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inspire BUSINESS WEST – CONNECTING BUSINESSES COMMENT & OPINION Keeping you up-to-date with the latest political policies and decisions that affect South West businesses


Helping businesses prepare for Brexit


By Matt Griffith, (pictured) Director of Policy, Business West


Business West remains very engaged with the ongoing pyscho drama that is Brexit. The fight between UK political personalities is clearly taking a lot of media attention, but for many companies, it is now becoming crunch time before they decide how to adapt and make crucial investment decisions prior to March 2019. We have been working very closely with a large group of our businesses – particularly small and medium export businesses – about what type of trading relationships they will have after Brexit. This has included hosting a roundtable


with officials from HMRC and the Department for Exiting the European Union to inform Government policy on customs barriers, working with the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy to look at the impact of changing paperwork requirements on our member company export models and working with some of our largest sectors on making the case for a Brexit that works for them. However, the overwhelming issue


remains the uncertainty that is emanating from the UK government itself – where the cabinet appears unable to decide what it wants from either the transition or end destination of Brexit. This political uncertainty is making it much harder for businesses to plan, and ultimately increases the risk of a ‘no deal’ scenario. For this reason, we are now spending a


considerable amount of time arranging meetings between our exporting members and their MPs, to make sure our MPs are informed about the business impact of Brexit. We have had MPs tell us that they are


simply not getting local businesses contacting them about Brexit impact – so if you haven’t been in touch with your MP about this, you should.


14 insight NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2017


The alternative path to a rewarding career


IAN MEAN, director of Gloucestershire, Business West, explains how training as an apprentice put him on course for a career in journalism


I do not believe, and never have done, that a university education is the be all and end all- that you will be a failure in your working life if you fail to go to university. I also do not believe that an apprenticeship is


a dirty word, which unfortunately, many parents believe, not really knowing what modern-day apprenticeships entail. With the current debate over the affordability


of university fees and the burden of debt – possibly up to £50,000 that a student could be burdened with after graduating, I believe we must really start to believe again in the lifetime value of starting as an apprentice. Let me be clear. I am in no way anti- university because I didn’t go to one – both my daughters graduated. I am proud to have been a


trainee journalist. My apprenticeship journey


Ian met Muhamed Ali when he visited the offices of the Birmingham Mail in 1983


‘ I believe we


started when I left a London comprehensive school at 16, having underachieved at my O- Levels. After writing 110 letters to local newspapers throughout the country, I finally got a job as a trainee reporter on the South London Observer edited by a great guy called Ian MacKenzie, father of Kelvin who later became editor of The Sun. At the same time, I took A-level English and


must really start


manager of the Daily Mirror. And for the last 15 years I have edited newspapers in Gloucestershire and Bristol. Just over 10 years ago, I decided, as editor of the Citizen, that here in Gloucestershire we needed to encourage more apprenticeships. The initial challenge we set


to believe again in the lifetime value of starting as an apprentice’


ourselves was for local companies to recruit one hundred apprentices in a hundred days. The support we got from local colleges and firms


was huge and we achieved it easily. The Apprenticeship Awards we set up in Gloucestershire with the Citizen


and the Gloucestershire Echo have now been


history at night school and shorthand – I was the only boy in that class, much to the amusement of the girls. I worked seven days a week for that local


paper and I loved it – I learned so much about life very quickly. From being a bit of a quiet, shy sort of guy, I grew in confidence. I moved to Sheffield to become crime reporter of the Morning Telegraph and then to Manchester to join the Daily Mail at 23 years old. I then worked for the Daily Express, was chief


news editor of the Birmingham Mail, northern news editor of the Daily Mail and marketing


replicated by newspapers all over the country. I became passionate about driving the challenge of recruiting more apprentices in a county where specialist engineering was its very heritage. Here we developed the first jet engine and


since then companies like Messier Dowty, Delphi and Renishaw have become world leaders through the development of their apprentices. Just recently, I have seen how Stroud and


South Gloucestershire College have been setting up their Berkeley Green campus to develop young people as the engineers of the future. It is so exciting. And apprenticeships are moving on. We now have Higher Apprenticeships where young people can earn a wage and also take a degree at the same time. I am proud to have been an apprentice. To me being an apprentice is a badge of honour.


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