SQT Blog

SQT training was originally called Shannon Quality Training. So when Noel Raftery, formerly Lecturer in Quality in Sligo Institute of Technology and myself thought of a kayaking challenge, some quality training on the Shannon seemed apt!

Here’s Noel and myself in action. We have one more day to do to complete the river but the weather has been too windy these past two weekends to get the lakes done. Who’d have thought there’d be a problem with wind in August!

It really is living the company name!

Limerick Milk Market was closed for a number of months for major refurbishment but has recently re-opened.

Here’s a quick tour of the new-look …

It is now an all-weather market with a fantastic new roof.

Country Choice from Nenagh run by Peter and Mary Ward have a great new stall at the market, as have Ponaire Coffee, Sallymills Artisan Cakes & Desserts and Fleur de Sel Crêperie.

Later a stop for coffee and to listen to some music at Mari’s Cheese Shop

Back to work

Here is a full list of shops and stalls and opening times.

Well worth a visit.

This YouTube video is about 5 minutes long and presents some thought provoking statistics.

For the record when I viewed it, the video had already been viewed 10,171,463 times!

SQT Training was one of many Training organisations that participated in a 2 day event organised by FAS, at the South Court Hotel, Limerick, to provide training options for people recently made unemployed by Dell, Banta and a few other local companies.

The European Global Fund (EGF) is a fund of approx €22m that has been secured to provide further training to this specific group of unemployed in the Munster region, to help them get up-skilled and so better prepared to re-enter the workforce. Hopefully the event will be quickly followed up by real action by all parties involved and specific training plans identified and funded, for all those that so eagerly attended the event looking for answers.

We met some lovely people on the day, many old faces from my days in Dell and all very anxious to get back to work as quickly as possible. The following are some photos from the day.

Aishling ready for visitors to our stand.

Because we are fans of “The Apprentice”, we saw how doing something different is important to get noticed in a large hall, so team member Aishling got to work and sourced 50 balloons to create a bit of colour and fun. Here is Eamon our Six Sigma tutor surrounded by the new SQT balloons.

The balloons did the trick and were a big hit … but it didn’t take long before a child that attended the event with her parents, spotted these colourful objects and naturally, wanted one.

So we kindly gave her one and made the child happy.

But then along came another child …

And another child …

Now unfortunately balloons rise so it didn’t take long before little Harry lost his …

And did not look a happy camper at all, at all.

The good news is that he got another one, this time tied to his trousers and so guaranteed not to disappear until he actually wanted it to!!!! And so the event ended on a happy note (for the kids at least).

This special fund is a fantastic opportunity for Munster and badly needed. We were very happy to be a part of it but more importantly it’s our hope that the delegates that attended quickly receive the approval they await to start the next phase of their lives and hopefully make new dreams happen. We wish them all the very best of luck.

Photo owned by jekert gwapo (cc)

Kieran Murphy of Ice Cream Ireland writes a great blog. Last Friday he wrote:

Running a business, especially in these times can be a challenge. There are always stresses and worries – what will the future bring? For us, our customers have always been the rock upon which everything is based, and they bring us so much joy (and hopefully we reciprocate!) … Never under estimate the power of a compliment and how good it can make everybody feel, especially on a rainy winter’s day.

When I read this piece on Friday, I immediately thought of a very nice email we received in the office last Wednesday from one of our course attendees.

Could you pass on a message of thanks to the girl that supervised the exam yesterday I did not catch her name but she was excellent. She had a very friendly and relaxed attitude and put every body I think at ease and took the nervousness out off the situation. If you could pass on my thanks I would be grateful.

As Kieran said ‘Never under estimate the power of a compliment and how good it can make everybody feel’. It worked for us here at SQT, on yet another rainy winter’s day.

We should all try to spread some sunshine where we can.

Happy New Year to everyone. It’s certainly a cold New Year.

The ‘far off hills are green’. Well here in Limerick, the far off hills of Clare are white.

I write this Thursday morning, listening to Morning Ireland, which is dominated by John Murray discussing Arctic conditions, our preparedness, or lack of same, school closures …

The Times online is much the same. Headlines of some of the stories related to the current weather:

No let-up expected in Arctic weather conditions
Safety concern extends break for thousands of pupils
4,000 tonnes of salt arrive in Limerick tomorrow
10-fold increase in AE patients in Sligo
Bus passengers stranded as service stalls

For many scheduling events, it’s hard to call it ahead. To cancel or not is the big question. Safety is always the primary concern, but it’s sometimes difficult to call.

We have cancelled the NEBOSH Diploma course for today in Dublin.

