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During a planning session in late 2022 it was decided that we would host a webinar to kick start off 2023. A webinar is not a new idea but it was a first for us and brought with it challenges and rewards. In a round table discussion many ideas were shared about what topics we thought would be most beneficial to discuss and it was decided that Green Skills was going to be the focus.

Webinars are an excellent way to establish yourself as an authority in your industry. By presenting valuable information and insights to your audience, you can demonstrate your knowledge and expertise, helping to build trust and credibility with your target market.

Green Skills Focus

That being said, the intention was to ensure that this webinar was not about Veri Connect. We wanted to gather noted voices in the Green Skills space from other organisations both public and private to provide a well rounded experience for those who chose to attend. The concept being to foster a collaborative learning environment where both attendees and speakers could exchange knowledge and insights with each other.

The challenges around the Green Skills webinar came in the form of logistics and tech! There was a wishlist of speakers that we wanted to invite to share their knowledge but scheduling for people in such busy positions is always difficult. You also have to take into account the factors your invited speakers might consider before agreeing to speak at a webinar.

The speakers would have to think about whether the topic aligned with their personal and professional goals and whether the audience we were targeting was one that they would benefit from speaking to. Would they have the time needed to prepare to speak? Once all the benefits and costs were weighed up we were thrilled that as it worked out, everyone we hoped to have as speakers were able to commit their time. 

Here comes the technical bit.

The technological aspect of running a green skills webinar is another skill to learn. We chose to use Zoom and the webinar functionality is excellent but still requires some practice to master. There was a whole new language involved, phrases like spotlight speaker and mute attendees became new parts of the office vocabulary. It was clear this would require practice.

If you are going to undertake an event like this and have people take time out to attend and speak at the green skills webinar, you want to make it as professional as possible and we gave it our all. We had multiple practice sessions where we perfected the running order and the sharing of videos and presentations. Spotlighting speakers and feeding questions to the emcee and we were confident that everyone knew their role. If you want an adrenaline rush without leaving your desk we would strongly recommend that you host your own webinar.

The big day had arrived

The morning of the webinar came, the speakers were coming online and not one camera was working. There had been multiple run throughs and this had never happened. To say hearts were pounding was putting it mild. In a remarkable demonstration of calm under pressure Noleen Neil figured it out and the camera’s came online!!!! With the expectation of one video not playing the webinar went off without any further hitches.

There were over 70 people registered to attend the green skills webinar and the engagement was steady and informed. Hosting a webinar has proved to be an incredibly effective way to reach people to inform people about green skills and green jobs. In our eyes it was a great success. It reiterated to us that Green Skills Training is on the forefront of people’s minds. We received some great feedback and it also opened the doors for other topics that need to be discussed in this information sharing type format. We are actively looking for other webinar topics and speakers to share their insights so if you have any propositions we would be delighted to hear from you. 

Thank you again to our speakers who graciously gave their time:

• Aebhín Cawley CEnv MCIEEM – ​CEO, Scott Cawley
• Noreen Fitzpatrick – Manager, National Innovation Unit SOLAS
• Declan Rice – CEO Kilkenny LEADER Partnership
• Nick Bennett – Founder & Director, Supply Advantage
• Carol Baumann  – CEO, Irish Local Development Network
• Karen Loxton PhD – Community and Development Officer, SECAD

You can view the green skills webinar below and make sure you let us know what you think.

There are a growing number of Saas companies in Kilkenny, from startups to established businesses with a global outlook. Learn from industry experts as they share their insights and experiences about digital transformation, design and the future of business in Kilkenny.
Join us as we explore the current status of Kilkenny in this industry, but with a twist!
Imagine if Kilkenny City were a SaaS company, how would we answer these four fundamental questions for success in SaaS?
USERS: How do we attract the best people?
USEFUL: What benefits, unique features and existing integrations can be designed to make the company a success?
PAY: SaaS attracts a high-calibre workforce, how can this support a strong existing service sector?
RETAIN: How can we keep this culture alive and growing?
SCHEDULE:
Introduction to SaaS in Kilkenny and the strong role design plays.
John Cleere Red Lemonade Creative
7 minute introductions by four Kilkenny SaaS companies telling the story of why they are based in Kilkenny.

