Blogs

Your know your in trouble when you're reduced to an acronym... just ask any NEET BAMER N.E.E.T. = Young person Not in Education Employment or Training.           There are currently up to a million ‘NEETS’ in the UK aged under 25, and around 200,000 of those are between the ages of 16 and 18 (one in ten 16 – 18 year olds) Nearly half of them have an excuse and a note from their mum, they’re either travelling, volunteering, at her majesty’s le...

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Sometimes good fortune just falls in your lap and today it did in the form of Divine Chocolate. I was just about to start planning my first visit ‘ambassador’ to Lawnswood School, where I’ll be talking with business students about social enterprise,  when the Sunday Times dropped through the letter box.  One of my favourite features is ‘A Life in the Day’ and I duly turned to the back of the magazine to read about Comfort Kumeah a Fairtrade cocoa farmer from Ghana. She work...

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Here at the Divine offices, we're very excited to report that Teacher's TV will be showing 'Chocolate makes the world go round' - a 15 minute film about Divine and social enterprise - at 7.15pm this evening. The programme aims to show how social enterprises are changing the face of business and looks at the future of cocoa production in Ghana. For those who miss it, the programme will be available to download from the Teachers TV website here: http://www.teachers.tv/video/46581 Do comment and...

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I first started to do some mentoring in 2000, supporting the government’s network of IT centres which were being opened up across the country to help get people online.  They wanted mentors to help organisations develop their ideas and business plans.  The first assignment was to drive through the snow to Longtown on the border with Scotland in early March to help a stressed out school development worker submit a funding application.  I let her know that it wasn’t really what ...

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