That represented a 21 per cent increase compared with the previous year – significantly higher than the national average of 13 per cent.

​Josh Shaw-Harvey, left, and Andy Rafferty.

Josh Shaw-Harvey, left, and Andy Rafferty.

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The rise in university tuition fees is likely to mean that the 2011/12 figures are higher still. The Sentinel reported last week that almost 11,000 fewer students have applied for degree places at the area’s three universities.

And apprenticeships are beginning to shake off the perception that they are only for people interested in a career in construction or engineering – although of course employers in those sectors are still providing opportunities.

In North Staffordshire, firms dipping their toes into the apprenticeship water for the first time include The Hanley Economic Building Society and web design firm Cyberzia.

The Hanley, based at Festival Park, has just taken on three new recruits, including its first two apprentices – 17-year-old Lauren Ainsworth and 16-year-old Jordan Stevenson.

Over the next 12 months, three members of staff at the mutual are due to achieve 40 years’ service, two will achieve 25 years and five will achieve 20 years.

Human resources manager Cris Hammond said bringing in the apprentices would help give a good mix of experience and youth.

She said: “This is first time we’ve been involved with apprenticeships – we’ve done graduate placements before but they are obviously a bit older. Our eldest staff member is 74, so we’ve got really wide age range.

“Taking on apprentices gives you a chance to go back to basics and really develop people.

“Choosing Jordan and Lauren wasn’t easy . All the applicants were of a very high standard.”

Jordan and Lauren are completing NVQs in business administration and customer service, which are being delivered by Babington Business College’s base in Trent Vale.

Jordan, of Meir Hay, said: “I was at college until Christmas and then I decided to look at an apprenticeship.

“I thought it was a better way to get into employment because you’re getting experience.

“I’m really enjoying it so far. At college I didn’t feel like I was doing much – I’ve got a good work ethic so this is the best place for me to be.”

At Cyberzia in Longton, managing director Simon Nicklin is marking the firm’s 10th anniversary by launching an apprentice scheme to help aspiring web designers get their first step on the career ladder. He is aiming to recruit his first apprentice during the first quarter of 2012.

He said: “We are looking forward to welcoming our first apprentice as I am sure they will bring a new perspective and bags of enthusiasm.”

The national minimum wage for apprentices is £2.60 per hour, but as demonstrated at ARC iT Solutions in Shelton, there are opportunities to progress fairly quickly.

ARC’s first two apprentices have proved such a success that the firm is looking to take on a minimum of six more this year, as well as developing an in-house training centre.

Former IT engineering apprentice Josh Shaw-Harvey, who joined the firm in 2010, was highly commended at the National Apprenticeship Awards last year.

Managing director Andy Rafferty said: “Our previous two apprentices have now been taken on in permanent roles and are in the process of being promoted.”

What are H1 headings?
An H1 heading is a prominent piece of text on a web page. It’s like the headline of a newspaper or magazine article – it helps readers quickly understand what the web page is about. For example, if this email were a web page, “Search Engines Notice H1 Headings” would be its H1 heading.

An H1 heading is plain text that lives between these HTML tags: <h1> and </h1>

How can H1 headings help my search engine rankings?
Because headings are defined with HTML code, search engines understand that these pieces of text are of particular importance. You should include important keywords for a page in its H1 heading to tell search engines what the page is about, and help it rank higher in results for searches on those words.

Do my website’s pages have H1 headings?
You can find out by looking at the HTML source code for every page on your site. When you’re viewing the page, look for this option in your web browser. For example, in Firefox, you would click “View” at the top of the page, and then “Page Source.” You’ll see a page of code, and you can search for <h1> tags.

Because H1 headings are important and it’s tedious to check them manually, we analyze these – and many other SEO elements – in our SEO reports we do for clients.  We show you what your H1 headings say, and alert you if they’re too long, or include anything other than plain text (they shouldn’t).
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How can I add or change my H1 headings?
If you can edit the HTML code for your website, you can add an H1 heading where you want it to show up, like this: <h1>What you want the heading to say</h1> You can also look for an existing H1 heading, and change the text between the tags.

