Tues 18th Nov, Park Plaza Westminster Bridge, London

STAR REFRIGERATION CELEBRATES SUCCESS OF RECENT GRADUATES AND ANNOUNCES NATIONWIDE INDUSTRIAL REFRIGERATION APPRENTICESHIP OPPORTUNITIES

Posted on by Astrid Prado

The UK’s largest industrial refrigeration contractor has launched its 2023 Apprenticeship Programme, announcing new apprenticeship vacancies in London, Oxford, Bristol, Derby, Leeds, Manchester, Newcastle, Glasgow and Aberdeen.

Star Refrigeration has announced the opening of its Nationwide Industrial Refrigeration Engineering Apprenticeship Programme and the success of two recent graduates, Jack Flinn and Calum Plunkett. Both have successfully completed Star’s three-year apprenticeship programme, demonstrating their hard work and dedication.

In line with one of the company’s five core values ‘Developing Young People’, the company’s apprenticeship programme provides an opportunity for young people to gain hands-on experience, earn a salary, and achieve qualifications in a fast-growing industry. Star are committed to providing equal opportunities and are looking for responsible and motivated candidates to join its inclusive workforce.

James Ward, Star Refrigeration Operations Director, said, “We are focused on offering this opportunity to candidates who are looking to start or advance their careers in industrial refrigeration. Our apprenticeship programme has proven to be a great success, with Jack and Calum as great examples of the potential for growth and success in this industry.

We wish them the best in their future endeavours and encourage others to join our team.”

Industrial refrigeration apprentices at Star Refrigeration receive a competitive salary with six-monthly increments based on key performance indicators, starting at £14,460 per annum when joining and rising to £27,720 in year three.

The apprenticeship programme offers a unique combination of on-the-job training and college-based studies. Apprentices will work full-time and receive hands-on training from Star’s experienced engineers, as well as off-the-job training at college alongside apprentices from other industries. As part of Star’s ‘Work, Earn and Learn’ program, participants will graduate as industrial refrigeration engineers with the practical skills and confidence to work independently in their new career.

The apprenticeship covers a range of topics, including service, maintenance and installation of heavy-duty heating and cooling systems. It also covers important learning in health and safety, system optimisation, fault diagnosis and rectification, electrical systems, and customer care. Apprentices will gain qualifications, including an initial engineering qualification and NVQs at Levels 2 & 3 in Service & Maintenance Engineering.

Upon graduation, successful apprentices will be offered permanent employment as Industrial Refrigeration Engineers with opportunities for further progression through Star’s engineering grading system and development into other areas of the business. Access to further education programmes is also available.

James Ward said, “The Industrial Refrigeration Engineering Apprenticeship Programme provides a structured and proactive approach to managing staff growth and succession planning while also promoting an opportunity for mentorship and leadership within the wider technician team.

Apprentices bring a fresh perspective to the workplace, providing a good sense check of current practices and inspiring continuous improvement. With the ability to mould apprentices to meet the specific needs of the company, Star provides training pathways that focus on fundamental learning and modern engineering techniques, ensuring successful completion of the programme for 95% of apprentices.”

Star Refrigeration are an Investors in People Platinum, Investors in Young People Gold, and Young Person’s Guarantee accredited employer. The company has been employing apprentices for over 50 years, making it a top choice for those seeking hands-on experience and training in the field.

With an average of over 15 years of service, Star employees are a testament to the company’s commitment to investing in its people. Many senior members of the Star team started their careers as apprentices and 25% of the current management team joined the company through the apprenticeship or trainee programme.

“Having recently celebrated 25 years with the company and having started as a trainee myself, I appreciate how valuable a good start is. I have enjoyed every minute of my time in this industry and would encourage anyone to choose it as a career”, said James Ward.

Star Refrigeration are dedicated to providing equal opportunities. To apply for the Industrial Refrigeration Engineering Apprenticeship Programme, candidates must have 4 GCSEs / Nat 5s (Grades 4-9) or an NVQ/ BTEC qualification in a technical subject.

For more information on the Industrial Refrigeration Apprenticeship Programme and to apply, visit https://www.star-ref.co.uk/home-page/careers/opportunities/apprenticeships/engineering/

GOVERNMENT ANNOUNCES EXTENSION TO THE EXECUTIVE FORMATION PERIOD FOR NI

Posted on by Neesha Ramsingh-Cleary

The UK Government have announced an extension to the period for Executive formation to allow time and space for NI parties to work together to return to government as Protocol discussions continue between the UK and EU.

