New beginnings…

Although January 1^st is usually associated with new beginnings, this time of year, blessed as it is with being the time of year that youngsters go back to school, and Freshers get a short, sharp introduction to the wonderful world of student life, is also a natural time for people to look at turning the page and starting a new chapter of their lives.

The government is pushing the “September as a new beginning” line by encouraging local authorities and businesses to submit their proposals for Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) by September 6. What exactly these LEPs, which stand to replace Regional Development Agencies, will do, is still unclear, but hopefully they will unite local authorities and businesses in common goals like never before.

Indeed, there’s a buzz in the air across the UK as it looks like, we might, possibly, be looking to come out of the recession. Yes, of course we’ve seen signs before, and everyone’s tired of the phrase “green shoots of recovery”, but the retail market in Manchester being reported as being one of three areas in the country set for investment, and the new Nissan Juke being built on Wearside, securing hundreds of North East jobs (to name but two positive signs of growth), perhaps, at least in _space group’s home regions, we could finally be climbing, not falling. Could September then, mark the start of a new, more positive chapter in our economy?

This is the time of year that we’re also lucky enough to have some year out students working with the company, spread over our North East and North West offices, each one starting a new part of their lives. Not only are they working full time after spending a great amount of time in education, but they’re also getting to sit down and spend time understanding what it’s like to work in a busy, vibrant, design, build and operate business and really get to grips with what their careers will be like after they graduate.

In the next year, it is our job to give them all a full grounding in all aspects of the demanding, time poor but reward rich career that is architecture, and help them to develop both professionally and personally. Much like the positive hints we’ve seen on the economy and the impact of LEPs, the overriding factor in telling us how successful we are with these students is time.

At _space group, we always work hard to produce the best results for our customers, and that’s how we view all new members of our team – customers that we need to do our best to satisfy. Just like our customers, we’ll be asking them for feedback and working hard to improve in the areas where we feel we can, and just like our customers, we’re confident that we can deliver what they want, how they want it.

Our new recruits:

(l-r) Lisa Rogan, David Owen, Judith Forster, Imran Zulfqhar, Andrew Wilson and Ed Cutler, with Talent Manager Diane Charlton