Agency gets a gold as it welcomes staff

Sarah Delude (front left), of Boston, USA, with British consul general Harriet Cross (front right) and (back, from left) Tom Bridges, of Leeds City Council; Chloë Ellis, of RSM; and Sean Jarvis, of Huddersfield Town MORE than 16,000 jobs across Yorkshire have been created or safeguarded by investments made by SME funder Finance Yorkshire.

Since its launch seven years ago, Finance Yorkshire has invested in more than 500 small and mediumsized businesses across the region.

That has enabled those companies to increase their turnover by a total of £474m and attract a further £362m from other private sector sources.

The Finance Yorkshire fund achieved full investment of £113m last year. In addition, it has now fully repaid its debt finance. Future returns from investments will be used to create a legacy fund for future investment into the region.

Finance Investment was originally developed as a European initiative capitalised by grants from the UK Government, European Regional Development Fund and debt finance from the European Investment Bank.

Chief executive Alex McWhirter (pictured) said: “These economic output figures demonstrate the success of the Fund and its performance in surpassing all expectations when we launched it in 2010. At that time, we started with a £90m fund and over the course of our investment period, because of our success, we were able to secure an additional 30% funding to invest for the benefit of the region’s SMEs.” A HUDDERSFIELD agency has retained standard.

Stafflex, based at Chapel Hill, has retained Audited Education status with the Recruitment & Employment Confederation (REC).

The agency was assessed against the requirements of the Employment Agencies Act, the Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Business Regulations 2003 and the REC’s Code of Professional Practice.

Only 1% of recruitment agencies in the UK managed to achieve the REC Audited Education Gold status.

The initiative run by the REC, the professional body for the UK’s £31bn private recruitment industry, is the most comprehensive audit of its kind. It provides successful recruiters with an accreditation which confirms the agency is conducting its business ethically in accordance with the legal requirements and with the REC Code.

Rosie Stahelin, education team manager, said: “This accreditation demonstrates the high standard of service, commitment and professionalism that we deliver on a daily basis. Our clients can be confident that we adhere to the highest standards of best practice within the recruitment industry and education BUSINESSES from the USA have attended a series of trade events in Yorkshire.

Representatives from organisations in the manufacturing, media, technology and legal services sectors took part in the first trade mission from Boston to visit Yorkshire. The party was led by the British American Business Council of New England (BABCNE) and was accompanied by the British government’s consul general to New England, Harriet Cross. The delegation of 55 US businesses included Virgin Atlantic Airways and Massachusetts-based PR firm Hollywood Agency.

Among the people they met during the two-day mission to investigate trade and offshoring opportunities with firms in the Northern Powerhouse, was sector.” The accolade comes as the company welcomes four new starters as part of a drive into new sectors. Graham Black has joined as a project manager in the skilled trades division, bringing more than 30 years’ experience in the manufacturing, construction and engineering sectors.

David Hill, a former deputy head teacher, joins as a business development executive in the education team. He has more than 20 years teaching experience which includes Huddersfield Town commercial director Sean Jarvis. They also attended events in Leeds hosted by law firm Clarion; digital print and technology giant Paragon; education technology business Solutionpath; and audit, tax and consulting firm RSM. The US delegates also held meetings with Leeds City Region’s Local Enterprise Partnership, which covers Kirklees.

Rick McKenna, chief executive of Boston-based advertising and brand agency Wallwork Curry McKenna and president of BABCNE, said: “A strong US-British relationship is as important now as it has ever been and I very much hope that our visit will become the catalyst for a growth in international trade between our region of Boston in the US and Yorkshire.” secondments to schools with special measures.

Robbie Peto has been appointed as a business development executive in the commercial team, joining from his previous role as associate consultant at Hays Recruitment.

Nemi Alexis has also joined as a marketing executive. He was previously part of the marketing team at Yorkshire law firm Gordons LLP.

Brian Stahelin, managing director at Chapel Hill-based Stafflex, said: “We are very pleased to welcome all of our new people to Stafflex in what is a very exciting time for us.

“Their knowledge and experience will be invaluable as we look to strengthen our existing sectors as well as push into new sectors in the near future.”

Stafflex, established in 2000, provides qualified, skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled personnel to the education, office and industrial sectors.