Ambassadors - East Midlands
Career Chain - Dedicated support to retain skills in the East Midlands
Career Chain was developed in response to the recession and has helped more than 1,000 individuals and 71 businesses since it was launched in early 2009.
The East Midlands Development Agency (emda) has made a total Career Chain investment of £2.2m to retain the skills in the region from workers facing redundancy in hard hit sectors. It is hoped that by supporting the engineering and construction workforce now,skills and productivity will be retained in the region and enhanced for the long term a s the economy picks up and demand increases. Career chain has helped more than 1,000 individuals and 71 businesses to date. By county Career Chain has helped Derbyshire, 166 individuals and 18 businesses, Leicestershire, 158 individuals and 20 businesses, Lincolnshire, 125 individuals and 9 businesses, Northamptonshire, 123 individuals and 7 businesses and Nottinghamshire, 487 individuals and 17 businesses.
East Midlands Regional Award Winner, Small
Employer; Rushcliffe Day Nursery
Outstanding Nursery Hailed by Ofsted
A day nursery business has won high acclaim from Ofsted thanks to a comprehensive staff training programme.
Rushcliffe Day Nurseries is made up of two Nottinghamshire nurseries caring for children aged 0-5 years. Ruddington Day Nursery was established in 1999, followed by Radcliffe-on-Trent Day Nursery five years later.
In 2002, Ofsted took over the registration of childcare providers. It introduced National Daycare Standards, ruling that half of all staff directly involved with looking after children had to be qualified to at least NVQ Level 2.
This put Rushcliffe Day Nurseries in a difficult position. It struggled to meet the new standards, suffered excessive staff absence and high turnover.
To come up to Ofsted's new standards the nursery needed extra training to develop skills in a range of subjects including child protection, special needs first aid and food hygiene. It also required a Graduate Early Years Professional (EYPS) in both day nurseries by 2015 and foundation degrees for staff.
Name : Frank Lord
Through Frank's passion for learning and skills he won a special secretary of state commended NTA in1994 and followed on to Chair the East Midlands Judging Panel.
Based on his passion and belief in people development and business excellence Frank has helped build many very successful businesses. Frank is also an experienced director and Chairman on many boards; 14 public and voluntary including the BBC, Employment and Skills, Education Business Partnerships and 11 private sector including Managing Director of one of the largest UK Skills Providers (Protocol).
