Weekly Update, 19th April 2010

• Following discussion at the Partnership’s Executive Board I am working on a draft Resources Plan for the delivery of the regeneration programme. This will detail the human and financial resources I feel will be required to take us through the next crucial phase of delivery. I have had separate discussions this week with Highland Council, HIE, NDA and Caithness Chamber of Commerce as I develop this Plan.
• I was invited to a meeting of DSRL’s quarterly internal Socio-economic Committee. It was an excellent opportunity to talk about issues currently affecting DSRL as it continues to work on its workforce transition plans, and I updated key DSRL staff on activities and opportunities I’m currently aware of and working on.
• The group of local employers looking at how best to develop apprenticeships in the area met for the second time, led by Helen Mackay at T3UK. There is a sense of momentum gathering round this now, and a general agreement to develop a model that works for small businesses as well as larger ones. A proposal is to be written up to see what resources might be needed to deliver this.
• The Vision document for Caithness & north Sutherland has now been finalised and is being sent to the printers. This was the subject of workshop discussions at the Caithness Conference, and will help communicate our area’s aspirations.