If you have a business idea that you would like to turn into reality, or are interested in developing your entrepreneurial skills, then Aberystwyth University’s annual Business Start-up Week may be just what you need.

The week long programme from Monday 4^thto Friday 8^thJune, consists of a range of business skills workshops designed around the key issues which face a start-up business or social enterprise.  The workshops are free and open to all.

This year’s Business Start-up Week programme includes sessions on market research, marketing, selling techniques, digital marketing, financial planning and control, selling, intellectual property and legal issues.

The schedule also includes three presentations by role models who have started successful businesses.

The University’s Enterprise Manager, Tony Orme, who has organised Business Start-up Week at the University for over ten years, explains:  “If you’ve ever dreamt of starting your own business then Business Start-up Week will be ideal for you.

“Focusing on essential business skills training, the free workshops offer inspiration and first-hand experience from successful entrepreneurs, and tips and practical guidance from business advisors and University staff.

“The format offers flexibility for participants to attend the full programme of sessions, or to identify topics which are of particular interest to them.

“An added benefit of attending this event is the opportunity to meet like-minded entrepreneurs and build a support network to draw on when taking your business idea forward.” 

Open to all, including Aberystwyth University staff, students and graduates, and free of charge to participants, the workshops will be held on Aberystwyth University’s Penglais Campus.

Business Start-Up Week is a partnership between Aberystwyth University’s Careers Service and the Welsh Government’s Big Ideas Wales.

For further information and to book a place on one or more workshops, please contact aberpreneurs@aber.ac.uk.

Link:

Aberystwyth University Careers Service – https://www.aber.ac.uk/en/careers/

A collection of essays on hearing loss by an Aberystwyth University creative writing student has been hailed the winner of an award hosted by literary magazine New Welsh Review.

Fiction as a Hearing Aid by Ed Garland, expertly examines how literature can provide comfort and clarification to those with hearing difficulties.

Ed, who is currently studying for an MA in Creative Writing at the Department of English and Creative Writing, was announced as the winner of the New Welsh Writing Awards 2018: Aberystwyth University Prize for an Essay Collection at the Hay Festival.

The prize comprises a £1,000 advance on an ebook deal, published under the magazine’s book imprint New Welsh Rarebyte, together with a critique by London literary agent and Awards partner Cathryn Summerhayes of Curtis Brown.

The themes highlighted in Ed’s essays have also been set in a short animated film by Aberystwyth University graduate Emily Roberts.

The New Welsh Writing Awards, unique to the annual writing prize calendar in its championing of long-form writing, celebrated the essay collection form this year.

Since its inception in 2015, the annual awards have received well over 200 entries; the winner in 2015, Eluned Gramich who won with Woman Who Brings the Rain, went on to be shortlisted for the Wales Book of the Year in 2016.

This year, New Welsh Revieweditor Gwen Davies judged entries with the help of students from Aberystwyth University.

Gwen Davies said of Ed Garland’s winning collection of essays that it is “an intelligent, rigorous, personal, humorous and compelling presentation of words as soundscape.”

Ed Garland’s success builds on a successful week for the Department of English and Creative Writing which has been rated second in the UK for student satisfaction with teaching and feedback in the 2019 Guardian University Guide published on Tuesday 29 May.

Dr Louise Marshall, Head of the Department of English and Creative Writing said: “The Department are absolutely delighted for Ed and we are incredibly proud of his well-deserved success. Ed’s work is at the cutting-edge of research in the humanities and his creative writing demonstrates his incredible prowess, poise, and reflective thinking.”

“Ed joins a growing cohort of award-winning Aberystwyth Creative Writing students whose successes demonstrate the quality, originality, and glittering brilliance of their writing across a broad range of genres and forms. We wish Ed every success for his future and heartily congratulate him on this prestigious award.”

Second place was awarded to Alex Diggins from Bristol for Sea Change: An Argument in Six Parts, and third to Nicholas Murray from Presteigne for Writing and Engagement.

All three shortlisted entries will be published in extract form in the autumn issue of New Welsh Reader 118 to be published on 1 September 2018.

Ed Garland
Ed Garland is a part-time student on the MA in Creative Writing at Aberystwyth University.

