Tech firm backing major careers event has good news for jobseekers

As thousands of students and scores of businesses gather today at Cheltenham Racecourse for a giant careers fair, the major tech firm and headline sponsor has good news for Gloucestershire jobseekers.

Dear readers,

Welcome to the second edition of The Raikes Journal of the week. We have a double-header of stories below.

Yes, we know we usually publish on a Monday, Thursday and Friday, but today we wanted to help draw attention to C2S Educational Outreach Live event at Cheltenham Racecourse.

The business group has used the might of its vast membership and teamed up with the influential Cheltenham-based cyber group CyNam to stage probably the biggest coming together of students and businesses ever in Gloucestershire.

On until 6pm this evening, Educational Outreach Live and CyNam’s EmPowerCyber, will see scores of businesses and experts, advisors and support groups meet face-to-face with hundreds and hundreds of students from schools, colleges, sixth forms, and universities across the county and beyond.

We have already covered what the event is all about and why in a previous edition here, but below we have an exclusive interview with general manager of its headline sponsor, the usually secretive tech firm L3Harris.

Ian Menzies tells us why NOW is a great time to be looking for a career with his business, or in the tech and cyber sector. And that’s only one of the sectors covered at today’s event. The link to which is below.

But first, if you are one of the businesses picking yourself up after being floored by Chancellor Rachel Reeves Budget, then we have hope. Later this month a special meeting is due to take place organised by Randall & Payne which will offer what it says is a solution to the thorny issue of that rise in National Insurance contributions.

We hope the news is helpful. We’re sure the Randall & Payne event will certainly be.

As always, enjoy.

Andrew Merrell (editor).

NB: Raikes publishes probably the best-read business-related email ‘newsletter’, pound for pound, in Gloucestershire.

If you have a story, an issue, a news item, a charity or an interview you want us to write about or investigate, challenge the powers that be on, then please email me: andrew.merrell@raikesjournal.co.uk.

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Business meeting will address the challenges of the Budget

If you are wrestling with how your business is going to digest the new rate of National Insurance contributions announced in the autumn Budget a meeting in Gloucestershire this month promises to deliver you a solution.

What started off as a look at Will Abbott’s ‘business boot camps’ and why they are proving ever so important for Gloucestershire business leaders has quickly become a very topical story.

Getting Abbott himself to sing the praises of his good work is difficult, but businesses that attend his focus groups will testify he has been helping them to overcome challenges and move forward for years now.

And post-Budget, there are certainly some new challenges for businesses to contend with, which brings us to the topical bit.

As we began writing about the next session, on Tuesday, 3 December, Abbott, a partner at accountants Randall & Payne, appeared on social media announcing an extra boot camp specifically to address those post-budget challenges head-on.

And to provide a solution.

“If you are really honest about it, we have just received a kicking in the Budget. I still have the bruises to show for it as a business owner and an employer,” said Abbott.

“Having got over the pain we then have to think about what we are going to do with the challenge.”

What he was referring to in particular was Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ decision to raise the rate of employer Class 1 National Insurance contributions from 13.8 per cent to 15 per cent.

Earlier this week Confederation of British Industry (CBI) chief executive, Rain Newton-Smith, told the group’s conference in London that British businesses asking themselves if they could invest, expand, take on new staff, as a result of the Budget the answer was now ‘not yet’.

“The rise in national insurance, the stark lowering of the threshold, caught us all off guard.

“Along with the expansion and the rise of the National Living Wage and the potential cost of the Employment Rights Bill; they put a heavy burden on business,” said Newton-Smith.

And this is exactly what the next Randall & Payne boot camp will seek to address.

“The easier way is to recover some of the inefficiencies and waste in our businesses. We know it is there. It has been there for a long time,” said Abbott.

“There has never been a better incentive to do something about it. That’s why we have put this new boot camp together.

“We want to get together with you as soon as we can to give you time in the New Year in which you can apply the process we will show you.

“This process should be straightforward, it should be relatively easy for you to understand, and we encourage you to bring your managers, your department heads, senior people along.”

Statistics, said Abbott, show that 25 per cent of operating costs are in businesses is being wasted through inefficiency.

Jamie Underwood, of Wheatley Printers, based in London Road, Stroud, is a regular at the boot camps.

Underwood joined the Five Valley’s firm 20 years ago. Wheatley Printers employs 18 staff, is an expert in litho and digital print and works for everything from start-up firms to big businesses UK-wide.

“Every session at the end we go over the tasks set by Will and share with the group. As individuals what we have found valuable, and it always surprises me how much each individual takes away from the session. Although we are involved in different lines of work,” said Underwood.

“It's so important to step away from the day-to-day tasks and take time to review internal procedures and how you can improve the business structure.

“Making connections with others in similar positions has been so good for me as an individual, learning from the room as well as Will is a big bonus.

“The experience Will has running a business and all the relationships and connections with other business owners is the reason this works.

“Mentoring people across various sectors gives him a level of knowledge to be able to help and direct the group with the successful outcomes.”

You can find out more about the next two sessions here. One on Tuesday 3 December from 9am to noon, titled ‘Accelerate your business performance for 2025’, here, and the Budget-focused boot camp on Wednesday 11 December, 9am-1pm here.

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* Everything you read on The Raikes Journal is made possible by our incredible Founding Partners: QuoLux, Willans LLP, Gloucestershire College, Merrell People and Randall & Payne, our sponsors Hartpury University and Hartpury College, our Founding Members and wonderful paying subscribers.

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Tech firm backing major careers event reveals good news for jobseekers

As thousands of students and scores of businesses gather today at Cheltenham Racecourse for a giant careers fair, the major tech firm and headline sponsor has good news for Gloucestershire jobseekers.

By Andrew Merrell.

You may not have heard of L3 Harris, but the American technology firm and defence contractor’s expertise and innovations are in demand worldwide and it has a major UK base in Tewkesbury.

L3Harris is growing and it knows that growth depends on one thing - employing more people. Which is why the usually secretive firm is the headline sponsor of today’s Circle2Success Educational Outreach Live show, the biggest careers-related event ever staged in Gloucestershire.

It’s a show made even bigger by the partnership with the Cheltenham-based cyber group, CyNam, which is staging its annual EmPowerCyber careers event alongside Educational Outreach Live.