The existing period for Executive formation under the terms of the Northern Ireland (Executive Formation Act) 2022 came to an end at midnight on 19th January 2023.

The new Northern Ireland (Executive Formation) Bill, which was introduced on February 9th now extends the period by a year to 18th January 2024, while retaining the power to name an election date any time during the period,

This placed the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, the Rt Hon Chris Heaton-Harris, under a legal duty to hold an Assembly election within 12 weeks but, having spoken to political representatives, businesses, and communities in Northern Ireland, he concluded that another election at this time would not be the best course of action.

The following day Mr Heaton-Harris hosted NI party leaders at a roundtable in Belfast to urge them to restore the Executive as soon as possible. He commented;

“Over a year has passed since the then-First Minister of Northern Ireland resigned. Twelve months and one Assembly election later, it is disappointing that people in Northern Ireland still do not have the strong devolved government that they deserve. The restoration of the Executive, in line with the Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement, remains my top priority. I will continue to do everything I can to help the Parties work together to make that happen.”

BIRMINGHAM & SOLIHULL BEES SECURE THREE-YEAR SPONSORSHIP DEAL

Posted on by hayley.smith@oakland-international.com

Birmingham & Solihull RFC ‘Bees’ were delighted to hear that they had retained the sponsorship support of local family business Oakland International for the next three-years.

The Bees are effectively a small business with significant overheads including energy costs, pitch and estates maintenance, so having the knowledge that Oakland International have committed to supporting them for another three years means they can continue to plan and develop for future generations of players.

Chair and Head of Senior Rugby at Birmingham & Solihull RFC, Dr Arturo Lupoli or ‘Lou’ explained: “Oakland International’s support for the next 3 years is invaluable as it allows us to invest in our youth section and our infrastructure which, given that much of it was built in the 60’s, requires much tender, loving care. It also means we can employ a physio to support the rehabilitation of injured players and work with them to promote injury prevention.”

The club’s first team have a strong history of semi-professional rugby and although those days are now gone the club is still a vibrant community rugby club. Bees have had a successful youth section, with some players signing professional contracts outside of Bees. One of these was Noah Heward, who now plays for Premiership side Bristol Bears, and is formerly a Worcester Warriors player, playing with many of the current squad at youth level.

Added Lou: “Our new squad is made up of players that have overall, come through our youth system with an average age of under 23. Unfortunately, the pandemic has had a significant impact on numbers, but our ambition is still to play at level 7 of the rugby pyramid by 2025, that’s why so much focus is now on returning our youth section to its former cohort of some 250 youngsters spanning all age groups.”

Oakland International’s Redditch Depot Manager Luke Attwell, and son of owners Dean and Sallie Attwell said: “Oakland have been an avid supporter of the Bee’s for over 15 years, both formally and informally, with former chairman Dai Phillips developing the relationship with my parents when I joined just as a M&J player.

“Although at present I’m rehabilitating from a long-term injury, I am proud to be a player on the senior team having come up through the youth section from the age of 11. Receiving so much support over the years from the club, coaches and volunteers it’s an absolute pleasure to know the business is continuing to support the club. It’s vital that local businesses get involved with community groups and sporting teams which then benefit home-grown players of the future and the wider community through sport.”

DON’T MISS OUT ON THE MAINTAINING FOOD SAFETY THROUGH CHALLENGING TIMES TALK FROM THE FSA

Posted on by Neesha Ramsingh-Cleary

The British Frozen Food Federation is delighted to be welcoming our keynote speaker for the Technical Conference Anne Gravett, Head of Stakeholder Engagement, Receipt & Management at the Food Standards Agency.

Anne works in the FSA Incidents and Resilience focusing on incident detection and prevention and her team’s remit is food safety situational awareness and stakeholder engagement.

Anne started her career with plants and agronomy and ended up in food safety. She’s worked in policy, enforcement, resilience and emergency response which included the UK national food/feed sampling system rollout and also led EU exit planning for FSA incidents. Annes’ key interest is using data/information to improve food safety and has close ties with WHO INFOSAN who they now use to replace RASFF, and sits on the INFOSAN Advisory Group.

Anne will be talking about maintaining Food Safety through challenging times. The presentation will give insight into how we work differently since the EU exit & Covid to protect consumers from food safety incidents; covering new proactive systems and approaches, and highlighting the crucial role that industry plays in this process.

You can still book your tickets to this year’s Technical Conference here.

