Last Minute Blog Time...

Agggh... where has the week gone?

This has been a very busy week for us all...in a good way :0)

We have had Alex, our work experience student with us from South Devon College - what a credit to herself and her tutors...a great girl with, I am sure, a great future. Thank you Alex for all you have done for us.

Our group participating in the Graduate Teachers Programme accompanied Bill Callaghan, our Education Specialist, on visits to the Torquay Job Centre for a“customer journey” as well as Connections and the Town Hall. The visits were part of the 6 week training course the Teachers are undertaking to learn about the UK Education system and application process.Thank you to Torquay Job Centre, Connections and the Town Hall for allowing us the opportunity to visit!

The week started with a vist to St Loyes in Exeter - a really great place with some fantastic people and opportunities. we are very pleased to be working with them and feel sure that the students who are going to ejoy their placements there will have a marvelous time.

Tuesday saw another really good network meeting at the Grand Hotel - such a good group of people and a lovely view of the bay to enjoy with a hearty breakfast.

Wednesday brought a Lupton House in Brixham... what a great place. Met Janet and Francis, placed a student with them and discovered an exciting new venue for our student meetings - and all thanks to 'Brixham' Bill Callaghan from Palletopia - Thank you Bill.

Thusday was student meeting day and all our students enjoyed a bit of Torbay culture at the Torquay Museum - thanks once again to the museum staff for a very enjoyable afternoon

And now its Friday... 3rd Friday at Ivybridge, huge thanks to Michael Clark from Clark Jennings Solicitors. He gave a very informative talk on the perils of Social Media and steps we could all take to protect ourselves and our businesses.

New couour printer arrived today so chaos in the office as we had to install and find the thing - not sure why we couldnt 'find' it as we could all see it! :0) However, thanks ti Kornel from 1-zero-1 and Nick our 'copier' guy... everything works - woo hoo!

Have a wonderful weekend...Radio 1 visiting Paignton and the Olympic Torch making it's way accross the Bay... in addition to the usuall fun stuff available to everyone lucky enough to be in Tornay this weekend.

See you next week :0)

Manic May....

What a great start to the month of May...we have just finished installing our new server and computers for all of the office - excellent! However this did cause a little stress as we were nearly two days without e-mail, then a Bank Holiday which was 5 days in total...when my Blackberry finally got its act together it just sat there pinging for about 20 minutes as it caught up with all the mail!!! If I missed anyone or you sent me something and got no reply please re send and we will get back to you.

However, it's now all done and working well, huge thanks for all the work done by 1-zero-1 in Torquay - thanks Chris, Mark and the guys! Even in the midst of all the chaos of the upgrade we still found an amazing coincidence...Kornel, one of the 1-zero-1 team was one of our students!... in 2005 he came here for his work placement experience and then last year applied for a job with 1-zero-1 ... and 7 years after his placement he arrived at our offices to upgrade our computer system...brilliant news! Well done Kornel, proof indeed that the Leonardo mobility projects really work...

Meanwhile....

I have been out and about calling at several businesses and shops in Paignton looking for, and finding, some new opportunities for a group of students coming over to enjoy 3 weeks working in shops and offices...thank you to all those businesses who welcomed the idea and have given so many young people the opportunity to visit Torbay... so big thanks to, in no particular order... Scoops, Sugazone, Riviera Gifts, Mainline, Bijou B, Bay Fashions and many many more.

Thursday saw our weekly student meeting at the lovely Dots Pantry...cream tea and coffee, absolutely brilliant - the shop was completely full with our students and all had a fantastic time, and to cap it off it was a year to the day that Dots Pantry first opened - Happy first birthday, may you have many many more. Thank you to Dot, John, all your staff and a special thank you to the two lovely ladies who were sitting having a quiet coffee in Dots when about 50 young European students arrived in a way that only young Europeans can...noisily! Thank you both for your understanding.

Went to another great 2nd Friday network meeting at Cockington Court this morning...very interesting discussion re Foxy Lingerie by Nicola Fox. Sad and very enlightening story of how the global financial problems impact on small business. Hope to see you all at the next meeting. On that subject the next Breafast Networking Club meeting is next Tuesday 15th May at the Grand Hotel (07.15 am). Hope to see you there :0)

Well there we are...another busy week and the start of what will become a manic month...we have a great many students arriving and loads to do to ensure they enjoy their time here in Torbay. So from a week that started with torrential rain I am sat here getting ready for the weekend with sun shining throughj the window...it will be a good weekend in Torbay - get out there and enjoy it, perhaps even grab an ice-cream from one of Paigntons newest businesses, Scoops! Have a great week-end all...Ciao !