A chance to gain key skills and experience
Amanda Stainton is HR director for Portakabin, which is based in York.
The family-owned business has 1,750 employees and is planning to add 30 new recruits from the Kickstart Scheme.
“We’ve been very fortunate in that we haven’t had to furlough any of our employees, and we felt the Kickstart Scheme was a great opportunity to build on what we already do with apprenticeships,” says Amanda. “We’ve had over 40 apprentices over the past eight years, and Kickstart is another opportunity for young people to get some real experience and improve their skills.
“I have children of a similar age, and I understand the longer you spend out of work after coming out of education, the harder it is to get into it. Opportunities in areas like retail and hospitality have disappeared due to the pandemic, and we don’t want young people to get left behind.”
Portakabin will be able to offer a wide range of experience for its young recruits, as Amanda explains: “Because we’re a manufacturing organisation, we’ve got lots of opportunities here – within manufacturing, but also in marketing, IT, HR and in our commercial teams. We’ll be running programmes in terms of CV writing and interview techniques too, which will provide that extra set of skills and experiences that will hopefully mean they can be successful outside Portakabin, or perhaps join us as apprentices, if we have those opportunities available.”
BRADNOP Women’s Institute members come from a wide area, so it has been difficult to keep in touch, but we did not feel forgotten in any way.
Members telephoned each other, books arrived if you needed, and at Christmas a wonderful newsletter arrived, from our President June Walker, and a golden heart to hang on the tree, purchased from UNICEF to support a charity as we always do at Christmas time.
The golden heart is to remember our 50 years as a Women’s Institute and this unusual time, of not being able to enjoy each other’s company as we would wish.
Just in time, Diane Richardson managed to publish our 50 years cookery book. A little late to get to all, but how Diane and June got it printed in this strange year is no small feat! Thank you.
Anyone wishing to purchase a book before we have the chance to meet please get in touch with any committee member.
We hope you all had as good a Christmas time as we were allowed to, and kept well, and wish Everyone a Healthy Happy New Year.
Joan Clark
A RECENT report on a drink-driving bird-watcher ties in with a problem wider than the danger to life posed by such behaviour.
The RSPB reserve where we live is descrated with lager and tequila cans, often tossed out of reach of litter pickers, in watercourses and hedgerows, everywhere you look.
We pick up a hundred cans a month, easily. This is on top of the mounds of takeaway debris, bottles and dog bags.
There is a straightforward solution to this endangering of wildlife and blight on the beautiful walks that have become so essential in the current climate - make it worthwhile for the perpetrators to take their containers back for a refund.
The sugar tax has shown that these interventions work.
Les Hankin Wetley Rocks