The daffodils are now out in full force and Easter is just around the corner… spring is certainly coming!
At Starting Off, as we welcome the month of April and with it a new quarter, we’re looking back at some highlights from March, as well as ahead to what we’ve got in store this April 2022…
Out and about…
It’s hard to believe that after 2 years of on-again, off-again lockdown measures and countless cancellations we seem to finally be getting out and about to in-person events again. Our recruitment team, in particular, have been putting their business cards to good use this month…
- 8th March: We went to the Northamptonshire and Milton Keynes Chamber of Commerce expo at Kettering conference centre
- 10th March: You would have found us at the ‘biggest networking experience in the Midlands’ – The Midlands Business Network Live Expo returns to Coventry.
- 18th March: We went to the Milton Keynes Buzz F2F event
- 30th March: Charlotte attended another Chamber of Commerce event – The Maximise Your Membership Chambers event
This year, National Careers Week 2022 was from the 7th – the 12th of March. National Careers Week is an annual, week-long campaign promoting careers guidance and free resources in education across the UK. We joined with a number of schools including the Northampton School for Boys and the Higham Ferrers School in Northamptonshire and the Chenderit School in Oxfordshire to attend their career events and speak to students about apprenticeships. It was also a pleasant surprise to bump into some of our clients… and even an ex-apprentice of our own!
The all-staff meeting
March also saw the usually remote working Starting Off staff reunited in the office for our quarterly staff meeting and annual staff awards. The Liz Ralph’s ‘Players Player Award was established last year, in memory of a long-standing member of the Starting Off team who was always there to help, advise and support us all when we needed it. This year, we had 5 nominees for the award and the results were so close, we had to include runner ups as well! Well done to Sarah Robinson and Hannah Corby – our Players Player award runners up and Becky Potter for her Special Recognition Award. Congrats to Sarah Chisnall for winning the 2022 ‘Liz Ralphs Players Player’ award.
In other news…
Did you spot us in the Northamptonshire Chamber of Commerce’s InBusiness magazine this month? You can find us on page 22 of the February/March issue where we share news of our OFSTED ‘Good’ rating and our big expansion plans as we take our services nationwide.
We’ve also joined the ‘Friends of Derngate’ Business Club at the Royal & Derngate, which allows us to support our local theatre as well as treat our staff to employee benefits; something our theatre-loving assessor Katie Allen is particularly excited about!
We’ve also been welcoming some new faces over the past few months. We now have trainers Lucy, Mikaela, Sarah R and Nikki joining the training team’s ranks. We’re also expecting to welcome some new members of the recruitment team in April too!
Coming up…
As April gets underway, we’ve got a few things in the diary already…
- The National Minimum Wage increases; this is particularly relevant to apprentices, whose minimum wage is increasing to £4.81 per hour, the same rate as it is for under 18s. Find out more about the National Minimum Wage changes here: National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage rates – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
- One of our trainers, Mikaela has already run a half-marathon this month – that’s a whopping 21 Kilometres of running… and we couldn’t be more proud! She’s still taking donations for her chosen charity: Alzheimer’s Society. To make a donation, please visit: Mikaela Groves is fundraising for Alzheimer’s Society (justgiving.com)
- We’ll be saying goodbye to a longstanding and valued member of our team – Jessica Berrill will be moving on this month. Jess has worn many hats at Starting Off from assessor, recruiter, manager, and event organiser extraordinaire! We’re sorry to see her go but wish her all the best moving forward.
