News and Press - 2006

December 2006 – Employ North Kent MegaNexus gets underway

North Kent is in the early stages of some of the most extensive construction development work in the country. The “Ebbsfleet Valley” development alone will, in the process of building 10,000 homes on a brown-field site, create 20,000 jobs. “The Bridge”, right beside Dartford Bridge, will create 1,500 homes, 1.5 million square feet of business space, and 7,500 jobs. The Employ North Kent MegaNexus will provide the means by which Developers, Contractors and Sub-contractors are connected with the local workforce. It will also be able to highlight where and what additional training is needed most, and connect jobseekers and their advisors to the training providers who can best meet the requirements. The three areas of North Kent: Kent Thameside, Medway, and Swale, each hold equal responsibility for the site and its administration; however, the majority of the Job Brokerage tasks will be undertaken by their partners, Job Centre Plus, Jobs Match, and Skill Swale. The system is targeted to be rolled-out in early March.Top

November 2006 – Creating an Organic Business Network for UCL & UEL

Faced with the challenge of encouraging people from traditionally different spheres to meet and link together to create innovative projects and solutions for building sustainable communities of the future, University College London and University East London approached Meganexus to develop a social network with a difference.

We at Meganexus have utilised our online social networking system and developed an integrated project proposal management system to create a successful online solution which not only catalyses the early stages of finding and making links to relevant parties but also provides an open environment for parties to post potential projects for feedback from other members of the network. www.urbanbuzz.org

October 2006 – Companexus Launched in West London

CompaNexus is all about local business networking. Networking is a means to build vibrant local business communities. An effective network can achieve greater things than the individuals acting alone.Working in conjunction with Action Acton and the Islington Enterprise Agency, MegaNexus have produced a powered online networking business tool which interconnects organisation to other businesses in the local area. Top

September 2006 - MegaNexus power BOSS (Building One Stop Shop) London East

Launched on the 12th of September the BOSS LE MiniNexus will provide a virtual infrastructure for a co-ordinated service helping to engage with new employers and individuals and connecting them to the services of providers in the region. This will increase throughput to all participating providers and enable the BOSS LE Team to provide both a high quantity and high quality service to employers.

The system will enable the new BOSS LE Team to effectively manage and track referrals of Jobseekers and employment opportunities to Providers within the BOSS London East region and the effective tracking of training and business support referrals (Health and Safety; Legal Issues; Systems and Procedures; Other).

BOSS London East has been progressed by a consortium of partners in the area including four Construction Centres of Vocational Excellence (CoVEs), the London Boroughs of Barking & Dagenham, Redbridge, and Havering, ConstructionSkills, Summit Skills, Job Centre Plus, Bovis Lend Lease, Building East and is funded by the London Development Agency (LDA) and the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) London East.Top

August 2006 - Meganexus Joins the Exodus Partnership helping ex-offenders into work

EXODUS (Ex-offenders Discharged Under Supervision) is a three-year partnership project in operation across London and the South East regions. The project operates through local consortium sites which aim to provide effective interventions for short-term prisoners and Prolific and other Priority Offenders. These local partnerships are working together to reduce re-offending through increasing the employability of ex-offenders and to support the transition from prison to the community. MegaNexus working in conjunction with Action Acton are providing a ‘through the gate’ pilot which will enable ex-offenders to access and apply for jobs. Top

July 2006 - NHS JobShop goes live

One of the partners in the Camden Working network, NHS JobShop decided to upgrade their CamdenWorking.com Basic Partner account to their own personalised JobShop MiniNexus. Among the top features they got as part of the upgrade are:

Their own NHS JOB SHOP branded website
Custom registration of their clients and their applications to jobs
Reporting capabilities

The NHS JobShop see at least 5 major advantages for the NHS Job Shop from implementing the MiniNexus:

Increased outcomes: An online application process will make it easier for jobseekers to re-use information already saved, increasing the number of applications they will send and thus the percentage of their successes.
Save time: NHS JOB SHOP will save a lot of time and reduce errors of manual processing. They will now have an end-to-end tool to manage the application before they are sent to the NHS HR organisations.
Convenience: This application will give 24 x 7 online accesses to the NHS JOB SHOP team, from any computer connected to the Internet, allowing members of the team to work from home or from client sites.
Reporting capabilities
Improved visibility and business intelligence: The custom tracking and reporting tools will allow NHS JOB SHOP to analyse their activity and to focus on the actions that fit best their organisational goals.

