A new £5million health and social care centre to provide hands-on experience and training to the next generation of key workers has officially opened its doors.
It provides new skills and simulation facilities that can be used across health and social care disciplines. It will proactively address shortfalls in health professionals across the Marches area, with an emphasis on local people and students who will become key workers within the region.
The new facilities will include a room for paramedic science and other disciplines, a mock house, various teaching spaces and new student social spaces.
A new initiative between the University of Wolverhampton and Telford & Wrekin Council, to improve skills and knowledge for the digital sectors.
SOLVD supports small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in Telford & Wrekin and Shropshire in the adoption of digital technologies to improve productivity and profit by implementing emerging technology and providing routes for growth.
Congratulations to our tenants – Scanning Pens on winning this prestigious award – well done!
Created in 2003 by Oxford Brookes graduates Jack S. Churchill (CEO) and Toby Sutton (COO), Scanning Pens is a dedicated EdTech company supplying text-to-speech devices to people with dyslexia, as well as raising awareness of dyslexia worldwide and supporting people whose daily lives are impacted by literacy differences.
Scanning Pens devices represent a huge quality-of-life change for neurodiverse people, and work by allowing users to scan through and listen to texts via an audio feedback system. Removing the need for in-person readers and modified texts, they make reading an independent act, and help people who struggle with reading able to engage with texts in the same way that a neurotypical person might. From working through a history exam or reading the latest bestsellers to the day-to-day admin tasks of running a business, their devices are designed to make reading accessible and simple, so that users can focus on what matters.
As a business, Scanning Pens have dedicated the past twelve months to supporting young people and adults with dyslexia and literacy differences who have been so affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. As well as offering free trials of their technology to schools, they now offer the same scheme to parents to try before they buy. Scanning Pens are fortunate and proud that the company has remained open for business and has continued expanding into territories such as the US, Australia and Canada as well as developing new markets in other countries all over the globe.
The Queen’s Award is appointed for sustained achievement by UK businesses in the categories of Innovation, International Trade, Sustainable Development, and Promoting Business via Social Mobility. Now in its 55th year, the programme is considered one of the highest awards for business in the country. Scanning Pens, too, are no stranger to the prestigious recognition of international business growth: in March 2021 the Department of International Trade recognised their outstanding international sales and named them Export Champions for the third year running. As a company they proactively reach out and encourage other businesses to become exporters. Socially distant living has created uncertain times in education that Scanning Pens continues to support people through.
The recognition of a dedicated assistive technology business by an office as prestigious as the Queen’s Awards for Enterprise is a statement on the growing worldwide commitment to accessibility. It also promotes a powerful message on how vital it is to consider inclusivity during a time when business and education are engaged in a rapid process of change and adapting to a very different set of global norms.
“To be recognised by the Queen’s Awards for Enterprise is the highest honour in business. We’re thrilled that our dedication to literacy and reading accessibility has been acknowledged in such a way that celebrates the commitment of everybody here at Scanning Pens.”