Questions? email us aor call today!

The botnet, known as TDL, targets Windows PCs and is difficult to detect and shut down.

Code that hijacks a PC hides in places security software rarely looks and the botnet is controlled using custom-made encryption.

Security researchers said recent botnet shutdowns had made TDL’s controllers harden it against investigation.

The 4.5 million PCs have become victims over the last three months following the appearance of the fourt.h version of the TDL virus.

“The owners of TDL are essentially trying to create an ‘indestructible’ botnet that is protected against attacks, competitors, and anti-virus companies.

A botnet is a network of home computers that have been infected by a virus that allows a hi-tech criminal to use them remotely. Often botnet controllers steal data from victims’ PCs or use the machines to send out spam or carry out other attacks.

The TDL virus spreads via booby-trapped websites and infects a machine by exploiting unpatched vulnerabilities. The virus has been found lurking on sites offering porn and pirated movies as well as those that let people store video and image files.

The virus installs itself in a Windows system file known as the master boot record. This file holds the list of instructions to get a computer started and is a good place to hide because it is rarely scanned by standard anti-virus programs.

• Check that you website is in the Google index
• Verify that your site ranks for your domain name
• Let Google know your website exists
• Make sure google can find and often revisits your website
• Make sure your content is useful and relevant

In the code on your web pages, you need to have desciptive meta data, these include meta description, meta keywords and meta title. User do not see these but search engines do.

over the coming weeks i will post more free advice but if you would like ARC IT to help with this we can, from as little as £25. Just drop us a quick email.

here are a few pointers

iPad Exchange ActiveSync

• Tap the “Settings” icon from the home screen, then “Mail, Contacts, Calendars
• In “Mail, Contacts, Calendars”, tap “Add Account…”
• Tap the “Microsoft Exchange” icon
  Note: This is where you come in if you tap the Mail app from the home screen with no accounts configured

Now you will enter your Exchange account information:

1. Your full Email address
2. You may need to enter an Exchange Domain (like “IT” or “Sales”), but this is not the place to enter the Internet domain name (like “company.com”) (see “What Domain Name Do I Enter?” below for more details)
3. Your Exchange Username
   Note: This is usually the first part of your email address before the “@” sign (e.g. “billg”), but you may have to also enter your Exchange domain (e.g. “msexec\billg.microsoft”)
4. Your Exchange Password
5. You can optionally modify the Description to something other than your email address

• Tap “Next” and the iPad will attempt to auto-discover and configure the Exchange account
  Note: This can take up to 5 minutes on slow networks or if autodiscovery is not supported
• If your Exchange server configuration does not support Autodiscovery, it will fail (saying it couldn’t validate your account), and you will have to manually enter the Server name)
• Tap “Next” and the iPad will verify the configuration
• By default, the iPad will synchronize all three data types (Mail, Contacts, and Calendars) with your Exchange ActiveSync server, but you can turn one or more off if you wish.

if you are still havign issues call us on 01782 202529

What if you cannot access your office due to gas leak or even a fire?

ARC iT will assist you in writing a DR and business continuity plan. In order for this to be fully effective certain aspects of your infrastructure may have to be changed in order for your company to get the most efficient recovery time. This made be as simple as allowing ARC iT to store user names and passwords to your online control panels, or using ARC iT to host your email.

Things to consider

• If you have a tape backup, do you have the correct software, tape drive and server to recover it to?
• When was this last tested?
• Server – can parts be found for current server if this fails
• Do you have a disaster recovery plan and business continuity plan?
• When was this last tested with all your staff
• Plan for people as well as servers
• Train and educate everyone
• Fire/flood proof safe for banking devices, swipe cards etc…
• Copy of software and licences

The new website can be found at www.theconsultancygroup.co.uk

The brief was create a modern,fresh easy to navigate website – which is exactly what we have achieved