Panel talk with CoreHR, Profile 90, Premo and Veri.
Followed by drinks and chats in the bar.
This event is FREE but spaces are limited.
Bridie’s Bar & General Store, 72 John Street Lower, Kilkenny.
7.15pm, Thursday 22nd June 2017.

From the 1st September 2017, the HSA will only recognise the PHECC First Aid Response Education and Training Standard (FAR) as meeting the needs of occupational first aid (OFA) in all workplaces.
Ensure you make the transition from OFA to FAR before the deadline. Occupational First Aid/Health and Safety Authority (HSA) transition to Pre-Hospital Emergency Care Council (PHECC) First Aid Response Education and Training Standard.
The Health and Safety Authority (HSA) and the Pre-Hospital Emergency Care Council (PHECC) are continuing the transition process from the Quality and Qualifications Ireland (QQI) Occupational First Aid (OFA) learner training standard to PHECC’s First Aid Response (FAR), as the recognised standard meeting the requirements of the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work (General Application) Regulations 2007 (S.I. No. 299 of 2007).
The main actions and information points are as follows:

1. As and from 1 September 2017, the HSA will only recognise the PHECC First Aid Response Education and Training Standard (FAR) as meeting the needs of occupational first aid (OFA) in all workplaces.
2. Any QQI OFA 5N1207 learner certificate issued up to 31 August 2017 will be recognised by the HSA for the full 2 year duration of the certificate.
   Any refresher certificate issued by a recognised training provider issued to 31st August 2017 will also be recognised by the HSA for the full 2 year duration of the certificate.
3. HSA is communicating to its OFA instructors, who have not already done so, should apply to a PHECC Recognised Institution (RI), approved to provide the FAR instructor course, to have their qualification/s assessed with a view to becoming FAR certified.

The FAR Standard (page 19) provides for the Recognition of Prior Learning, this facilitates the transition of OFA instructors to FAR.
OFA training organisations seeking to become PHECC Recognised Institutions (RI) for delivering the FAR (inclusive of CFR) and FAR instructors courses are encouraged to apply to PHECC. Refer to PHECC application information to become a recognised institution.
OFA training providers (both organisations and individuals) will be kept informed of developments by email from the HSA and announcements on our respective websites www.hsa.ie and www.phecit.ie.

Providers offering QQI Level Occupational First Aid (OFA) are advised that, from 1 September 2017, the Health and Safety Authority (HSA) will no longer recognise the component (Award Code 5N1207) as meeting the requirements for occupational first aid in all workplaces. This change has arisen from the HSA’s decision to recognise the Prehospital Emergency Care Council (PHECC) First Aid Response Education and Training standard (FAR)
Further details can be found here.

Do you know what GDPR is? Do you know how it will affect your business?
Can you afford not to take action?
Ask yourself the following questions…
1. Do your core business operations involve the regular and systematic monitoring of data subjects on a large scale?
Data subjects are individuals who are identified or identifiable from data. For the purposes of this check data refers to information which directly or indirectly identifies individuals. It includes, but is not limited to, payment details, customer records, healthcare information.

2. Do you have a data protection policy which guides your employees in how to keep personal data secure?

3. Are your company laptops encrypted?

4. Do you store personal data in the cloud?
This could include customer data in salesforce.com, on Dropbox etc.

5. Do you encrypt personal data sent by email?

6. Do you have personal data on removable media e.g. USB devices, CDs, DVD, etc.?
If you have answered ‘No’ to three or more of these questions you need to re-evaluate your current Data Protection Policy
Concerns and losses of personal information and sensitive data can lead to regulatory fines and significant risk to an organisation’s reputation.
By implementing good practices and conforming to the associated requirements training organisations can be compliant.
There is the large amount of data held by training organisations, the number of people who need to access this as part of their job and the number of forms, reports, systems and databases where data is held.
Veri ensures this data is encrypted and only accessible by those that need to use the information.
Furthermore, it informs both tutors and learners about their rights and responsibilities around their data and that they work with.
For more information on how Veri can help wiith your Data Security click here.
For more information on GDPR click here.

