I am deeply saddened to read the news today of the 87 deaths following the collapse of a clothing factory in Bangladesh. It is doubly sad that I am not surprised; these events are all too frequent and have many causes. Simplistically we could suggest that the causes are down to unscrupulous builders or inadequate building controls but at the root of the problem is vanity and globalisation– let’s take them in turn.
Vanity – in the west we consume greatly in excess of our true needs. We need to follow the latest fashions, have a new outfit, shop for the pure fun of it; in fact the average women in the UK has 14 items of clothing in their wardrobe that they have never worn & think they will never wear (men are only marginally better!). But not content with our overconsumption we are constantly voting with our feat and demanding lower and lower priced goods.
Globalisation is the key tool that has delivered us reducing shop prices for durable goods over the last 20 years. Particularly in clothing with the removal of trade restrictions clothing retailers are quite rationally moving their sourcing around the world to the country that can supply their goods at the cheapest possible price. Of course it stands to reason that the factory that can produce the cheapest clothing might offer the lowest wages to its staff; make them work in the most basic of conditions; even in the most cheaply built buildings – sounds like sweatshops doesn’t it.
So the combination of globalisation and our vanity are leading to such events as we sadly see today. When you see a pair of jeans for sale for £5 and look at the amount of work that has gone into producing them it is clear to see that corners must have been cut somewhere. It was a factory used by Primark that collapsed today, some will use that as an opportunity to suggest that ultra low price retailers like Primark have more questionable provenance than others, but in reality we can’t be sure there will be many more up-market brands that operate in similarly questionable ways.
Students pass BiiAB personal licence certification course
Students pass BiiAB personal licence certification course
Last week 14 of our School of Tourism students took the BiiAB personal licence certification course. Today we found out that all of them passed the course.
Passing the course allows the holder to apply for the very sought after personal alcohol licence issued by the UK government as part of the licensing act 2003.
This means that the holder is authorised to sell or authorise the sale of alcohol on licenced premises.
The pass mark for the course is 70% and all our students achieved above 80%, with one student, George Alback, Hospitality Management level I, achieving 100%.
Congratulations to all our students who took part in this course.
Senior lecturer in Sports Management, Andrew Adams contributes a book chapter to the “Routledge Handbook of Sport Policy”
Senior lecturer in Sports Management, Andrew Adams has contributed a chapter to the “Routledge Handbook of Sport Policy” to be published in July 2013.
Andrew co-authored the chapter with his old colleague Iain Lindsey, from Edge Hill University.
The chapter titled “Sport Development and Community Development” critically analyses some of the important conceptual and policy themes that bind sport development to community development. First looking at the potential of sport to contribute to community development, its salience as a mechanism of policy and the processes underpinning this alignment of sport with community development. Second, we examine sport and its capacity to deliver in relation to community development and meeting broader policy themes, such as well-being, sustainability, community and civil renewal.
Overall the book introduces a diverse range of approaches to policy analysis across the full range of political and societal contexts, including developed and developing economies; state-centric, mixed economy and market-led systems, and both liberal democracies and political systems characterized by a dominant elite. It is arranged into five sections addressing the key topics and themes in the analysis of contemporary sport policy, including:
- theory and its implications for methodology
- globalization, governance, partnerships and networks
- elite sport policy
- development, sport and joint policy agendas
- sport policy and social theory.
With contributions from leading policy analysts around the world, including Europe, North America, the Middle East and Asia, this book is important reading for any student, researcher or professional working in sport management, sport development, sport and society, or mainstream public policy, policy analysis or social policy.
For more information please see here
WSET Level 1 Foundation Certificate in Wine
The School of Tourism, in collaboration with Erica Dent of Enjoy Discovering Wine, is delighted to be able to offer a 1 day
WSET Level 1 Foundation Certificate in Wine
The course will provide you with product knowledge and skills in the selection of wine to help you with your future employment and add value to your CV. The course introduces you to the main styles of wine, common grape varieties, a systematic approach to wine tasting and the matching of food to wine. Assessment is through completion of a multiple-choice paper at the end of the day. The course starts at 8:45 a.m. and finishes at about 4.30 pm. The next course is being held on
Saturday 4th May 2013
Poole House PG22. Heavily discounted cost to BU students is £105.
To register your interest and reserve a place, please email
Who will provide you with further details along with instructions on how to pay.
School of Tourism Sport Development and Coaching Science Graduate Profile
Nick Guy finished his degree in Sport Development and Coaching Science degree last year and since then has helped set up Witlr, a graduate employment business with a twist.
Wiltr aims to make it simple for all businesses, no matter what size, industry or location to find the right student or graduate for their company. They therefore make it easier for students & graduates to find a job that matches their skillset and personality.
They are flipping the traditional graduate recruitment website on its head; with Witlr employers search for the exact students and graduates they want. This means there will be no more extortionate recruitment fees or sifting through endless applications. Instead, using their comprehensive search engine; similar to Autotrader or Rightmove, businesses can search a large database of students and recent graduates using specific criteria to hone in on the candidates ideally suited to their company.
For students and graduates it’s simple; rather than wasting hours writing countless CVs and cover letters they just fill out one free, detailed profile on Witlr and let the employers find them, opening the door to 100s of great job opportunities and saving them loads of time!
Nick met Witlr’s other co-founder David Rubie-Todd whilst at Bournemouth University. Nick commented on his time at Bournemouth University “My degree has taught me a lot about being organised and working with other people, things I now do daily because of my team of 5 people.
