Tag: conference

Business Minister to deliver keynote address at Industry 4.0 conference

Craiglockhart campus exteriors in autumn sunshine

A MAJOR conference will turn the spotlight on the skills needed to drive economic growth in the 21st century.

Business Minister Jamie Hepburn MSP will deliver the keynote address at the event at Edinburgh Napier University’s Business School on Wednesday October 23. Continue reading Business Minister to deliver keynote address at Industry 4.0 conference

Opportunities for older people to have their say

The Scottish Government are developing a new Older People’s Framework in 2019 and the Scottish Older People’s Assembly have been asked to help gather views to feed into this process. 

In an effort to gather as wide a range of views as possible, we have produced a questionnaire which we hope you can circulate to your networks, feature in newsletters and encourage as many people as possible to complete (within the limitations of the timescales that we have been set, which we acknowledge are very tight).

The questionnaire is available online at https://surveyhero.com/c/SOPA2019

The deadline for survey completion is Wednesday, 30th January 2019.

 We will also be holding an engagement event on Monday 4th February 2019, 10am-3:30pm at COSLA Conference Centre, Haymarket, EH12 5BH.

Places are limited and will be prioritised for SOPA members but if you are interested please register on the Eventbrite website and we will confirm availability. 

 Please follow this link to the Eventbrite website for more information and to reserve your place. 

If you have any queries, please contact Caroline Clark on the details below. 

Caroline Clark | Scottish Older People’s Assembly – Co-ordinator| Eric Liddell Centre, 15 Morningside Road, Edinburgh, EH10 4DP | 0131 357 1277 |caroline@scotopa.org.uk.

The Scottish Government are currently preparing a new National Framework for Older People in Scotland. This Conference has been organised by the Scottish Older People’s Assembly to give members an opportunity to come together and make a contribution to the development of this framework.

The event will focus on the following key objectives:

  • providing an inclusive opportunity for older people to share their ideas and experiences
  • identifying and gathering examples of the positive contributions made by older people
  • identifying barriers faced by older people in a range of different aspects of life and ideas of how to break these down.
  • gathering ideas of how to combat negative perceptions and stereotypes commonly held about older people.

Please join us to share your views, ideas and experiences.

Due to limited space, we ask that a maximum of two representatives per organisation attend. If you would like additional tickets please contact Caroline Clark on 0131 3571277

If you have any dietary or access requirements that will allow you to participate fully in this event, please let us know.

Exploring Identity: Disability and identity Conference

Scottish Business Minister to join line-up at event to make disability more visible in the workplace

The Minister for Business, Fair Work and Skills will be joining senior Scottish business leaders, artists and campaigners at a free conference in Edinburgh on Tuesday 11 December, aimed at improving openness in the workplace around disability. Continue reading Exploring Identity: Disability and identity Conference

Partnerships strengthened as Edinburgh College welcomes visitors for international conference

Representatives from educational institutions across the world came together at Edinburgh College last week week to share ideas and discuss a programme designed to improve opportunities for young people in Panama – through English language teaching. Continue reading Partnerships strengthened as Edinburgh College welcomes visitors for international conference

Major conference to ‘harness future opportunities for Scotland’s world class heritage sector’

A major conference taking place in the heart of Scotland’s capital aims to harness future opportunities for development and growth in the country’s world class heritage sector. Continue reading Major conference to ‘harness future opportunities for Scotland’s world class heritage sector’

Community groups invited to welfare rights conference

NAWRA (National Association of Welfare Rights Advisers) is coming to Edinburgh and we are in the process of making our final arrangements for our quarterly meeting on 8th September 2017, which doubles as our annual Scottish conference (writes CRAIG SAMUEL, NAWRA Scotland representative).

Our conference this year is being held at Edinburgh City Chambers and whilst our membership covers many welfare rights services I am reaching out to all community groups to invite them to get in touch as more and more community groups are being asked to deal with queries on income and many occasions state benefits.

In case you are reading this and are unfamiliar with our work at NAWRA our aims and objectives include challenging, influencing and to improve welfare rights policy and legislation and we are involved with various government stakeholder groups whereby we recognize and challenge discriminatory legislation and we promote welfare rights issues and encourage effective partnership working.

I am ever so proud to have been asked to represent NAWRA in Scotland and part of my role is to attend stakeholder’s meetings for the roll out of PIP (Personal Independence Payment) and I also represent NAWRA at our stakeholders meeting with SCoWR (Scottish Campaign on Welfare Reform) whereby we continue to feedback in relation to Social Security.

Whilst I am proud to have been asked to represent NAWRA in Scotland – and I am extremely proud – but what really drives me and my organisation is the help we can provide our communities in fighting inequalities and these communities, don’t forget, also includes our friends, neighbours and families.

At NAWRA we encourage community groups to get involved and I will be happy to discuss with any community group that may be interested in attending or indeed joining NAWRA as throughout United Kingdom we know that representation is becoming more difficult to find due to budget cuts both locally and nationally.

NAWRA can support any community group and assist with issues that may be relevant, for example we know families who were already vulnerable to losing their homes now face further cuts since UK government changed the benefit cap level at the end of 2016 and placing a freeze on many benefits.

Welfare rights is not just about providing a foundation through income but through providing hope and allowing potential to be realized as at the minute opportunity is scarce as we can see with our friends at Sheffield Hallam University producing a recent academic paper looking at the destruction of industrial Britain.

We can see the destruction of traditional industrial areas and these have been decimated over the last 40 years and I am not alone but I personally remember watching in awe of dockers, miners and in my own experience of watching my grandfather’s work with the gas industry or indeed my father in the wire works and Scottish gas.

Having used their bodies to build our country do we see any protection towards these workers.  Well what we see is industries lost, jobs lost and people left with disabilities having put their bodies on the line for their community and country.

Is there protection? Well for some yes but due to the design of PIP (personal independence payment) and implementation we can see since the transfer from DLA (disability living allowance) over 1 million PIP claims have been refused and people who need it most are losing out and when in their hour of need and when needing it most they are being dismissed and left with no foundation to move forward.

At our conference, we shall have speakers and workshops throughout the day and our conferences continue to be offered without charge to our members and our memberships, which start as little as £40.00 per year, is per organisation making it accessible and economical to all organisations.

I hope you agree with me in acknowledging how important our conferences are and how important it is to receive the best advice and how every situation is different and intricate so I look forward to seeing you at our meeting on 8th September 2017 or being contacted beforehand at craig@nawra.org.uk  –  our agenda can be seen at www.nawra.org.uk

CRAIG SAMUEL, NAWRA Scotland representative