Making a Difference: December 10th

We at WIN know that we can make a change for the better by doing things ourselves – and we have been doing great things for over one year now and plan to continue this work far into the future. To date: 36% of WIN participants have found work and many more are keeping their business alive or working on a business idea.


We now want to use our skills, experiences and sense of community to start making a difference in the lives of those around us. We are going to use our final session of 2010 to look at ways in which we can make a change on the ground and in our communities. With lots of people making a difference, no matter how small, we can make small steps towards getting our country back on track. Come along on December 10th and help us in our efforts to make a difference.

Please contact me directly if you would like more information: mcdonaghcaroline@gmail.com

WIN Video Workshops

We recently ran video preparation and video workshops allowing WIN participants and micro business owners to sell themselves or their businesses online. We would like to thank Liam Bluett for kindly letting us use the facilities in the Ballybane Enterprise Centre.

The Elevator Pitch and Video Session - November 26th and 27th

Our next session, the elevator pitch will be combined with a session where you will have the opportunity to video your pitch and use this for your blog, LinkedIn or any other online site. The pitching workshop will take place on Friday 26th from 10am - 1pm and the videos will take place on Saturday. This is a Skillnets initiative. Places are free for those who are unemployed.

Please contact me directly for more information. mcdonaghcaroline@gmail.com

An elevator pitch is a short presentation which is intended to be short enough to deliver in the time it takes to get from the ground floor to the top floor boardroom in an elevator - assuming you are with your target audience and you have their undivided attention. In this session we will look at how you go about preparing your personal pitch.

20 new posts in healthcare manufacturing in Mayo.

A northwest Mayo company is due to begin recruiting “immediately” for 20 new posts in healthcare manufacturing.

Bioshell Teo was established in Dublin by John Raftery and Reiner Escweny in 1996, and relocated to its current base in the north Mayo Gaeltacht five years later. It currently employs 25 people, making a wide range of vitamin and mineral supplements for an international market.

The company specialises in sports nutrition and traditional herbal medicine products, and was granted a manufacturer’s authorisation by the Irish Medicines Board last month.

The new certification allows the company to increase its product range and expand into the pharmaceutical market, according to Údarás na Gaeltachta which has supported the company.

The company has been based in Ceathrú Thaidhg and recently established an additional manufacturing space in the Údarás na Gaeltachta industrial park in Belmullet.
“Bioshell is expanding to meet the growth in demand in the sports nutrition and food supplement market,” Mr Eschwey said.
“The new facility provided by Údarás na Gaeltachta in Belmullet will allow us to undertake our expansion plans and increase production and capacity, ensuring that our business can grow into the future.”
The company is recruiting for eight new posts in validation, quality control, information technology and production, while the remaining positions will be recruited over the next two years.

http://www.bioshell.ie/go/about_us/career_opportunities

o Materials Operative
o Validation Engineer
o IT Administrator
o QC (Materials)
o QC (Production)
o Maintenance Operative
o Cleaner

Next Session: November 5th

Marie Devane from Devane Careers (www.devanecareers.ie) is going to provide and lead a competency based mac interview workshop for our next WIN session.

The Mac Interview Session will involve:
- Giving a background on competency based interviewing techniques
- Outline to you how the technique works
- Talking you through the STAR (Situation, Task, Actions, Results) model
- Choosing a role for the purpose of the mac interviews
- Together identifying the key competencies required for that role
- Pairing off the group
- Allocating a competency to each pair
- Conducting mac interviews within a given timeframe and criteria
- Discuss feedback, challenges and thoughts
- Document the key learning points and discuss

This will be very beneficial for those of you looking for work and having interviews as it is practical and you will have the ability to transfer the knowledge and skills learned to any real life situation. In addition to this, it will be a fun exercise for you to carry out.

Next WIN Session - October 22nd.

The WIN next session will feature Johnny Beirne who will cover what we need to know when using Facebook for business and also introduce us to Twitter.

The topics he will cover include:


· Comprehensive overview of Facebook.
· Setting up a Business Page
· Customising a Business Page including a landing page
· Best practice, tools and techniques
· Running and monitoring a Facebook Ad Campaign

Johnny Beirne is well recognised nationally for his work in Internet Innovation, Professional Networking and Social Media Marketing.


With over 15 years experience Johnny now delivers courses, workshops and Masterclasses across the island of Ireland in both the public and private sector.

In addition Johnny is also renowned for his online music service downloadmusic.ie which is Ireland’s largest independent online music store. This service continues to expand in the UK as textatrack.co.uk. The services have collectively sold over 100,000 tracks and have over 2,000 registered bands and singer/songwriters. The success and growth of both services is completely attributable to Social Media Marketing.

Johnny also won an Irish Internet Award in the category Mobile Innovation for downloadmusic.ie.

Next WIN Session - Project Management

Out next WIN speaker will be John Murphy, whom some of you may have already met at WIN sessions. John is an experienced Project Manager having worked with many blue chip companies here in Ireland and abroad. John is going to give a guest presentation on Project Management. The session outline is as follows:


- Overview of Project Management - What is it?
- Methodologies - Overview of PRINCE2
- Project Management Tools
- Roles in the team

This will an insighful and practical session and well worth coming along.