Remember that you can use your ILA Scotland account (if applicable) to pay for many of our courses and, if your employer is paying for your training, they can apply for Skills Development Scotland’s Flexible Training Opportunities.

So, what could you study? We have places left on the following courses:
DREAMWEAVER
CISCO
SAGE ACCOUNTING
SAGE PAYROLL
ELEMENTARY FOOD HYGIENE
INTERMEDIATE FOOD HYGIENE
IOSH AND NEBOSH HEALTH AND SAFETY

For more details, visit our website – www.sce-enterprise.com – or phone one of our friendly Client Services team on 0131 535 4800.

The project will run for around six months and will help the company develop new business and financial management tools, whilst also developing a strategy for Ocean70 to enhance its local and international marketing focus.

Managing Director, Alex Stewart, is delighted to be working with SCE Enterprise on this project and is looking forward to the impact it will make on his business in the year ahead.

SCE’s Knowledge Transfer centre offers companies access to the skills, expertise and knowledge based within Stevenson College Edinburgh to help stimulate long term business growth and profitability.

Visit the Knowledge Transfer section of this site to find out how your business can benefit.

Founded in 2008, Convergence UK is a multi-disciplined technology company based in Livingston. The company provides fully integrated support and maintenance services within the Office Equipment, IT, Telecoms and Security and Surveillance systems markets.

Business Requirement

Convergence UK is an innovative and progressive company with ambitious growth and expansion plans. Continually striving to find new ways of using existing technologies and exploring opportunities for market diversification is central to the company’s business strategy.

Their current phase of growth involves expanding their range of services into the Video Analytics market, with additional technologies being developed for the future. As a relatively new company, Convergence UK did not have a robust and comprehensive recruitment strategy in place to cope with their planned expansion.

Although the Directors had been involved in managing recruitment projects at various levels in the past, they felt that a more strategic approach, designed specifically for the company, was required to ensure that they could support their expansion plans.

Solution

SCE Enterprise was approached to help Convergence UK develop a comprehensive recruitment strategy and develop procedures to ensure its effective implementation into the business. Funding was made available to enable SCE Enterprise to undertake this project through the Scottish Funding Council College Innovation Voucher Scheme.

The new recruitment strategy had to be suited to recruiting a diverse range of skill sets and capabilities, given the multi-disciplined nature of their business. It included producing guidelines and templates for writing job descriptions, online adverts and interview questionnaires which the Directors would be able to further develop in the future. The company has already benefitted from SCE Enterprise’s involvement through quickly and effectively recruiting key personnel to different areas of their business, whilst reducing overall recruitment and advertising costs.

Testimonial

“As a result of our involvement with SCE Enterprise we have been able to examine our recruitment strategy and increase the potential of attracting the right type of candidate for the positions we have to offer. Because of the nature of our business it was extremely difficult to define the characteristics of the individuals required.

Working with SCE Enterprise gave us an independent view of the techniques required when building complex job descriptions. There is no doubt in my mind that, as a result of employing the techniques mentioned above, we have been able to attract candidates who match our actual requirements. We have also ensured that the time spent during the recruitment process has decreased significantly.”

Ronnie Tappenden, Director, Convergence UK

For more information on how your business can access the skills, expertise and knowledge based in SCE Enterprise, visit the Knowledge Transfer section of our website.

The course provides an understanding of the relationship between food hygiene, food poisoning and food spoilage, the socio-economic costs of poor food hygiene and the role hazard analysis in ensuring food safety.

Graham Walker, REHIS Director of Training said:  “I would like to congratulate the College, the REHIS presenters and the course candidates involved in achieving this credit pass rate in the REHIS Intermediate Food Hygiene Course. Candidates must get 80% or over in the written examination and to achieve five credit passes in one exam is rare.”

With new and tougher health and safety penalties for businesses, training has never been more necessary. SCE Enterprise offers a broad range of courses to provide a solid foundation in hazard identification and the management of health and safety issues.

The course participants from local food related businesses are well aware of SCE Enterprises’s excellent track record as a professional trainer in food hygiene.  Shuan Marley, Head of Business Development at SCE Enterprise said:
“We are delighted at the high standard of qualifications achieved by those trained at SCE Enterprise.  Our courses continue to be popular with local employers and recent courses have reached their full quota of participants.  Even in times of economic downturn, employers understand that food hygiene standards must be maintained and view this training as essential.”
 
The Intermediate Food Hygiene Course consists of tutor led sessions with focused discussion of theoretical perspectives as applied to the work place. Video materials and group activities are used as appropriate.  It lasts for three and a half days and the next course starts in June 2010 . 

Elementary courses are also available.  For more information telephone 0131 535 4800 or e mail enquiries@sce-enterprise.com .

This four day course is designed to show how safety and health can and should be treated as an integral part of a manager’s responsibilities.  It is suitable for supervisors and managers from a range of organisations who are required to manage efficiently and effectively in compliance with both the organisation’s safety policy and health and safety legislation.

Iain Williams (Director at Cleen Rite 2000 Ltd ) said, “We found the this course to be  professionally presented and very informative. It helps us to understand our liabilities and  responsibilities to health and safety.  It also demonstrates to our clients that we are serious about running a health and safety compliant business”.

The IOSH Managing Safely course can enhance career prospects within a range of industrial and commercial sectors and further study could include the NEBOSH National General Certificate in Occupational Safety and Health .

To book on the next IOSH Managing Safely course at SCE Enterprise taking place on 9, 10, 16 and 17 June in Edinburgh, visit the course page here .  The course costs £375.

The majestic view of Edinburgh Castle was fitting as the local business community and senior staff from Edinburgh’s Colleges gathered early morning at the Point Hotel to discuss how they can work together to make Scotland more successful.

