I must apologise for the lack of recent posts – however, work has been amazingly busy, and I’ve also adopted stricter self-discipline so I’m not working at weekends.
When I started this diary, I had naively thought that the end of the self-isolation period might be a cause for celebration. However, the current restrictions that we are all facing mean that there’s very little difference – perhaps the opportunity to go out and collect essential groceries is the only one.
Despite still feeling a bit alien, the working from home challenge has settled down and the team continues to deliver against the Network’s ambitions to spread our help to the businesses and staff in the wider Cambridge area;
- We are collating and publishing a large amount of useful information on this website – provided by our members and other agencies.
- We are helping make connections between our members and the organisations that require solutions to the new technical challenges the nation is facing (ventilators, testing kits, PPE, etc.).
- We are undertaking work to connect those businesses that are short of resource with people who have, unfortunately, lost their positions due to the closure of businesses. See our dedicated Employment during Coronavirus page.
- Our members are keeping us busy as we keep our core services in place. The requirement to keep people and businesses connected is probably more important in these times and the challenge is to move our services online, while self-isolation continues...We hosted two hugely successful free seminars over the past two weeks and we are currently planning sessions for the next few weeks. In addition, our Learning and Development trainers are all working hard to convert their courses to online platforms. I think it is so important that we try and take some positives from these challenging times and the opportunity to focus on self-development might just be one of these.
Thank you to those who have suggested seminars and ideas that they feel would be valuable to them and their peers. We will continue to work on these and update our website and social media channels as we launch new ideas.
I think it is vital that the Network continues to communicate openly with its members and non-members, so my plan is to continue these blogs, which will also be posted on LinkedIn. Thanks for all your positive and interesting feedback.
A new delivery arrived at the Gourd household this morning – perfect for the long weekends stuck indoors!
Stay safe.
John