 Hovercraft maker Griffon Hoverwork has been given the green light for temporary new office space, next to the Hovertravel terminal in Southsea. Council members gave the project conditional approval this week.
The structure will be joined to the rear of the terminal on part of the shingle beach and will feature the colours red and blue to match the rest of the site.
It will provide office and showroom space to boost sales of new hovercrafts to clients from around the globe.
 The UK’s Carrier Strike Group will visit more than one fifth of the world’s nations when it sails next month.
Led by HMS Queen Elizabeth, the task group will visit 40 nations including India, Japan, Republic of Korea and Singapore in a deployment covering 26,000 nautical miles.
The group will also join up and take part in exercises with French carrier FS Charles De Gaulle in the Mediterranean as well as navies and aircraft from allies such as the US, Canada, Denmark, Greece, Israel, Italy, Japan and the UAE.
While in the Pacific, ships from the Carrier Strike Group will mark the 50th anniversary of the Five Powers Defence Arrangements between Malaysia, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand and the UK by taking part in Exercise Bersama Lima.
 A consultation has launched this week seeking views on how new flexi-job apprenticeship schemes could be run. Apprenticeships are at least 12 months long, so some sectors with flexible employment patterns and short-term roles, such as agriculture, construction and creative sectors including TV, film and theatre production, have found it challenging to create enough opportunities.
The new flexi-job apprenticeship schemes would enable an apprentice to work across a range of projects and with different employers to gain the full skills and experience they need to complete their programme. This could include film, TV and theatre production, with one apprentice now being able to work on different productions during their apprenticeship.
In July employers will be invited to bid for a share of a £7 million fund to create and test new flexi-apprenticeships schemes, with the first approved flexi-job apprenticeships expected to start in January 2022.
The flexi-job apprenticeship consultation will run for six weeks, closing on 1 June, and is seeking views from employers, apprentices, sector bodies and existing apprenticeship training agencies.
Congratulations to Paraffin, run by Pam Hamilton, which has been awarded a Queen’s Award for Enterprise – the UK’s most prestigious business awards.
The business, which operates from the Portsmouth Guildhall, is one of 205 winners from a diverse range of sectors from across the UK announced today.
Paraffin was founded in 2012 and employs just four people plus external associates.
Paraffin designs and facilitates training, teamwork and collaboration workshops.
It works with a handful of major corporates and a number of smaller clients around the world to help people work together for positive change, as well as supporting collaboration between communities and the public sector in Portsmouth.
 This week it got easier for you take up the habit of twice-weekly asymptomatic testing as many local pharmacies began to offer appointments for supervised tests, drop-in services for collecting home test kits or both.
Testing when you don’t have symptoms is freely available to all adults and finds the one in three who get coronavirus but don't show symptoms and so risk spreading it.
The council's test site at Somerstown Central also offers appointments by booking online and a drop-in service for home test kit collection. And from Saturday 1 May, Eldon Road and Northarbour Road sites revert to PCR-only test sites for those with symptoms: 7 days a week, 8am-8pm.
 If you move goods between the UK and countries in the EU, you can now apply for the SME Brexit Support Fund. Smaller businesses can get up to £2,000 to pay for practical support, including training or professional advice to adjust to new customs, rules of origin and VAT rules when trading with the EU.
Your business will be affected by the new rules if you:
- buy goods from an EU seller and bring them into the UK
- send goods you’ve sold to a buyer in an EU country
- haven’t exchanged money but need to move equipment that you use for your business, between the UK and the EU.
A new toolkit for SMEs around spotting and preventing modern slavery has been put together by the Shiva Foundation and STOP THE TRAFFIK. The organisations will also be running a series of webinars for SMEs to help address modern slavery risk in your business. The toolkit includes key features such as a simple risk self-assessment, practical steps to protect employees, and clear guidance on how to report modern slavery concerns.
The webinars will cover the business case for modern slavery prevention, key steps SMEs can take with tools to support, and a Q&A with attendees.
The council is seeking up to 12 firms to join our £100m primary-contractor framework.
The four-year framework will serve as the primary route for us to procure building maintenance on our portfolio of nearly 15,000 social housing properties and 900 corporate assets. The framework has a total potential value of £100m and the target date for award of the framework agreement is 16th July with commencement following on 16th August.
 In the coming weeks and months, the Lennox Point Regeneration Programme team will be starting to promote upcoming procurement and engagement opportunities for the proposed development at Lennox Point (formerly Tipner West).
In order to provide the right opportunities at the right time, they are updating their list of businesses associated with the programme. This is to adhere to General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and to ensure that they can contact businesses about the most relevant opportunities to them.
The form won't take any longer than five minutes and aims to understand a little more about your business and what services it could provide to the programme. If you or someone else from your organisation has already done this, thank you.
 Do you have apprenticeship and training opportunities available for young people? The Careers and Apprenticeship Show returns on 20 May from 9am - 7pm.
Portsmouth City Council is asking local organisations to get involved by showcasing their company to students in years 10-13, their parents/carers and teachers. Virtual booths are fully funded by the regional partners - so there is no cost to you.
If you are interested in exhibiting, please contact rphillips1@bournemouth.ac.uk.
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