We are very fortunate that January is not the busiest month for public training courses. For Public courses, as well as contacting delegates individually, we will keep our website homepage updated with course cancellations. Decisions for In-House courses are taken locally, so delegates should contact their In-House course organiser.

So as well as wishing everyone a Happy New Year, we’ll also include a Safe New Year in this very cold weather.

At this time of year, the line of the Christmas Carol,

A ray of hope flickers in the sky,

comes to mind.

At this time of year, at dawn on the winter solstice, a beam of sunlight illuminates the floor of the chamber at Newgrange.

A ray of hope, this time from the CSO: The economy technically emerged from recession in the third quarter, according to new data from the Central Statistics Office (Source Irish Times 17th December).

This news from the CSO as the year draws to a close, is very welcome.

As 2009 draws to a close, we here at SQT thank you for your support in 2009 and sincerely wish you all a good 2010.

Nollag Shona agus Athbhliain faoi shonas is faoi rath.

A ray of hope flickers in the sky
A tiny star lights up way up high
All across the land dawns a brand new morn
This comes to pass when a child is born

The photograph shows Joe Queenan, (left), Chairman of the Governing Body Institute of Technology Sligo presenting the SQT medal to Dermot Radford. This medal is awarded to the student who achieves the highest grades on the BSc in Quality Management and Technology at Sligo Institute of Technology.

Sligo Institute of Technology has a long tradition in delivering third-level education in Quality. It’s interesting to note that Dermot’s complete programme was delivered on-line.

Congratulations Dermot from all in SQT!

As readers of this blog know, we provide an array of training courses as shown here.

Last Tuesday we ran an Online Marketing course for Limerick County Enterprise Board. The course was organised by Agnes Relihan and had a full attendance. It was held in the new Office Ireland training room just beside us here in Castletroy, a good venue.

The reason I’m writing a post about this one course, (out of the twenty-one courses being held this week), is that I myself was one of those delegates. This is an area where we still have a lot to learn.

Clare Cunningham was our excellent trainer and there was lively discussion throughout the day. I learned a lot from attending the course.

It concentrated on areas such as:
Basics of good website design
Knowing how people find your website
Search engines
SEO Search Engine Optimisation
Blogging
Google Adwords
Website Analytics
Social Media (Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Youtube)

Things we have done here at SQT to improve our online marketing include revamping our website to make it more ’search engine friendly’. Daniel Heffernan re-designed our site and did an excellent job. We added Google Analytics and are finding the package very useful. We are learning more and more about SEO. We started the blog in the summer and we are beginning to find our feet.

Let’s say we are currently at the crawling stage. We intend being a 100 metre sprinter! Watch this space!

We really need to improve our use of Twitter though.

To quote an old slogan, (without mentioning source), to describe where our online marketing is at – ‘A lot done, More to do’, except I’d change it to ‘Some done, A lot more to do’.

Come to think of it, I feel the latter slogan would have been better for that political party too!

I’ll keep you posted re our online marketing progress and all suggestion are very, very welcome.

Our next public Online Marketing course is this coming Wednesday, (18th November), in Castleknock Hotel, Dublin.

Today is ‘Arthur’s day’, celebrating 250 years of manufacturing the black stuff at St James’ Gate in Dublin.

250 years … a long time.

As well as being a big employer in Dublin, from all accounts Guinness seem to have been a good employer, at a time when employment in Dublin was scarce and poverty was rampant.

In fact philanthropy and the Guinness family go hand in hand.

For example, a wikipedia entry on the fourth Arthur, the great-grandson of the original Arthur Guinness states:

‘He was, like many in the Guinness family, a generous philanthropist, devoting himself to a number of public causes, including the restoration of Marsh’s Library in Dublin and the extension of the city’s Coombe Women’s Hospital. In buying and keeping intact the estate around Muckross House in 1899, he assisted the movement to preserve the lake and mountain landscape around Killarney, now a major tourist destination. From 1875 he was a sponsor of the “Dublin Artizan’s Dwellings Company”, which built cottages for poor Dubliners at reasonable rents; the forerunner of the Iveagh Trust which was set up by his brother Edward. He also bought, landscaped and gave to the capital the central public park of St Stephen’s Green, his best-known achievement, where his statue can be seen opposite the Royal College of Surgeons.’

Indeed, I studied Microbiology in the Moyne Institute in TCD, a building presented to the College in 1953 by Grania Guinness (now the dowager Marchioness of Normanby) in memory of her father, the first Baron Moyne.

Today’s celebrations include setting up ‘The Arthur Guinness Fund’ to support social entrepreneurship. It is hoped to raise up to €2.5m over the next few months.

We could still learn lots of lessons from this company, established 250 years ago today.