TRAINING IN THE WORKPLACE
“Quality assurance and compliance in the training sector can come with a heavy weight load for companies. A study by learning network Skillsnet found there are four facets to evaluating training in the workplace. Reaction of the participants to the training and connection to the subject matter were of utmost importance. Learning new skills was ranked highly whereas behaviour demonstrated whether or not the skills learned were implemented afterwards. Ann-Marie Sorley, founder and CEO of Veri Integrated Training (a cloud-based dashboard that captures data and key performance indicators) believes capturing data is an essential part of a company’s success. “l had my own training company and felt the paperwork demanded by accrediting bodies was a huge cost but we could not see benefit as it was all in dead paper. I knew there was huge value in this data.”

So by Christmas we had the beta client, the technical team, the innovative concept all in place. We now needed to validate that the problem was industry wide not just something that was a nice to have for us and our one client.
Excitement and enthusiasm over compliance software is not easy to muster ( unless you are the founder of course). Being compliant is expensive and boring and takes a huge amount of time. But it is only when there is a problem, an audit or an inspection do we see the benefits.
So the first thing to do was look to the Watch Dogs for audits and Inspection in Training Compliance in Ireland, the top one being Quality Qualifications Ireland, QQI (amongst other things they are the new FETAC).
“In the area of quality assurance, we are responsible for reviewing the effectiveness of quality assurance in further and higher education providers in Ireland.”
With Barrow training we presented to QQI the full functionality of the system and how it was being used to improve standards and save time, the result is a quote that said
“Veri is new, something we have not seen before and a training Providers Quality system”
We then moved to the client’s themselves. The most important validation is from the market itself and another thing we have learned is that a software product can be different things to different market segments. So QQI is one accrediting body, but almost every training function has some one that they are accountable to.
From our research with Corporate Training HR want information on attendance or achieving KPI’s or Milestones. Finance want ROI or training outcomes and Corporate Services Management want evaluations and improvement plans.
In local Government, consistency of delivery nationwide is critical as well as tracking and evidence to national civil servants. Some training companies use international accrediting bodies like City and Guilds or VCTC and what we have found and validated is Veri Integrated Training fulfils all these functions.
So with verification from 6 clients from different sectors using the software our name and brand was created VERI (as in verification) Integrated Training. Next job was to work towards a launch and reach out to new clients in the most effective way possible…. more information on mobile working apps in our next post!

Since launching Veri, a process management system for measuring the delivery of on-the-job training, Kilkenny-based entrepreneur Ann-Marie McSorley has signed up 20 clients, among them the Irish Red Cross, the Irish Wheelchair Association and Irish Times Training.
McSorley brought Veri to market last October following two years in development. A cloud-based dashboard, it has been designed to reduce the time and cost involved in quality assurance (QA).
Organisations can use Veri instead of paper forms to ensure their training is consistent and compliant with Quality and Qualifications Ireland (QQI) and Pre-Hospital Emergency Care (Phecc) accredited training requirements.
“The measurement of KPIs for skills-based or on-the-job training has been almost non-existent. The idea is that the outcomes of accredited training can now be measured,” said McSorley.
The Veri dashboard is relevant to any sector with legislated training requirements. Administrators can set up a “perfect course”, which prompts tutors at regular intervals to complete their QA documentation online. This documentation can then be viewed by administrators and quality managers in real-time.
“It has an evidence-based mobile app, which gives live feedback that turns QA information into intelligence for improvement,” said McSorley, who has just recruited Shane Barron, former senior software developer at Bluefin Payment Systems, as Veri’s new chief technology officer.
She came up with the idea for Veri while running iResource Education and Training, which has worked with clients including the Ombudsman for Children’s Office and State Street.
“I felt that the paperwork demanded by accrediting bodies was a huge cost, but we couldn’t see benefit as it was all in dead paper. I knew there was huge value in this data,” she said.
Veri employs four people and McSorley is targeting an 18-strong workforce and revenues of €1 million by 2020.
“The product is aimed specifically at further education, which is about skills-based training rather than the lecture hall environment,” she said. “There are a lot of potential applications for it in healthcare, not just in accredited training, but it could also be applied in the delivery of services like occupational therapy or in care home settings. Our route to market will be to validate each vertical and then bring it to Northern Ireland and on to Britain and the US.
By Elaine O’Regan
Sunday Business Post, 16th April 2017

