News

Geosynthetics Limited, sponsors of the WorldSkills UK Landscape Gardening Competition, would like to congratulate Johannes Pasch and Jack Carnell, students from Capel Manor College for winning first place in the final at IOG Saltex on the 10th September. We would also like to thank all the competitors who took part and made it such a good competition; CAFRE from Northern Ireland, Oatridge College from Edinburgh and Otley College from Ipswich. The event was organised by the British Association of Landscape Industries (BALI) on behalf of UK Skills and was fought out at Windsor Racecourse over the four day event.  The 4 teams had 22 hours to build their 7x7m gardens designed by Andy Sturgeon. The judges; Mark Gregory from Landform Consultants, Charlie Maclauchlan from Country Gardens and Keith Chapman (an ex competitor from the International WorldSkills Team UK 2007 competition) advised that the students from Capel Manor College Gunnersby picked up those vital winning points for their precision of measurement and work processes. We wish all the competitors success for the future.

Customers choose Geosynthetics because of its high standards of service and the on-time delivery of materials within a 24-hour window. This value proposition depends on an efficient, effective supply chain. The company depends on its computing systems to successfully meet customer needs. By deploying the Windows® 7 Professional operating system, Geosynthetics was able to increase the speed of everyday tasks, improve employee productivity, and facilitate easier access to information. According to Justin Bates, IT manager of Geosynthetics, uptime and availability are crucial. “Our customers often call to place an order on Friday and require delivery on Monday morning,” he says. “I f our employees do not have access to our system, we’re dead in the water. It is incredibly important that we minimise downtime and search time by all means necessary. Windows 7 helps our employees work faster, smarter, and more efficiently.” In 2009, Geosynthetics began migrating its computers to Windows 7. Windows 7 eliminates costly downtime as users wait less for boot, resume and launch. Employees get more done in less time as new productivity features make it easy to capture business processes that improve efficiency, and speed up everyday tasks. Users stay more productive even on the road with longer battery life and faster access. “I believe Windows® will remain at the center of people's technological solar system. We're putting in all the right ingredients: simplicity, reliability and speed, and we're working hard to get it right and to get it ready,” says Steve Ballmer, chief executive officer of Microsoft. Link to full article: http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/Case_Study_Detail.aspx?casestudyid=4000004748        

The WorldSkills UK Landscape Gardening Competition is one of more than 70 quality assured vocational skills competitions run annually in the UK and in countries across the world, encouraging young people to excel in their chosen skills area. It is project managed by the British Association of Landscape Industries (BALI) on behalf of UKSkills. Heat 1 of the WorldSkills UK Landscape Gardening Competition took place on Saturday 25th April at Berkshire College’s Open Weekend. 3 teams of 2 students took part; Otley College, Capel Manor College Gunnersby and Berkshire College of Agriculture battled it out against the clock to build a 5mx5m garden designed by the RHS Multi Award winning Andy Sturgeon. Teams from the competing Colleges will now be entered onto a leader board and updated with scores from the remaining 3 heats. The top 4 scoring teams will then be asked to attend their National Final. Geosynthetics will be supplying a range of geotextiles and geomembranes for use in the construction of the competitors gardens during each heat of the competition. Further information is available at http://www.bali.org.uk/