IT TAKES ALL KINDS OF MINDS

Posted on by Neesha Ramsingh-Cleary

‘ITAKOM’, (It Takes All Kinds of Minds) is taking place at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre on 13 & 14 March.  ITAKOM is organised by the Salvesen Mindroom Centre in partnership with the Salvesen Mindroom Research Centre, part of Edinburgh University. It will gather 50 leading experts, whose scientific and practice led experience of neurodevelopmental conditions will be explored through the lenses of Education, Healthcare, Community and Workplace.

The consensus experts, supported by official statistics, is that as many as 20% of all school children are neurodivergent: that is to say children with ADHD, Autism, Dyslexia, Dyspraxia and Tourette Syndrome (and often a combination of these challenges).  Unless society is aware of, and understands neurodiversity, the transition into adulthood and then into the workplace is often extremely challenging.  However, neurodivergent people have talents and skills that are valuable and this conference will certainly provide knowledge, insights and practical solutions to enable more people to get into work and to facilitate improvements in the workplace for the benefit of both employees and employers.

View the full programme which provides more information about the conference.

To learn more about the conference and the valuable work of the two centres behind ITAKOM:

www.itakom.org

www.mindroom.org

https://salvesen-research.ed.ac.uk

 

NFCU WARNS BUSINESSES TO BE VIGILANT TO SUPPLY CHAIN RISKS DUE TO THE COST OF LIVING CRISIS

Posted on by Neesha Ramsingh-Cleary

The BFFF have recently received the following advice from colleagues at the National Food Crime Unit:

The rise in the cost of living, with its multiple causal factors, is the biggest theme affecting food businesses and consumers. We are aware that businesses are continuing to face rising energy costs affecting aspects such as production, refrigeration, drying and transport whilst simultaneously facing raw material supply chain disruption and price increases. We are also observing shifts in consumer shopping habits with a greater focus on affordable staples and, for example, cheaper proteins. Cost of living pressures may mean consumers – and businesses – are even more attracted by competitively priced products than usual.

Businesses are urged to remain vigilant to risks within their supply chains, such as product specification divergence during these times. Offenders may exploit opportunities linked to stages in production where costs can be cut, or financial gains can be maximised. Vulnerable areas may include refrigeration and heating costs, waste disposal processes and sourcing of alternative raw ingredients.

Businesses should do as much as they can to ensure products have full traceability and are what they claim to be, to ensure that they and their consumers are protected from deception. Where this vigilance uncovers suspicious behaviours, questionable product quality or other matters of concern which may point towards fraud, businesses are encouraged to explore this further and to report this to the NFCU.

To report a food crime call Food Crime Confidential: 020 7276 8787 or email: foodcrime@food.gov.uk .

An online confidential reporting tool can also be found here

THE NETWORK AND PROJECTS COORDINATOR AT THE LINCOLN INSTITUTE FOR AGRI-FOOD TECHNOLOGY SPEAKING AT THE TECHNICAL CONFERENCE

Posted on by Neesha Ramsingh-Cleary

The network and projects coordinator at the Lincoln Institute for Agri-Food Technology (LIAT) at the University of Lincoln, Steve Brewer, will be speaking at this year’s Technical Conference.

Steve’s background includes the UKRI- Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)-funded Internet of Food Things Network Plus, an interdisciplinary initiative which is working to reduce food waste, increase nutritional value and productivity, and reduce environmental impact across the supply chain, plus a number of Innovate UK projects including Trusted Bytes and Digital Sandwich. Steve is a part-time doctoral candidate at the University of Southampton investigating the role of a previous Network Plus, IT as a Utility as a Living Laboratory.

The food system is facing many challenges today: waste, cost, nutrition, safety, authenticity, and climate change. In the sense of digital information, data offers a range of solutions through technologies such as robots, AI, IoT, drones and telecommunications. Steve will present various insights and potential solutions based on his work and experience.

You can view the full conference day programme here.

CELEBRATE VALENTINES DAY BY BECOMING TWO PEAS IN A POD

Posted on by coral.russell@britishgrowers.org

Have you left it a little bit late for a Valentines gift for your partner? Look no further… Yes Peas! have got the pea-fect way to show your partner how much you love them and mark the most romantic day of the year – by literally becoming two peas in a pod!

In the UK, peas are sown from February through to July so it’s the perfect time to show your grand gesture of love with peas.

All you have to do, is click here, to tell Yes Peas! yours and your partners names and they will officially name two peas in the same pod after you both. They will even give you a digital Valentine’s Day card as a symbol of your newly named peas and to show your partner you love them, and you will even get a handy map showing which field your peapod will be planted in.

If that’s not enough, Yes Peas! have also got some delicious recipe ideas for your Valentine’s dinner.