Month: May 2017

FIX IT: Mend it in Muirhouse!

FIX IT: making and fixing instead of buying

As part of an ongoing series of workshops for the FIX IT Project, Steve Marlow from Macfriendly IT services will be holding a session this Saturday 13th May.

This short workshop will give you hands on help and support in accessing the Internet using your Mobile Phone or Tablet. There will also be a question and answer session on all things Internet.

So if you want to set up an email address or find out more about using Facebook, Twitter or have some other I.T. issue, bring your phone or tablet along to The Art Shop in Muirhouse Shopping Centre and we will try and help you out.

The Workshop is free to attend
10.30am – 12noon
Tea and Coffee provided
16+ years

 

Take your seat at The Big Sit In

The Big Sit In is Scotland’s newest and most exciting micro music festival. On Sunday 28th May, Lebowskis and Henry’s Cellar Bar in Edinburgh will transform into a space for music, spoken word and artistic appreciation.
The festival is free but donations will be taken for Nordoff Robbins, a music therapy charity. See below for details:

Bike Station set for grand reopening

Edinburgh bike recycling charity, The Bike Station, is holding a grand reopening on Tuesday 16th May at 11am.  The reopening comes seven months after a fire tore through the premises and completely destroyed the shop, training space and office – and five months after a successful online crowdfunding campaign saw the charity raise £16K in public donations in just two weeks to help rebuild the Bike Station.

The Bike Station will be reopening and unveiling the new space to members of the public and invited guests.

In it’s 15 year history, the fire is the biggest challenge that the Bike Station has faced, but due to the invaluable support from members of the public, the charity has managed to create a space that will help serve customers, volunteers and community groups better than before.

The shop floor and office space in Causewayside have been repaired and renovated, with more space for adults and childrens refurbished secondhand bikes  – helping to keep more bikes out of landfill.

There is a dedicated area for the ever popular Fix Your Own Bike sessions, where members of the public can come along on a Wednesday and a Saturday to fix their own bike with the help of Bike Station mechanics and volunteers.

A new purpose built training space has also been ceated to ensure the community outreach work and educational programs the charity is known for can continue to be run, such as the build your own bike courses that provides opertunities for disadvantaged youths.

Steve Hynd, Manager of The Bike Station said: “Thankfully due to the amazing support of the public and the outstanding work of the staff, we are very happy to announce the opening of the refurbished new look Bike Station on the 16th of May. We thoroughly look forward to welcoming everyone and thank you all again for your support.”

Want to join the £100K club? Being male will help

  • 86% of employees bringing in over £100k are men

  • 23% of £100k earners have no degree, but management experience is a must

  • Almost 60% of £100k club have experience in IT, Finance or Sales

Male university-educated employees with over a decade of management experience within IT, Sales or Finance stand the best chance of joining the £100k club, according to recent research by jobs search engine Adzuna.

The study analysed the skills and experience contained in over 10,000 CVs earning a salary of £100,000 or more (before tax) uploaded to Adzuna’s ValueMyCV tool.

Every CV studied contained substantial experience, with the average CV of high earners detailing 19 years of experience. And to climb the pay scale you’ll need to take control of much more than just your own career, as the average top end earner has racked up 13 years of management responsibilities.

Meanwhile a mere 14% of Britain’s top-earning CV’s belong to female workers, making the £100k club resemble something of a Gentleman’s Club.The low figures come on the back of a survey conducted by Adzuna, which showed men in the workplace were more likely to ask for a payrise and promotion.

Doug Monro, Adzuna cofounder commented: “The UK gender pay gap may be at its lowest ever level, but our study shows men still account for a starkly unequal share of high earners.

“While the government’s recent ruling that large employers publish their gender pay gap will go some way to combatting this, predictions suggest the gap will take 70 years to close. It’s clear there’s plenty of work to be done to ensure pay parity at both ends of the scale.”

Degrees Not Always Necessary For Higher Pay Grade

Qualifications played less of a central role to top earning potential than gender, with just under a quarter (23%) of top ranking employees not holding a degree.

Those without a degree had worked longer to join the £100k club, however, spending on average 22 years in employment, compared to the 18 years worked by their university-educated counterparts.

IT and Finance Lead Way For Top Earners

Workers in the IT industry were the most common among the sample of £100k CVs, with those in Finance and Consultancy not far behind.

The top job titles for £100k earners features several director titles, while CEOs rounded out the top 5. Less common job titles among the selection of £100k earners included procurement directors, security analysts and communication officers.

Sectors With Largest Share of £100k Earners

Sector

Share of 100k Club

IT

19%

Finance

19%

Consultancy

12%

Engineering

5%

Sales

5%

 

Top 5 Job Titles of £100k Earners

1

Managing Director

2

Director

3

Operations Director

4

Finance Director

5

CEO

 

Lucky for some: New Town pub ranked 13th in Times top twenty

The Oxford Bar has been voted the 13th coolest pub in Britain, according to The Times’ latest guide to the best drinking destinations in the country. Owned by Greene King, the pub located in Edinburgh’s historic New Town, was praised for being ‘austere yet beautiful’. Continue reading Lucky for some: New Town pub ranked 13th in Times top twenty

Bentley Effect: workshops and film screening

Afternoon workshop and evening screening – Thursday 18th May

The film’s about a group of communities standing together in solidarity in a fight against the “Goliath” of an gas extraction company where, against all the odds, they won with the strength they built together.   And so there’s two things about the film which I think might be of interest.

1.  Its crowd sourced and the crew touring with the film are the director, a town mayor and one of the key activists so there’ll be discussions with positive messages after the film.

2.  They’ve offered to run a workshop in the afternoon before the film which are being tagged as “potential community responses” but I think essentially they’ll be about forms of action.

And so you can find details re The Bentley Effect below but you can see the Bentley Effect trailer via:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLnRD3neUFo

There’s a sign up route for the “collective responses” workshop on the 18th before the film screening and this can be accessed via:  https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/community-response-to-fracking-workshop-1230for1-5pm-thur18may-edinburgh-tickets-34117267666

www.eventbrite.co.uk
All concerned about the threat of Extremme Energy are invited to this community activists workshop exploring all the options for bearing witness against corporate plans for fracking in Scotland – so-called Unconventional Oil and Gas planned for mainly the Central Belt.  Please book via https://frack18may.eventbrite.co.uk.
Bring and Share lunch from 12.30-1 then we are in the hands of our three Australian visitors who will be showing their seminal documentary “The Bentley Effect” early in the evening at 50 George Sq.  12.30   Registration and informal bring and share lunch13.00

City schools to compete in Scotland’s first nationwide online maths contest

With just days to go until it starts, 336 classes from 78 schools across Edinburgh and the Lothians have now signed up to take part in Scotland’s first ever nationwide online school maths contest, being run by Scottish education technology social enterprise Sumdog.  Continue reading City schools to compete in Scotland’s first nationwide online maths contest