Case studies

This is the 13th year of the RAC Cooling Industry Awards, which are the industry's biggest and most-respected awards event.

The awards champion the leading innovations and environmental successes in the refrigeration and air conditioning industry.

With 14 targeted categories as well as the RAC Gold Award, the awards cover every aspect of the refrigeration and cooling industry from Heat Pump Technology of the year to Retail Initiative of the Year of the year and National Student of the Year. We have two new categories this year which include Cold Chain Project (Logistics and Storage) and RAC Contractor of the Year.

All of the winners will be announced at another spectacular evening at the prestigious London Hilton, Park Lane on 27 September.

Enter today: https://coolingawards.racplus.com/enter

Research that has been commissioned by the Gas Industry Safety Group (GISG) and the Institute of Gas Engineers & Managers (IGEM) has shown that poor levels of training provided to some gas engineers in the UK is leading to unsafe practices.

According to the Gas Safe Register, there has been an increase from 1% to 5% in unsafe gas work being carried out from recently qualified engineers, and this is the reason the research was undertaken.

The research found that some training appears to be focussed on passing assessments rather than testing job competency. It was also found that some training establishments are willing to keep training failing students, regardless of number of failed attempts and they fail to consider the essential competency requirements.

"The GISG is shocked and disappointed by these research findings as they highlight a fundamental flaw in the gas industry, which ultimately could affect the safety of customers," said Chris Bielby, chairman of the GISG.

"We are specifically concerned about the discrepancy in course durations, the certifications of very short courses, the imbalance between theory and practical course content, and differences in pass and fail criteria between some training colleges."

"It is paramount that we as an industry work together to ensure high standards of gas engineer training and capability are upheld across the country. We call on the government and industry to undertake a review to establish minimum standards of training across all gas engineer training programmes."

Ian McCluskey, head of technical services at IGEM agreed that the findings were disappointing and was alarmed by the apparent lack of consistency in the standards of training in the industry.

"As the professional body for the gas industry we are committed to ensuring that all training meets the necessary standards and that engineers are competent to carry out their role," he said.

"This research highlights the need for the gas industry to now come together and ensure there is a robust system in place which will create a level playing field and put an end to these poor practices."

SER has always aimed to make the recruitment process as easy as possible for our clients. With this in mind, we want to provide a more managed service to our clients as opposed to typical contingency recruitment. This is where we manage the companies whole recruitment process not just the engineering side, ultimately reducing the client's administration and process, removing the need for them to deal with multi recruitment agencies, we manage the whole process from start to finish including other agencies and third parties.

SER has recently received funding from Boost to implement a system that will streamline this process. Boost is Lancashire's Business Growth Hub, and their purpose is to help Lancashire's businesses grow. Boost is a £7.8m growth hub backed by the ERDF, led by the Lancashire LEP (Local Enterprise Partnership) and Lancashire County Council.

The software that this funding will contribute to, is cloud hosted and it will allow a company to add a vacancy which will signal the start of a series of events. SER get a notification, we start recruiting, after a set period of time the vacancy will filter out to other recruitment agencies, the CV's are uploaded, screened and approved by SER, the client then reviews the candidates and selects the best candidates.

'A Recruitment Service That Fits'

If you are interested in finding out more about the recruitment managed service that SER offers, call us today on 01254 781300, or submit your enquiry online http://www.serlimited.com/contact-us

BSI released the long awaited revision of the UK Version of BS EN 378 (“Refrigeration systems and heat pumps – Safety and environmental requirements”) in December 2016.

BS EN378 is a safety and environmental standard, published by CEN, the European Committee for Standards and is there to provide guidance for companies who design, construct, install, operate, maintain and use vapour compression systems for refrigeration, air-conditioning, heat pumps, chillers and other similar systems. 

It is important to know that BS EN378 is not a legal requirement in its own right. 

BS EN378 was revised to bring it into alignment with ISO5149 the international safety standard.

