added to a list of people who work in Huddersfield Town Centre who are now supporters of ‘making Huddersfield a Fairtrade town’.