Industry news

The UK government has announced an extension for SMEs to apply for the Apprenticeship Grant for Employers, giving employers until March 2014 to apply for the grant.

The grant of £1,500 was originally available during the 2012/2013 financial year, with the extension coming after positive feedback from participants.

In addition to being extended, the Apprenticeship Grant for Employers will allow employers to receive grants for increased numbers of apprentices, rising to a maximum of ten apprentices.

The grant is designed to encourage businesses with less than 1,000 employees to take on apprentices as part of a national effort to provide young people with employment opportunities.

The UK Border Agency (UKBA) are to place tender for a new border security system with integrated functionality.

New capabilities are to include integration with mobile devices and biometric functionality.

Currently employing two main security systems operated by Border Force, the UKBA have entered into a procurement process for support services for existing security systems with the additional capabilities. Support services will include current services including maintenance, development and testing services.

Amazon will hire an extra 100 staff for its London Digital Media Development Centre.

The new staff will include user-interface specialist, software development engineers and graphic designers. The new staff will be involved with new interactive digital services including games, TV and smart phone devices.

Opened in last September the Digital Media Development Centre houses brands including Amazon’s LOVEFiLM design and deployment team.

Genesis Cymru Wales 2 which aims to find work for the unemployed faces closure after failing to meet targets.

The Welsh government are looking to end the scheme ahead of schedule in June 2014 and stop £23 million in European government support.

Cymru Wales 2 was aimed at unemployed situated in deprived areas of Wales, offering support and advice including mentoring and help with childcare, interviews and training.

A Education Department spokesman said: "A recent internal review of Genesis Cymru Wales 2 has identified that the programme is under-performing in relation to some key performance outputs.”

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) have announced plans for a new super prison and the closure of six old prisons.

The new prison will be around 25 percent larger than the current largest facility with 2,000 places and will be located either in north-west England, north Wales or London.

The six prisons are to be closed based due to being "old and uneconomic" according to a MoJ statement.

A ministerial statement said: "Our strategy for the custodial estate is to ensure that we have sufficient places to meet the demand of the courts whilst securing best value for money for the taxpayer."

Network Rail is to carry out a significant investment campaign to develop IT services over the next five years totalling £333 million.

Investment will be focused on updating IT systems to take advantage of new technologies including mobile devices while driving cost savings.

Over technology investments include the development of GPS, thermal imagery and camera technology.

Network Rail commented: “Continued investment in IT will be essential if we are to continue improving the service that we deliver to our customers as well as reducing costs. We have therefore included a further £333m within our plan".

450 IT apprenticeships will be created in 2013 as part of a collaborative scheme between the National IT Partnership (NiTP) and BT.

The apprentices will receive training to meet BT requirements at a range of collages, apprentices will undergo a rapid training programme in order to develop skills.

The 450 new roles will be divided between five locations including Bedford, Portsmouth and Birmingham.

“We are delighted that, through this partnership with BT and NiTP, 100 new jobs have been created for young people in IT roles, said “Karen Price, e-skills UK chief executive”.

IT firms IBM and SAS have been placed as leaders of Big Data analytics due to their competitive predictive analytics solutions.

Research firm Forrester placed the two organisations at the top two leading businesses in market presence and strategy

Forrester views Big Data analytics as a growing market with increasing uptake from new customers.

A strong Christmas period has seen Sainsbury's report record-breaking sales, reporting like-for-like sales increases of 0.9 per cent over the Christmas period.

Sainsbury's was the only one out of the ‘big four’ supermarkets to increase its market share over the festive period, with rivals including Morrisons experiencing a drop in sales of 2.5 percent.

Justin King, chief executive of Sainsbury's, however acknowledged that the new year would represent a challenging time: “We expect the challenging economic backdrop to persist, with customers looking to re-balance their household budget after the festivities and so spending cautiously in the first few months of 2013".

Morrisons have stated that it is looking to accelerate its multi-channel delivery after poor sales over the Christmas period.

The failure of like-for-like sales appears to stem from the slow move of the supermarket giant to expand its online functionality.

Competitors including Tesco and Sainsbury's have managed to draw the lead on Morrisions in developing an online multi-channel approach.

In a statement Morrisons CEO Dalton Philips said: “our sales performance was lower than anticipated, but we have a strong business and significant opportunities to advance our strategy, as we accelerate our multi-channel offer".