The safety standard appears in four separate parts:

1. Basic requirements, definitions, classification and selection criteria

2. Design, construction, testing, marking and documentation

3. Installation site and personal protection

4. Operation, maintenance, repair and recovery

The standard is available to purchase at http://shop.bsigroup.com/ProductDetail?pid=000000000030291772

For an overview of the key changes in the new standard see the free IOR Guidance note 29 available to download from www.ior.org.uk

SER would like to wish everyone who has been shortlisted for the H&V awards 2017 good luck.

The awards night will take place on the 20^th April at Grosvenor House Hotel in London.

The shortlist for the awards can be found here: https://awards.hvnplus.co.uk/hv-news-awards-shortlist-2017

D is for Details

In 2016, there was a RSA conference and at the conference it was stated that it was more important than ever that engineering recruitment consultants gave accurate details at the start of the process about remuneration and benefits packages of available positions.

At SER, we work closely with our clients and understand the full details of the package before we advertise, from starting salary to vehicle allowance and overtime rates to what the companies' expectations are.

Making it clear on key factors such as:

• Starting Salary
• Salary review timeframe
• Benefits package
• Overtime rates and average amounts
• Vehicle or car allowance
• Start and finishing times
• What the company actually expect

This allows our consultants to give you the details that you need right at the start, the details that allow us to know if a position is right for you and you to know if the position is the best fit for you, before we submit your application – we don't want to waste your time by submitting you for a job that isn't right for you.

If there are any details that you need to know, SER are able to find these out for you. We want to submit the right candidates for the right job.

Call: 01254 781300
Web: www.serlimited.com

Today (29th March) the government has triggered Article50 to commence proceedings to leave the European Union (EU).

EDIE has taken an in-depth look at how Brexit could affect Britain's green business community, which includes looking at things like:
• Brexit & the Paris Agreement
• Brexit & the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS)
• Brexit & the Environment
• Brexit & Waste
• Brexit & Air Quality
• Brexit & Environmental Product Laws
• Brexit & Water
• Brexit & Green Jobs/Skills
• Brexit & Human Rights

Here is a link to the article where you can read about the impact of Brexit.Here is a link to the article where you can read about the impact of Brexit.

The annual global AV awards which will take place on Friday 29th September are now accepting entries.

Entries are open until 26th May

These awards are there to recognise best practice, reward innovation and celebrate excellence across the global audio visual industry.

They are looking for the best products, companies, projects and people.

Some of the categories include:
• Projector of the year – 4999 lumens and under
• Projector of the year – 5000 lumens and over
• Display product of the year
• Audio product of the year
• Breakthrough / start-up company of the year
• AV staging & rental company of the year
You can find more of the categories and the awards in general here.

It is reported that Avaya who nets $1 billion per year, owes seven years profits to repay the leverage heaped on the otherwise healthy company in a $8.2 billion private equity buyout in 2007.

In a recent Network World article, John Sullivan, vice president and corporate treasurer at Avaya, wrote about the Chapter 11 filing:
"After looking at the multiple options of how to deal with our debt, we decided it was a critical next step in our transformation from a hardware company to a software and services company and the best path forward for our customers, partners and employees. [The company faced] two choices: refinance at ever-increasing interest rates, creating an unsustainable expense burden, or restructure our debt."

With the company's announcement began an outward flow of energy. For some, the news presented opportunity. For others, the news created uncertainty. The balance will be determined by, as Sullivan wrote, "a legal system that allows companies to restructure their balance sheets and continue to operate as healthy businesses, providing jobs, technology innovation and value to customers."

Source: Network World

Latest government data has shown an increase of 19% in installed solar PV capacity to 11.46GW in the year up to December 2016.

Approximately 50% of that increase arrived in March 2016, as investors in ground mounted schemes rushed to beat the closure of the renewables obligation (RO) subsidy scheme.

To date:
~50% of UK solar PV capacity comes from large schemes.
1/5 of UK solar PV capacity comes from domestic applications.

There is still about 14.526GW of solar PV either operation or in the planning stage according to the Government's renewable energy planning database.

To see all the latest PV data, click here.