I choose BU because of its industrial placement years. I am very glad I went to university in Bournemouth.”
For more information on Witlr please see https://witlr.com/
Graduate elected to CIM regional board
28 year old Leisure Marketing graduate Simon Hood has been elected on to the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) South East regional board.
Simon, who is Head of Marketing for leading relocation specialist HCR, will help steer the direction of the CIM’s South East chapter covering Kent, Sussex, Surrey, Solent and the Thames Valley.
The Chartered Institute of Marketing has twelve Regional Boards within the British Isles, each comprising of nine elected members. Simon commented: “The CIM’s South East region is one of the most diverse regions in the UK, stretching from Thanet in the southeast and the New Forest in the southwest, up to Aylesbury Vale and Milton Keynes in the northwest of the region. I am very excited about the opportunity to support the work of the CIM and to help provide a means by which all members have the opportunity to participate and be involved at local level.
“I am also actively seeking to improve the Institute’s engagement with the new generation of marketers by increasing the online presence of the group as well as improving the perception of the CIM among forward-thinking modern employers.”
Simon, who graduated from Bournemouth University in 2009, continues to show his entrepreneurial spirit; just last year, he independently launched the White Cliffs Business Awards, an awards scheme showcasing local business success within southeast Kent. The first awards ceremony took place in March 2012 and had over 120 business leaders in attendance and later this year will be the staging the first ever White Cliffs Business Summit.
Simon also helped to launch Texas Ask’Em Poker – a novel, fun poker app and Facebook game combining trivia with Texas hold’em poker. As part of the launch Simon implemented a sponsorship deal which resulted in the Texas Ask’Em Poker brand being broadcast around the globe via Sky Sports.
Bournemouth University Disaster Management Courses
Last month, the Bournemouth University Disaster Management Centre trained Bangladesh’s members of the armed forces, civil administrators and development partners on disaster management.
The course was organsied by the Armed Forces Division, aimed at building capacity across the civil administration, international organisations and the military, which would all be involved in the event of a major natural disaster in Bangladesh, such as earthquakes and floods.
However the course was also attended by members from the Ministry of Disaster Management, Department of Disaster Management, Police, Fire Service and Civil Defence, ICRC, World Vision, ECGO, UNDP, OXFAM, CDMP, ADPC, and OCHA.
The Disaster Management Centre are now taking bookings for their next set of courses to be run in July.
For more information please see the International Disaster Management Brochure (2013 IDMC Brochure) or visit the website.
If you have any queries please email Zoe Larrad on BUDMC@bournemouth.ac.uk
Dr Vijay Reddy was invited to an influential UN conference on Sustainable Tourism
Dr Maharaj Vijay Reddy from the School of Tourism was invited by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Paris Office to moderate an intergovernmental conference session on “Tourism Growth – Sustainable, Green and Inclusive?” at the 3rd Annual Conference of Partners of the Global Partnership of Sustainable Tourism (GPST) on 26 March 2013.
Dr Reddy commented that “I was pleased to moderate the conference session advancing the green economy and tourism theme and we (the participants) came up with several priorities for consideration by the UNEP and its global partners in future. I see this as an excellent opportunity to highlight BU’s tourism reputation and develop fruitful partnership with these leading global organisations advancing sustainable tourism initiatives”.
Hosted by the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development in Bonn, this important conference and sessions were attended by partners and representatives from many organisations including the Tourism Departments of the Governments of Mexico, South Africa, Mozambique, France, Philippines, Thailand, Morocco, South Korea and Madagascar; and leading international organisations such as the World Tourism Organisation – UNWTO, and the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation – UNIDO.
Sandworld Weymouth Sand Sculpture Festival offering work experience opportunities.
Sandworld Weymouth, Sand Sculpture Festival, has just opened for its third season in Weymouth. It is a self funded visitor attraction, run by artists, to promote sand sculpture as an art form, and in 2012 welcomed 25000 visitors, a figure set to rise in 2013.
Sandworld are offering an opportunity to work alongside their existing employed staff on day to day activities and/or specific tasks relating to your studies.
Sandworld are happy to tailor the work experience to suit you and are will to discuss individual aims and expectations of a placement with them.
Sandworld are not affiliated to any work placement scheme. This experience is a direct, real world business experience opportunity, to work in a fun environment, delivering a high level of visitor experience.
If you are interested please send a CV with a covering letter to dave@sandworld.co.uk
Further details can be found at www.sandworld.co.uk and www.facebook.com/sandworld
The Third Digital Destinations Seminars
The third Digital Destinations seminars took place last week at the EBC. The seminars started with a discussion on key concepts including: do businesses have an eVision for digital marketing? How do they perceive the benefits (and costs) of digital marketing? What is the role of their technical partner? How does digital marketing enable a more effective customer focus? How important is it to have a formal digital marketing plan?
The question of how you effectively measure your digital marketing was a strong theme across the 6 clusters in the project.
This was followed by a ‘show and tell’ from each of the businesses present reflecting back on the start of their journey in November 2013, the learning and the next steps.
Finally Maureen McAllister, who was facilitating the seminar, showed potential templates that businesses in the project could use for their case study.
The aim of the yearlong project for the 60 businesses signed up is to capture change in the adoption and use of digital technologies and to develop a strong, competitive local tourism economy.
Each business that signed up to the project is assigned a final year E-Marketing student who throughout the year has been helping them come up with an online marketing strategy.
For more information on the Digital Destinations project please visit http://www.budigitalhub.com/