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22/09/2011
Other NI News In Brief
Playing Games
Invest Northern Ireland is helping small Belfast company The Creativity Hub to market its unique, award-winning game across Europe. Rory's Story Cubes is a storytelling game made up of nine cubes with iconic images. The aim of the game is to stimulate creativity by challenging players to develop a story that links together all the images that are face up after the cubes are rolled. It is targeted at both the entertainment and education markets. The award-winning company developed new product concepts for the game last year with support from an Invest NI Innovation Voucher, which allowed it to buy expertise from the Institute of Technology Carlow. It is now investing over £100,000 in marketing activities including market development visits, exhibiting at key toy fairs and development of its online presence. Invest NI has offered over £30,000 of support, for this activity. Rory's Story Cubes are an accessible creative thinking tool for life coaches and educational trainers. It has since proved to be a hit with families, educational professionals and the creative industries and has now been in the Amazon.com Top 100 games for over 160 days.
Health & Efficiency
The NI Health Minister Edwin Poots has reaffirmed his commitment to investing in primary care to make the health service more effective. The Minister was speaking as he visited Mount Oriel Medical Centre in Newtownbreda. During his visit, the Minister met with doctors and other staff to discuss the challenges experienced by their patients and staff, as well as opportunities for development. "It is clear that we need to look at new and innovative ways of service delivery for patients and GPs will be key in moving this forward. I have said before that too much work is carried out in hospitals that could be dealt with in the community. I believe that we need to provide accessible integrated health and care services within the community. In developing this new model of service delivery, the health service will operate more efficiently and there will be better outcomes for patients," he said, adding that "Unnecessary hospital admissions will be avoided, length of stays in hospitals will be reduced and we will be able to support more people to live independently."
Lurgan Boosted
Budding entrepreneurs in the Neighbourhood Renewal areas of Armagh, Brownlow, Lurgan, Newry and North West Portadown received a massive boost today thanks to a £159,000 funding award from Social Development Minister Nelson McCausland. The funding, which has been made available through the Department’s Neighbourhood Renewal Investment Fund, will enable the Southern Regional College to provide a tailored entrepreneurial programme for 45 participants leading to the achievement of a nationally recognised qualification. The DUP Minister said: "This is a unique and innovative project which will help local people to achieve a nationally recognised qualification and acquire the skills necessary to enable them to either consider progressing into self employment or move into employment."
Skills Focus
The Stormont Employment and Learning Minister, Dr Stephen Farry, has visited the award-winning South Eastern Regional College (SERC) Environmental Skills Centre in Newtownards.
The Centre's primary aim is to help businesses exploit 'Low Carbon Economy' opportunities and act as a hub for sustainable development and renewable technology. The Minister toured the centre, which pioneers skills development in the green economy for businesses in Northern Ireland and beyond. "The Department welcomes the work already undertaken by South Eastern Regional College in this sector, especially the college's involvement with Carbon Zero NI and as a member of the Global Maritime Alliance. The Further Education college network, working collectively, can make a significant contribution to addressing the skills challenges of this important new sector," the Alliance party Executive Minister said.
(BMcC/GK)
Invest Northern Ireland is helping small Belfast company The Creativity Hub to market its unique, award-winning game across Europe. Rory's Story Cubes is a storytelling game made up of nine cubes with iconic images. The aim of the game is to stimulate creativity by challenging players to develop a story that links together all the images that are face up after the cubes are rolled. It is targeted at both the entertainment and education markets. The award-winning company developed new product concepts for the game last year with support from an Invest NI Innovation Voucher, which allowed it to buy expertise from the Institute of Technology Carlow. It is now investing over £100,000 in marketing activities including market development visits, exhibiting at key toy fairs and development of its online presence. Invest NI has offered over £30,000 of support, for this activity. Rory's Story Cubes are an accessible creative thinking tool for life coaches and educational trainers. It has since proved to be a hit with families, educational professionals and the creative industries and has now been in the Amazon.com Top 100 games for over 160 days.
Health & Efficiency
The NI Health Minister Edwin Poots has reaffirmed his commitment to investing in primary care to make the health service more effective. The Minister was speaking as he visited Mount Oriel Medical Centre in Newtownbreda. During his visit, the Minister met with doctors and other staff to discuss the challenges experienced by their patients and staff, as well as opportunities for development. "It is clear that we need to look at new and innovative ways of service delivery for patients and GPs will be key in moving this forward. I have said before that too much work is carried out in hospitals that could be dealt with in the community. I believe that we need to provide accessible integrated health and care services within the community. In developing this new model of service delivery, the health service will operate more efficiently and there will be better outcomes for patients," he said, adding that "Unnecessary hospital admissions will be avoided, length of stays in hospitals will be reduced and we will be able to support more people to live independently."
Lurgan Boosted
Budding entrepreneurs in the Neighbourhood Renewal areas of Armagh, Brownlow, Lurgan, Newry and North West Portadown received a massive boost today thanks to a £159,000 funding award from Social Development Minister Nelson McCausland. The funding, which has been made available through the Department’s Neighbourhood Renewal Investment Fund, will enable the Southern Regional College to provide a tailored entrepreneurial programme for 45 participants leading to the achievement of a nationally recognised qualification. The DUP Minister said: "This is a unique and innovative project which will help local people to achieve a nationally recognised qualification and acquire the skills necessary to enable them to either consider progressing into self employment or move into employment."
Skills Focus
The Stormont Employment and Learning Minister, Dr Stephen Farry, has visited the award-winning South Eastern Regional College (SERC) Environmental Skills Centre in Newtownards.
The Centre's primary aim is to help businesses exploit 'Low Carbon Economy' opportunities and act as a hub for sustainable development and renewable technology. The Minister toured the centre, which pioneers skills development in the green economy for businesses in Northern Ireland and beyond. "The Department welcomes the work already undertaken by South Eastern Regional College in this sector, especially the college's involvement with Carbon Zero NI and as a member of the Global Maritime Alliance. The Further Education college network, working collectively, can make a significant contribution to addressing the skills challenges of this important new sector," the Alliance party Executive Minister said.
(BMcC/GK)
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Other News In Brief
DfC Launch Public Consultation On Gender Pay Gap A consultation on proposed changes to Section 19 of the Employment Act (Northern Ireland) relating to the requirements for employers to publish information on the pay of male and female employees has been launched by the Department for Communities.
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