11 April 2013 Highlands and Islands Enterprise, in partnership with Scottish Development International, is offering an Intermediate Preparing to Export course for companies that are already exporting to 2/3 markets and would like to further develop their export capabilities. • Course kick-off: 2-day residential on 11th & 12th April 2013 (1 nights accommodation and dinner will be provided) • Course continues on: 4 additional sessions held over 6-8 weeks: 25th April, 9th May, 23rd May and 6th June 2013 Location: The Norseman Hotel, Wick This programme is fully funded by Smart Exporter, an ambitious new international trade skills programme, and is targeted at Scottish companies that are already exporting and wish to develop their export capabilities to grow their business.
Winter break over! The Tea Cosy / Simply Unique will be open from Easter onwards, a warm welcome waits. New exciting menu and some old favourites.
After the first round of the Scottish EDGE competition, where over £500,000 was given to help 17 of Scotland’s brightest entrepreneurs, they are ready to start all over again! This next round will award in the region of £750,000 to young Scottish businesses. The closing date for round two applications is 5pm Tuesday 16 April 2013.
20 March 2013 The Government Support for Business R&D and Innovation event is a free workshop to highlight the wide range of Government support available to help small and medium sized enterprises invest in R&D and innovation and to grow their businesses. Each session will be led by a representative from the relevant delivery body, including HMRC, the Technology Strategy Board, the UK Intellectual Property Office, the Design Council and HIE.
Scotland’s Chief Statistician today published Results from the 2012 December Agricultural Survey, covering winter sown crops, hay and silage production, livestock and machinery. This Statistical Publication provides commentary and graphics on the latest data and trends over the past ten years.
Provisional figures for births, deaths, adoptions, marriages and civil partnerships registered during 2012 are published today by the National Records of Scotland. The statistics show that marriages in Scotland have risen for the third consecutive year and are now at their highest figure since 2005.
Payments from the Less Favoured Area Support Scheme will start to arrive in bank accounts from Friday, Rural Affairs Secretary Richard Lochhead confirmed earlier this week. The Scottish Government has now authorised payment of 10,190 claims to farmers and crofters working in some of the most challenging conditions in Europe, worth £56 million – around 86 per cent of the total £65.5 funding for the scheme.
Memorandum of Understanding seeks to strengthen economy & bring new jobs in the Cromarty Firth. The Highland Council and the Cromarty Firth Port Authority are to sign a partnership agreement to promote co-operation and joint working, with the aim of creating good quality employment opportunities and facilitating the development of new and existing port facilities at Invergordon and in the Cromarty Firth.
Week commencing 11th March 2013 Energy: Applications from Meygen Ltd and Moray Offshore Renewables Ltd will go before next Tuesday’s meeting of the Highland Council’s North Planning Applications Committee. You can view the applications at http://www.highland.gov.uk/yourcouncil/committees/npac-comms/2013-03-19-npac-ag.htm Business Services: Good news this week that recent investment by HIE in local company Escape Technologies has helped create 4 new jobs, bringing the company’s staffing complement to 9 as it moves into new premises in Thurso town centre.
Inspired by the success of the London 2012 Olympics’ Gamesmakers, Mackays Hotel in Wick has become the latest organisation in the UK to gain national recognition for its dedication to excellent customer service, joining an elite segment of hospitality businesses that have achieved the status. The family run hotel received news this week that it is the first hotel in Caithness & Sutherland to be awarded WorldHost Recognised Business status, a training programme that was used to train the tens of thousands of staff and volunteers for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, and nearly one million people worldwide, in exceptional customer service.
There is a regular flow of abnormal loads, northwards over the A9 Kessock Bridge, which in the main includes outsized assembly parts for a range of important development initiatives within the Highland area. It is important for the progress of the Highland economy that such loads are progressed without unnecessary delay.
www.sruc.ac.uk/news Plant pathologists from Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC) are warning Scottish farmers that there is an almost unprecedented disease risk to spring barley this year after the heavy rains last season. After finding that in some regions nearly 50% of the seeds are infected with at least one strain of fungal disease they are stressing that farmers in all regions should get their seeds tested and treated to minimise the risk.
In recognising that tourism is the Highland’s biggest industry, members of the Council’s Planning Environment and Development Committee today agreed funding to VisitScotland of up to £270k in 2013/14. They also agreed that a further £80,000 be used to both deliver services directly by the Council’s tourism team and to provide discretionary funding to business or community groups undertaking tourism projects.
Highland Councillors have agreed a further enhancement of the model for the integration of health and care services across the authority. This involves the organisation of Allied Health Professional Services and Community Learning Disability Nurses, as well as some changes to the performance frameworks for both adult and children’s services.
With up to 45 minute delays at the Kessock Bridge North Drivers should consiider getting tyhe train at the recenly opened station at Conon and leave the car there to pick it up on returning north and avoid two trip sover the bridge to help ease conjestion. ScotRail today revealed figures showing a major increase in passengers using stations north of Inverness during the first month of the £18million Kessock Bridge refurbishment programme.
From 6 April 2013 employers will have to start reporting PAYE information to HMRC in real time. You may see this referred to as Real Time Information - or RTI.
Wick's DE shop under threat after the chain's bosses put most of their Scottish stores up for sale, recently. A total of 10 jobs are on the line taking the Wick and Thurso branches together.
A Caithness IT company is creating new jobs in the North of Scotland as it relocates to a new office in Thurso town centre. Escape Group is to move from the Janetstown Industrial Estate where it has been operating for three years.
Leader explains Council job statistics. The Leader of The Highland Council Councillor Drew Hendry is to write to the GMB trade union to tell them they have got the wrong end of the stick over job statistics.
Miller Construction is extending an invitation to subcontractors and suppliers based in the Caithness and Sutherland area to a Meet the Buyer event to find out more about future opportunities for local businesses in the area. As a Tier 1 contractor with hub North Scotland Limited, Miller Construction is preferred bidder on a £50m pipeline of work to be delivered over the next three years in Wick and Tain and is seeking suitable local partners to deliver these projects and others when they arise.