t2 business solutions blog

Workers Memorial Day - 28th April

An interesting article on the ILM website today explained how RoSPA (Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents) is urging for workplace safety today to commemorate Workers Memorial Day.

According to studies by RoSPA, 400 people lose their lives every two weeks due to the failure to protect staff.

Roger Bibbings, occupational safety adviser for RoSPA, said:"If one jumbo jet crashed every two weeks killing all 400 people on board there would be a national outcry - and that is the rate at which workers are dying."

Even though studies also show that it may be fashionable to poke fun at health and safety, managers should remember the possible pain, loss and suffering caused by failures in Health and Safety.

t2 business solutions provides tailored training courses in Health and Safety, which can be catered to the specific needs of your company. t2 also provides an open course in Corporate Manslaughter, showing you the possible repercussions on businesses if preventions of deaths are not put in place.

New Mona Lisa Smaller Than 1/4 Size of Postage Stamp

According to an interesting article on Orange News today, an artist from Hampshire has painted the worlds smallest Mona Lisa, which stands at a mere 11mm high and 7mm wide.

Andrew Nicholls, 44, decided to attempt the piece after reading about the previous world record on a hobby craft website.

In order to break the record, Mr Nicholls created the entire piece whilst looking through a magnifying glass and used a tiny 0000 gauge paintbrush. The previous record stood at 13mm high and 9mm wide and was held by Yves Gerard, from Luxembourg, whose work is at the Musee de la Miniature in Drome, France.

House of the Future

Take a look at vision of how we might be living in years to come.

the "Living Tomorrow" project in Brussels has revamped its house of the future concept.

the house is packed with many different interactive elements from an interactive shopping list embedded into the wall of your kitchen to a mirror who can tell you how your body is doing that day such as blood pressure, body temperature as well as read the latest news get a wesather update and yes even listen to music while getting ready in the mornings.

One big feature is the kids bedroom - a cocoon bed. It has internet, tv screens as well as a screen on the outside where parents can control what goes on inside the cocoon such as switching the tv off at bedtime.

Watch the preview here

Failing to Motivate Staff

An interesting article from the ILM Newsroom explains how recent studies show that Managers across the UK are failing to motivate staff.

Apparently, the problem is higher amongst younger staff, with almost half of workers under 27 saying that they feel dissatisfied or worse. The survey, conducted by HR consultancy BlessingWhite,  shows that half of managers in the UK will probably, or definitely, leave their jobs in 2008.

Results of the survey show that almost 1/4 workers do not feel motivated by their managers, describing themselves as "discontented, unproductive or disengaged".

t2 business solutions offers a variety of management training options that can tackle these issues. These include a vocational Management Modern Apprenticeship in Levels 2, 3 and 4; a Leading Teams and Individuals One-day Open course with a topic focusing specifically on motivation; or bespoke training for your company, which can focus on any management areas required.

US man gets £1.3 m for Pizza domain name.

After maintaining the site pizza.com for just $20 a year since 1994 Chris Clark accepted an offer of $2.6m (£1.3m) for the domain name after a week long online auction.

Mr Clark said "It will make a significant difference in my life, for sure."

In January, Mr Clark decided to sell the domain name after hearing that another domain - Vodka.com - was sold for $3m in 2006.

"I thought, 'Why don't I just try to see what the level of interest is?" Mr Clark said."If someone's willing to pay that much for Vodka.com, maybe there's more interest in pizza.com."

The online auction was launched on 27 March. The first bid was $100, jumping to $2.6m a week later.

Mr Clark says he regrets not buying more domain names in the 1990's when the World Wide Web was just starting to take off.

Read more about this here

Penguins can Fly?

The BBC have come clean about their 2008 April Fools' Joke - an advert for the new BBC iPlayer.

The 90-second trail shows Terry Jones Film-maker & writer following a unique colony of Adelie Penguins as they fly thousands of miles across the frozen wasteland of Antarctica to the Amazon Rainforest.

Penguins can fly?! -  click here to view the trail

This advert was aired on April Fools' Day in conjunction with a viral campaign which was launched online.

"The purpose of the April Fool campaign is to continue to raise awareness of BBC iPlayer... It is also hoped that this creative device will not only celebrate what BBC iPlayer can deliver, but will also say something quite profound about the BBC's overall appetite for creative risk-taking and innovation."- David Bainbridge, BBC Head of Marketing Communications & Audiences for Future Media & Technology

The trail could also be viewed on the BBC's Bebo, YouTube and Blinkx channels.

Read the full article here

Plans for workplace trainers to gain professional status

According to an interesting article on the ILM website, there are new plans for workplace trainers to be granted professional teaching status.

Lifelong Learning UK are introducing the changes, which will mean that over 27,000 people responsible for education in a work environment will be able to benefit from training which will increase them to the standard of a qualified teacher.

Apparently the government aims to ensure that by 2010, every trainer, teacher, tutor and instructor will be qualified or working toward a qualification.

If you are interesting in introducing workplace learning into your organisation, have a look at the wide variety of training opportunities available through t2 business solutions.