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June 2006 - Livity helping support and track people in the magazine

Live Futures began as a simple publication written by young people, but is now a burgeoning youth empire, with a 44 page magazine, two websites, a record label, and other projects in the pipeline. Live Futures has developed a pioneering approach to youth engagement and training, and works towards creating employment opportunities for young people who are out of work or education. Meganexus have been working with Live Futures to create an employment/networking application to sit behind their current website www.live-magazine.co.uk in order to facilitate the employment and employability services they are delivering. Live Futures and Meganexus have created a strong working partnership as they share the same vision; to connect the socially excluded to the opportunities they deserve. The Live Futures/Meganexus project will go live in the autumn of 2006.

May 2006 - Launch of an online Job Brokerage network for a new worklessness project called GAIN

(www.thegainproject.co.uk) helping long term unemployed in the London Borough of Lambeth. Beneficiaries can register online to find support, search local employment opportunities and receive Email/SMS alerts.

14th April 2006 - Launch of a West London Job Brokerage Partnership called Jobs West London

(www.jobswestlondon.com) covering the London Boroughs of Hammersmith & Fulham and Ealing. It is a partnership of job brokerage and training providers in West London, working together to provide a co-ordinated service to local residents.

20th March 2006 - MegaNexus on the move

Due to expansion and growth in the number of projects, MegaNexus has moved from its birth in the Computer Science Dept, University College London to nearby offices at Kings Cross.

7th March 2006 - Brokerage: The Future for Employment and Business

The 2006 conference on the future of employment and business brokerage was successfully held at UCL on the 7th of March. The event was hosted by University College London and sponsored by MegaNexus. Speakers at the conference included Will Hutton (chief executive of The Work Foundation and regular Observer columnist) as well as representatives from Business Link, Job Centre Plus, IEA, Black Training and Enterprise Group (BTEG), Action Acton and Camden Working. The event covered issues relating to job brokerage and business brokerage, as well as the role of technology within the brokerage industry.

Topics covered at the conference included:

"The Future of Work". A presentation by Will Hutton that outlined the impact of globalization and the growing Knowledge Economy within the UK. The subsequent impact on businesses and changes in the demand of workforce skills were also discussed.
Strategies and methods of mainstreaming successful methodologies.
Best brokerage practices and how to roll it out across the country.
Successful strategies for the provision of coordinated brokerage to the hardest-to-reach social groups.
How technology provides integrated networks and facilitates partnership working for individuals and businesses.
Effective methods for capturing data, monitoring and reporting within brokerage projects.

The event attracted individuals from local authorities as well as brokerage practitioners from across the United Kingdom (e.g. Harry Quinton OBE, Chairman of the Foundation Training Centre). Attendees were actively encouraged to network and as a result one or two organizations were reported to have started early discussions regarding partnering on a project together. Dr Dan Brown the Entrepreneur in Residence at UCL said "This Conference is a landmark for brokerage provision. For the first time brokerage practitioners from all over the U.K. have come together to develop successful brokerage models and strategies. The Conference has aided the mainstreaming of proven models and strategies, including how innovative technology can be harnessed to benefit disadvantaged members of society. "

A copy of the press release on this year's event can be downloaded at the following link: Download.

A copy of the Business Brokerage PowerPoint presentations can be downloaded at the following link: Download.

A copy of the Employment Brokerage PowerPoint presentations can be downloaded at the following link: Download.

To see a photo slideshow of the Conference, please click here >>>
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