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Entries wanted for £ 40,000 green business award
of up to £ 40,000 to as many as 18 small businesses across the UK. The judges are looking for viable business proposals that are innovative, commercially viable and that will lead to greenhouse-gas reduction.
The competition is open to UK firms that have been trading for at least three
Young ethnic minority women face career worries
Women of Pakistan, Bangladeshi and Caribbean origin are still being penalised in the workplace, a report suggests. The Equal Opportunities Commission( EOC) found that although 80-89 % of 16-year-olds from those ethnic groups wanted to work full-time they were up to four times more likely to be jobless. However the business organisation the CBI said too many restrict themselves by only going for jobs or careers where they can see women from a similar background already present. It said better careers advice and work experience was months and that have fewer than 250 employees. It is open to sole traders, partnerships and social enterprises.
The deadline for entries is midnight on Friday 10th November 2006.
To enter visit
needed but it did not accept such discrimination existed. According to the EOC, in 2005, 60 % of white girls attained at least five GCSEs grade A to C, compared with 59 % of girls of Bangladeshi descent; 54 % of girls of Pakistani descent and 49 % of girls of Caribbean descent.
This compared with 50 % of white boys; 33 % of boys of Caribbean descent, 43 % of boys of Pakistani descent and 47 % of boys of Bangladeshi descent.
New age law introduced from 1st October
A new ageism law comes into force on 1 October but research reveals that half of UK employees are unaware of it or that age discrimination will become illegal from then. More than four in 10( 41 %) of the 1,000 workers surveyed by the Employers Forum on Age( EFA) said they had worked somewhere where people doing the same job were managed differently depending on their age. Almost a third( 31 %) said their employer had paid younger workers more than their older colleagues for doing the same role. More than a quarter( 27 %) also said new recruits were employed because they were a similar age to their colleagues. The research also revealed that age stereotyping is very common among UK workers such as pay and promotion because of their age. PRIME is a national nonprofit organisation dedicated to helping people aged over 50 to set up in business. It holds events aimed at over 50s who are interested in going into business, as well as producing a newsletter. For further information visit www. primeinitiative. org. uk.
For a list of useful government bodies and support organisations for the over 50s visit www. direct. gov. uk
Small and Medium-Sized Enterprise Statistics 2005 published
The Small Business Service( SBS), an executive agency of the Department of Trade and Industry, has published Small and Medium-sized Enterprise( SME) Statistics for the UK for last year. At the start of 2005, there were an estimated 4.3 million business enterprises in the UK, an increase of 59,000( 1.4 %) on the start of 2004. Almost all of these enterprises( 99.3 %) were small( 0 to 49 employees). Only 27,000( 0.6 %) were medium-sized( 50 to 249 employees) and 6,000( 0.1 %) were large( 250 or more employees). These figures include the private sector( including public corporations and nationalised bodies) but not Government and nonprofit organisations. engage ISSUE TWO 2006