His writing has appeared in Anticmagazine, A Glimpse Of, and various collaborations with the illustrator Inkymole.

He is from Greater Manchester, and lived in Leicester and Bristol before moving to Aberystwyth with his wife, Helena, in 2016.

He was awarded a BSc in Music Technology from DeMontfort University in 2005.

He works as a copywriter and has worked as a court clerk, a climbing instructor, a poster seller, and many other things.

New Welsh Review:

New Welsh Review was founded in 1988 as the successor to The Welsh Review (1939- 1948), Dock Leaves and The Anglo-Welsh Review (1949-1987) and is Wales’s foremost literary magazine in English, offering a vital outlet for the very best new fiction, creative non-fiction and poetry, a forum for critical debate, and a rigorous and engaged reviewing culture.

New Welsh Review Ltd is supported through core funding by the Welsh Books Council and hosted by Aberystwyth University Department of English and Creative Writing. The magazine’s creative content was rebranded as New Welsh Reader in 2015, with reviews moving entirely online.

Photo: Ed Garland, winner of the New Welsh Writing Awards 2018: Aberystwyth University Prize for an Essay Collection

Links:
New Welsh Writing Awards
http://www.newwelshwritingawards.com/

New Welsh Review
https://www.newwelshreview.com/

Department of English and Creative Writing
https://www.aber.ac.uk/en/english/

There will be a new face in the strength and conditioning team that welcomes the squad back for pre-season training at Llandarcy next month after the appointment of Simon Church.

Church joins the Ospreys after spending five years at the Dragons and will work with the senior squad at the Region.

The UWIC Masters graduate once again links up with Alex Lawson, Head of S&C at the Ospreys, who first appointed him when in the same role at Rodney Parade.

Speaking about the appointment, Lawson commented:

“I would like to take this opportunity to welcome Simon to the Ospreys, he will be a fantastic asset to the business.

“I first had the pleasure of meeting Simon during an interview for an internship position at the Dragons, when he immediately struck me as a very self assured and capable young man. Although he was only 21 years of age at the time he was a stand out applicant and quickly established himself in professional rugby as a quality young coach and an innovative thinker.

“ He has a real passion for developing athletes. He is always striving to improve his own knowledge and performance, both through his own research and also by learning from others, and is willing to experiment with his own training and programming to keep players engaged. He has a hard working approach and a creative mind that will support the players as they strive for elite performance and can really make a difference.”

Church said he is looking forward to linking up with the Ospreys in June:

“When the opportunity to join the Ospreys was presented to me it was one I couldn’t say no to. I’m really excited about working with the squad being put together for next season and helping to deliver what Allen Clarke wants from the squad performance wise.

“There’s a very strong strength and conditioning set-up in place, led by Alex Lawson, and I’m looking forward to working closely with the team over the coming months and seasons.”

Hats off to the team at Wales Wildlife Watch for their hard work in tackling a problem highlighted by this blog earlier this week.

Vandals and open-air drinkers have set fires in the woodland at Sandy Water Park (Coed Cefn Padrig) and left a pile of rubbish (empty drinks bottles, packaging, food and clothes) at a number of locations.

Veronica Haines, from Wales Wildlife Watch, explains –

“Ten of us tackled Sandy Water Park and surrounding areas this morning, but unfortunately there was so much litter in the woods we could not clear it all.

“We found four sites of fires with litter all around including a lot of glass bottles,many of which had been smashed.

“This means large areas were strewn with broken glass posing a hazard particularly to children and dogs.

“We will be back in three months, but, hopefully, other local people will be able to finish the job.

“We understand the police are regularly patrolling this area but clearly it is an ongoing problem, especially coming up to the end of the school year.

“Nobody minds kids having fun and building camps in the woods as long as they do no damage and TAKE THEIR LITTER HOME!

“Between us we picked up five large bags of recycling, six of general rubbish, two bags of bottles, a pile of smelly bedding, an umbrella and a pair of flip-flops!”