24 hours with the most Non-Compliant, Risk takers we at Veri have ever seen!
Working weekends has been par for the course, since we at VERI launched last October, as is working with clients who have the huge issue of compliance and risk in the delivery of their training.
Risk takers and non conformers were the company that I kept this weekend. Although I had been looking forward to the Cork BIC Entrepreneur Experience since we were selected from over 100 companies to participate I never would have believed I would have had the opportunities and insights for us emerging companies that occurred in Beautiful Ballymaloe House this past weekend.
The Job of the good first impression
Joe O’Sullivan was first to the stage on Friday morning with our MC Pete Smyth for the weekend, Founder of the private investment company Broadlake. (And Professional Croquet Player at Ballymaloe)
Joe worked directly with Steve Jobs at Apple and Jobs’ quote “Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.” could have been about this quiet unassuming procurement expert that helped innovate Apple to where it is today.
He told the story of how three competing suppliers flew to the West Coast to pitch to Jobs for a multimillion distribution contact that they had all prepared for months for. Joe warned them all that Steve jobs did no dither, and expected a crystal-clear value proposition from the off. The meetings lasted minutes and Jobs made his decisions on clarity and price, simple as that.

Cash is King and Diversifying
The Wikipedia definition of Diversification is the process of allocating capital in a way that reduces the reduce risk or volatility by investing in a variety of assets. Mary Mc Kenna of Tour America built a €20 million company with 50 staff and more importantly survived 9 11, Ash cloud and a recession by innovative diversification into cruising, country and many other fantastic products delivered by a team that she says are her most important asset. I was lucky enough to spend 4 hours in group sessions with Mary and her attitude to respect and relationships is something that I want to match as a core value for Veri going forward.
Pat Lynch of Cork based Compliance and Risk was an experienced Entrepreneur that knew our business sector. He has recently diversified into publishing and I spent my Sunday reading his Self-Made from cover to cover.
Clarity and CPD
Albert Einstein said “The only source of knowledge is experience” Eileen Moloney of Cork BIC and Frank Madden of Crest Solution are part of the huge wealth of experience that make up the Entrepreneur Experience. Over the past 18 months we have tried to ensure our clients are clear on what Veri provides, digitalisation of training compliance records.
Frank Madden re-enforced the need for clarity in all areas of business. Crest has managed to scale Track and Trace in Ireland, the UK Benelux and Scandinavia and Madden attributes a huge amount in continuous professional development. Whether that is with Enterprise Ireland year Long Management Development Programmes or 1 hour long E-book in between meetings, the need for constant learning is one of the most crucial in the successful Entrepreneur.
And Finally Sell, Sell, Sell.
At Veri we aim to manage the numbers for our clients, saving them time and money on training compliance. The most important numbers I heard this weekend were 2468. Donal Garrihy company services 8000 business in Ireland and the UK for products from Coffee to Water Coolers.
As Veri’s mentor for the 24 hours the matching was amazing. Understanding our customers’ needs by asking them about their business will identify how we can help, because according to Donal selling is really just about fixing problems in a reliable, timely and price effective way.
Donal was equally as humble and generous as the other experienced entrepreneurs I met and his patience and insight will drive us to go out, find and help new clients from Monday morning.