East Midlands Knowledge Network: Routes To University Expertise

 

Banks Mill

Business Startup

Banks Mill aims to provide training, support and studios for new businesses within creative industries.

It was set up to retain graduate level skills in the creative industries in the Derby area and support the development of new businesses with a view to helping people earn a living from those skills, either as sole traders or businesses. This is achieved by providing easy-in/easy-out workspace in studios as well as business and professional development support.

For 2009/10 year 1 incubation fees are from £9.57 per sq ft. A 65 sq ft unit works out at £58.93 per month (including electricity) and a 248 sq ft studio £197.75 per month. All rentals include water, serviced communal areas, business rates, use of exhibition space, an individual web profile, support activities and being part of a thriving creative community. The only additional cost is electricity for the larger units.

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Banks Mill

Clegg Group Ltd

The project is aimed at identifying and implementing lean processes through the whole group. So this includes the head office functions, those that cascade down into the operating companies and then the operational activities at site levels are predicted to continue year on year.

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Davis Derby Ltd

Product Design

To meet customer and industry demands for safer vehicle operations in logistics centres, mines and quarries, Davis Derby wanted to design a product to improve the safety of pedestrians working in the vicinity of vehicles used in logistics/warehousing and quarrying/mining. Specifically, the purpose of the new product is to identify pedestrians within 5 metres of a mobile plant and to provide a warning to the mobile plant control system so that drivers are alerted to the problem and automatic control systems can be triggered. This product will be known as the Pedestrian Recognition System (PRS).

Each of the two target industries presents is own challenges and criteria requiring separate versions of the PRS:

  • In logistics environments, forklift trucks are small (1mx1m), fast and very agile – these will use the PRS-L product.
  • Underground mining and quarrying settings may have larger plant (4mx6m) where the driver can not see all sides of the vehicle from the driving position and the equipment requires testing/certification to show it is intrinsically safe. This will use the PRS-QM system.

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Davis Derby Ltd

Derby City Council

Leadership and Management

The council wanted to improve its service offer and quality through better trained managers and leaders.

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Derby City Council

Enterprise Rent-A-Car

A car-hire company is not immediately seen by students and graduates as an exciting career option. However, once students and graduates realise that Enterprise Rent-A-Car is a very successful multi-national company offering attractive career progression opportunities and not just a local car-rental outfit, they are very keen to apply for its vacancies. Enterprise Rent-A-Car works hard and successfully with the Career Development Centre to raise its profile with talented students and graduates in order to maintain its pool of quality applicants.

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IKANO Group

Leadership and Management

IKANO had a good record of staff development, having devised their own management development programme which was then aligned against a standard management award. However, the alignment process caused some constraints to both the content and the mode of delivery. There were some elements within the programme which IKANO wanted to include, but they did not fall within the scope of the recognised qualification.

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Smith of Derby

Smith of Derby is a traditional company with traditional methods and practices. However the world market is experiencing major change. In the words of Smith of Derby MD Bob Betts ‘We have been world leaders in time for 150 years, but to stay ahead in today’s competitive global markets, we have to change and embrace change.’

The challenge was to identify and implement a change programme that retained the key traditional values yet opened up a new vista into a refreshed world without causing any damage. Engaging with the challenge involved a broad view of the business from product design, through manufacturing, training, marketing and the actual management of the business.

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Smith of Derby

The Environment Agency

Coaching and mentoring is the way the Environment Agency works with its staff and it seemed to Area Environment Manager Mark Haslam to be a logical next step to mentor students who are interested in the work of the Agency. ‘It’s a way of helping them to clarify what they want out of their career or studies, making contacts for the Environment Agency with the wider community, promoting who we are and what we do and letting graduates know that we are a potential employer. There is also a lot of personal satisfaction in helping someone with their career and helping them to grow and develop.’

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The Power Service

Anne Perry, Director of The Power Service, (a local SME ) needed an efficient, cost effect method of recruiting Tele-Sales Staff to make credible appointments to move her business forward.

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Trent and Dove Housing

Governance Programmes

Trent and Dove recognised the need to develop a programme in partnership with other housing associations and ALMOs, by engaging with the HE expertise of the University of Derby. There have been several learning and development challenges as the nature of this type of organisation has rapidly changed. One of the crucial areas was governance. Proper accreditation and qualification is now a prerequisite of being a Board Member of these social enterprises and many people did not have the required level of expertise.

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Trent and Dove Housing

Trent Concrete (Nottingham Contemporary Arts Centre)

Advanced Materials and Technology Textiles

The new Nottingham Contemporary arts centre is based in the Lace Market area of the city. To add the defining character to the exterior of the £18m centre, the architects, Caruso St John, wanted to incorporate an intricate lace pattern based on a Victorian sample found in a time capsule in the city. The design for the fascia required the 1847 lace pattern to be enlarged ten-fold and embossed in repeat into concrete panels around the building. Trent Concrete had to create a detailed low-relief formliner (mould) to imprint the magnified and precise image of the Victorian lace sample into the panels of the fascia.

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Trent Concrete (Nottingham Contemporary Arts Centre)

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