Basic Skills Cymru

New year, new ideas

Happy new year to everyone involved in basic skills in Wales. New year is the time for new things and we’re particularly excited about the Read a Million Words in Wales campaign which we’ll launch next month. Over the next year there’ll be lots of other new developments to look out for such as new resources and materials for practitioners, Agency events and new national support projects. We’re also always keen to improve the things already in existence. We’ve included a very brief questionnaire about Basic Skills Cymru and we’d be grateful if you could take a minute or two over a cup of tea to give us some feedback on the newsletter, how useful you find it and whether we could make any improvements. Many thanks for all your help and support over the past year.

Wishing you a happy 2007,

Toni Schiavone,
Executive Director, Wales

Name the dragon

Next month the Basic Skills Agency’s Read a Million Words in Wales (RMWW) campaign launches with a competition to name the campaign’s cute dragon mascot. We’ll be encouraging primary schools from across Wales to put forward their favourite name, we’ll then select 10 of the best and ask children to vote for the winner on the RMWW website. Details can be found on the RMWW website www.readamillionwordsinwales.org.uk alongside information and resources for organisers.

Daily Post Achievement Wales Business Awards

Congratulations to Airbus in Broughton, Honeywell in St Asaph, The First Milk Cheese Company in Wrexham, Conwy County Borough Council and the Conwy Furniture Reclaim. On 1 December 2006, these five Employer Pledge companies were awarded the first Basic Skills Agency Employer Pledge Roll of Honour at the prestigious Daily Post Achievement Wales Business Awards at the University of Wales, Bangor. Next year the awards will be opened up to all companies in North and Mid-Wales involved in excellent work in the field of basic skills in the workplace. So if you know a company doing good work in this area, look out for details which will be posted on the website later in the year.

Stop Press! Over 200 employers have now signed the Pledge. Have you? If not, contact Carol Sambrook on 01792 792 046, or email carols@basic-skills.co.uk.