Internet link to Facebook page for Wales Wildlife Watch –

https://www.facebook.com/waleswildlifewatch/?hc_ref=ARSgSmlXgXn3hunCyrR15xBpWfoQQLKghXAXyP6SGJHsA6kPT6RMsspnKneDquFqij4&fref=nf

Link to Wales Wildlife Watch web page –

www.waleswildlifewatch.org.uk

Link to earlier blog story about the woodland damage at Sandy Water Park –

Accident waiting to happen at Sandy Water Park woods

Council officers are pulling out all the stops to uncover the source of a fly problem in parts of Llanelli.

They have been working around the clock with outside organisations to try to identify the cause in and around the Llanelli area, following calls from the public.

Currently there are no works being carried out to the town’s sewerage system, with Dŵr Cymru’s on-going Rainscape investment work only focussing on the surface water system.

Environmental health officers will continue to monitor the area.

The council’s executive board member for public protection, Cllr Philip Hughes, said: “Working closely with a number of partner organisations, our officers are doing all they can to try to locate the source of the problem. This work is on-going.

“Having visited Dŵr Cymru’s RainScape site, our officers are satisfied that the fly problem is not related to this work. Please be assured we are doing everything we can and will continue to monitor the area.”

If you have specific information that might help the council with its enquiries, please send details to publicprotection@carmarthenshire.gov.uk

Welcoming the findings of a new report, Swansea Bay City Deal leaders say a number of major planned developments will soon combine to help Wales cut its carbon footprint.

Forming part of the Re-Energising Wales project being led by the Institute of Welsh Affairs (IWA), the new report has found that the Swansea Bay City Region is well-placed to act as a pathfinder for plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions across Wales by 80% in coming decades.

Praising the City Region’s ambition and leadership, the report also says Swansea Bay – which is made up of Pembrokeshire, Carmarthenshire, Swansea and Neath Port Talbot – has the potential to meet all its electricity consumption needs from renewable energy sources by 2035.

Subject to the approval of a business case, a Homes as Power Stations project is among those included in the £1.3bn Swansea Bay City Deal, which is being funded by the UK Government, the Welsh Government, the public sector and the private sector.

Set for introduction across the City Region, the project will see technology introduced that will allow homes and buildings to generate, store and release their own energy.

Also due to be part-funded by the City Deal, subject to the approval of a business case, is the Pembroke Dock Marine project, which will include a demonstration zone for innovative wave energy devices off the coast of Pembrokeshire.

Cllr Rob Stewart, Lead Leader for the Swansea Bay City Region, said: “We very much welcome the IWA’s report and the recognition it gives to the leadership and ambition across Swansea, Carmarthenshire, Neath Port Talbot and Pembrokeshire to make Swansea Bay an example of best practice for renewable energy consumption.

“A focus on renewable energy will cut our carbon footprint, help local people save money on their fuel bills and generate thousands of new jobs as we look to develop and test green energy technology in coming years.

“Renewable energy is a key theme of the Swansea Bay City Deal, which is projected to boost the regional economy by £1.8 billion and create close to 10,000 new, high-quality jobs in the next 15 years.

“As well as the Homes as Power Stations and Pembroke Dock Martine projects, we’re also still hopeful of UK Government approval for the Swansea Bay Tidal Lagoon.

“These projects would combine to further raise Swansea Bay’s profile across the world as an innovative, forward-thinking region, which could also lead to lucrative export opportunities overseas for local companies.

“We look forward to working with the IWA to explore now we can best put some of the report’s vision into practice.”

The IWA report also highlights the opportunity for Swansea Bay to become a leading region for the reduction of vehicle emissions, with a target of 80% of new cars and 30% of all cars to be electric by 2035.

Cllr Stewart said: “A number of regional councils, universities, health boards and other local employers have already taken the lead by introducing more electric vehicles in their fleets, but we want the public to follow suit in their thousands.

“That’s why discussions with electric vehicle manufacturers are ongoing, as well as a regional study that will see more electric vehicle charging points installed across Swansea, Neath Port Talbot, Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire.  While encouraging the use of zero-carbon, sustainable transport, it’s also vitally important that the infrastructure is in place to support it.

“We stand ready in Swansea Bay to help inform a nationwide drive that will lead to a greener Wales than ever before.”