Over 500 people attended this year’s BAME Apprentice Network Annual Apprenticeship Awards with HS2 apprentice, Bintou Keita, among those recognised as a rising star in the UK’s BAME apprenticeship community.

The event, held at the Edgbaston Cricket Club, signalled a welcome return to in-person gatherings, with organisations across the West Midlands in attendance.

An instore scheme to help wilko customers recycle their masks has proved so successful that the home and garden retailer will further extend it until the end of the year. The scheme, which allows shoppers to drop off used, disposable face masks so that they can be recycled, will now be in place until the end of December 2021.

This further extension of the scheme, following an initial three-month pilot in April, sees the service remain in place at the retailer’s original 150 participating stores. 

The Black Country is full of exciting and innovative businesses and the Queen’s Awards for Enterprise is a great way of celebrating their success. Whether a small business with a great innovative product or service, or a larger company running an impressive social mobility programme, this award is a prestigious way to recognise your contribution to enterprise.

To celebrate CISI Financial Planning Week 2021, wealth manager Charles Stanley is offering free one-hour consultations with a financial planner. Advisers in the Birmingham office will be on hand to help people understand how they can achieve financial wellbeing and identify what steps they need to take to help reach their future goals. 

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused much disruption to consumer personal finances, working patterns and the wider economy.

Shakespeare Martineau’s Birmingham office has supported engineering and manufacturing company Avingtrans plc with its £2.5m participation in a £12.9m fund raise by emerging medtech leader Adaptix.

In return for the investment and post the closing of the fund raise, Avingtrans – which designs, manufactures and supplies critical components, modules and systems to the energy, medical and industrial sectors – will own approximately 5.9% of the total issued share capital of Adaptix, which focuses on transforming radiology by allowing low-cost, low-dose 3D portable imaging.

The 2021 seasonal hiring spree is failing to live up to Christmases past as employers struggle to attract candidates amid a glut of jobs, according to new analysis by the world’s largest job site Indeed. With official data recording that there were 1.1 million vacancies in the three months to September[2], Indeed’s research reveals the huge challenge faced by employers battling to hire extra staff in the run-up to Christmas.