Introductions were provided by Brian Lister OBE, Principal of Stevenson College Edinburgh who emphasised Edinburgh Colleges’ commitment to working with the business community to make a “real difference” in providing quality training and support to local business.

The first speaker, Councillor Tom Buchanan , the Convenor of Economic Development, City of Edinburgh Council, admitted it had been “challenging times” for Edinburgh with the concentration of financial services providers but despite the downturn the City has not experienced the high unemployment predicted.  Edinburgh’s three Colleges, Stevenson College Edinburgh , Jewel and Esk and Edinburgh’s Telford College had contributed in providing a “highly skilled workforce” who can adapt to change.  He said: “The business community has a fantastic resource in the Colleges of Edinburgh and it is affordable.”

James Thomson followed; a highly respected member of the Edinburgh business community and founder of the famous Witchery Restaurant .  James also owns the Tower Restaurant and the Prestonfield House Hotel .  He congratulated the Colleges on all working together and encouraged business to increase their training during tough times as “the more training staff receive, the better ambassadors they are for your business and the more you will sell”.

The final speaker from industry, Stuart Gray, Marketing Director at Knockhill Racing joined the business in 1985 when he was still a student at College studying sports management.  He now works closely with local colleges who input into their marketing strategy and implementation.  Teams of students are set marketing challenges and the winners are given a budget of £5,000 to implement their ideas.  As many of Knockhill’s visitors are young people the students know how best to target them with promotional messages and provide “cutting edge ideas”.

Jane Hollin, the first speaker on behalf of the colleges is Training and Consultancy Manager of Management and Labour Studies at Stevenson College Edinburgh. Having worked as a business consultant in the private sector Jane understands the challenges of reduced budgets, increased workloads and trying to keep staff motivated.

In adapting to these challenges the colleges are providing more “virtual learning, different entry levels so they can be more flexible in the service they offer to businesses”.

Jane works closely with awarding bodies to ensure that courses tailor made for business receive formal qualifications.  She concluded: “Everyone has to continually learn but it must be cost effective to invest in training.”

Then Jane Feore from Jewel and Esk College outlined how the Creative Industries can add value to business.  She highlighted the 2KT project where knowledge transfer to business is funded up to £5,000 with the company matching this investment with their time to implement the learning.  Jane also talked of the state-of-the-art facilities available at colleges including, TV and recording studios, digital media suites, conference facilities and staff who are highly trained in 3D animation.  These facilities offer businesses cost effective solutions to promote themselves in a digital world.

The final speaker Alex Logue from Edinburgh’s Telford College talked about their partnership with Historic Scotland where 120 staff had been trained in five months on stone masonry conservation; a highly specialised field.

The session was closed by Tom Drake, Chairman at Jewel and Esk College and the audience had many questions resulting in a healthy debate on the challenges facing the tourism industry.  Afterwards there was time for networking, the exchange of business and the promise to meet up to explore how training can improve business performance.

Alison explained what IP is and why it’s important. “Creations of the mind” may sound vague but when it’s put in the context of the value of a company versus its assets then the importance of IP becomes all too clear.  Goggle was provided as an example.  With a market capitalisation of $140 billion, their tangible assets are worth £3.2 billion and the rest is attributed to its IP including the Google brand, trademarks, software, patents and copyrights.  IP has become the most important asset of this century and the currency of a knowledge based economy.

In times of recession businesses have to think more creatively about introducing new products and how to achieve cost efficiencies through technology.  Collaboration with educational establishments offers them access to research and the ability to work with experts across a range of disciplines.
 
How IP impacts on the education sector was the key question for the audience and the importance of understanding IP issues when working with business in knowledge transfer schemes.

If a college is disclosing details of research and technical ideas to another party (potential business partner) we were strongly advised to get them to sign a Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs) which are legally-binding documents that enable you to record the terms under which you exchange secret information.
But rather than try to “get the best deal” from businesses, we were urged to take a reasonable and commercial approach when working with partners.  Businesses spend large budgets and use their resources to get products to market so it is only fair they share in the financial rewards.

A delegate at the seminar, Karen Donaldson, is the Employee Engagement and Knowledge Transfer Manager at Dundee College.  Karen found the seminar “of great value” as IP is a key issue in many of the knowledge transfer projects she’s working on.  Karen agreed with the collaborative approach when working with partners, she said:
“When approaching businesses the mindset must to be win-win.  How can this benefit both the business and the College?  We must approach knowledge transfer with an open mind but we need to be fully informed of the IP implications.”
Another delegate, Pamela Slater, External Relations Manager at Kilmarnock College enjoyed the seminar and praised Alison Bryce on her “excellent delivery” of a complex area.  She concluded: “The transfer of knowledge for the greater benefit of the Scottish economy is important for future growth.  As facilitators of this process it is our duty to keep up-to-date with IP issues.”

At SCE Enterprise, the training and commercial arm of Stevenson College Edinburgh, we offer a range of IOSH health and safety courses.

Due to overwhelming demand, SCE Enterprise has added a further IOSH Managing Safely course, scheduled to take place in June 2010.  Visit the course page here for dates, course content and to book onto the course.

Alternatively, email us or call us on 0131 535 4800 to discuss your health and safety training requirements.

SCE Enterprise will collaborate with the company to devise and implement a new recruitment strategy to support their next phase of growth and expansion.

Liam Conway, 2KT Business Development Executive at SCE Enterprise, said, “This 10 week project will provide the company with a robust framework to help achieve its recruitment targets in the coming year, while reducing costs.”

For more information on funds available to companies to work with SCE Enterprise on Innovation or Knowledge Transfer projects, please email Liam Conway or call 0131 535 4800.