Skillset launch Creative Media Workforce Survey 2010

Skillset, the sector skills council for the creative industries, have launched the national Creative Media Workforce Survey 2010:

Whether you are an employer, an employee or a freelancer, what you tell us about your skills needs, experience of training and recruitment, future plans and working patterns will help us produce the most comprehensive profile of working life in the UK’s Creative Media Industries.

D’log highlights why this survey is especially important this year.

For more details about the survey, visit www.skillset.org/playyourpart.

Observatory website survey reponses now available

Thank you to everyone who completed the Observatory’s recent website satisfaction survey. We have taken all of your responses and comments on board and are now working on making our website more user friendly.

As part of our review of web services, we’re planning the following actions based on your responses:

• Improve the profile of research gaps on wmro.org
• Ensure all records in the Resource Catalogue have a metadata summary page
• Remove the Directory of Specialists from the website, create a network group in LinkedIn and encourage users to relocate their profiles there.
• Remove the organisations directory from wmro.org

Following more investigation with users, we’ll also review the future of the Register of Consultants.

We’ve decided to remove some of our website services (Directory of Specialists, organisations directory and possibly the Register of Consultants) based on the results of the survey.

The results showed that these areas are rarely used, are not valued and of limited importance.

This will allow us to concentrate our efforts on those areas of the website we know are of high importance to most users:

Cultural sector recession survey – can you help?

The West Midlands cultural sector recession survey for the October–December 2009 quarter is now live.

If you work in the region’s cultural sector we’d appreciate your help in getting the word out.

Tell us what you think of us…

The Observatory’s annual customer satisfaction survey is now officially underway. If you haven’t already received an invitation by email to take part, then we welcome you to take part in the survey.

The survey closes on Friday 17th July.

You can also sign up to receive our newsletters and invitations in future.

West Midlands economy suffers further falls

The latest West Midlands Chamber of Commerce Quarterly Survey released today makes grim reading as it reports further declines in economic output and a worsening of prospects for the next quarter.

Manufacturing firms in the West Midlands reported significant falls in domestic orders and further worsening of exports. This is impacting on investment and confidence, with fewer firms reporting plans for capital investment as expectations of profitability and turnover decline.

In services the picture is mixed, with domestic orders falling but strong growth in exports. Employment growth, while positive, has slowed on the previous quarter and cashflow has deteriorated. In the light of the continuing uncertainty the survey reports business confidence levels falling.

Purchase of Information Project: a survey of lifestyle data [UPDATED – 23.09.08]

Purchase of Information Project – Have you considered, used or purchased ‘lifestyle’ customer insight information?

The Local Government Information House (LGIH) and the Improvement & Development Agency (IDeA) are launching a research project into the purchase and use of ‘lifestyle’ customer insight information in the public sector. They need your help!

Have your say!

We at the Observatory aim to provide you with a first class information service on the region, and a website that makes this easy for you to do. Recently we have been thinking about what we could do to improve finding information on our website and how we could lay it out better for you.

To help me with this I would be very grateful if you could give me five minutes of your time to complete an online questionnaire about it.

Please use this link to access the questionnaire