The Student Loans Company (SLC) has launched a campaign to recruit more than 100 permanent employees at its office in Darlington.

Based at Lingfield Point, the Student Finance Officer (SFO) roles are vital to the smooth running of the organisation. SLC processes up to two million student finance applications each year and in the last academic year (21/22) paid £9.2 billion in loans and grants to new and existing students, as well as £12.6 billion in tuition fees to higher and further education providers.

SLC’s mission is to enable people to invest in their futures through access to further and higher education. The SFO role is vital as it includes supporting customers at the various stages of their student finance journeys, including processing applications, case managing applications and answering questions from across a number of channels including inbound and outbound calls, email, webchat and by post.

Chris Larmer, Executive Director of Operations at SLC, hosted a launch event in Darlington on Friday (18 November), welcoming local stakeholders into the office to learn more about what the organisation has to offer and to speak to staff about their roles.

Rianna Craggs, SFO, joined SLC at the start of 2022. She said: “Working at SLC has been really rewarding. I’m learning and gaining confidence every day. I love being part of an inclusive organisation as there are people from all walks of life and age groups working together, striving for the same aim – providing excellent service for our customers.”

Chris said: “As a big employer, we take our responsibility to the local area seriously. We know how much talent there is in Darlington and the North East, and we want people to consider a career with us.

“We have been speaking to a range of stakeholders from across the region to promote our recruitment campaign and I’m looking forward to welcoming our new recruits in the new year. The importance of our SFO roles cannot be understated – we simply couldn’t do our job without them.”

Peter Gibson, MP for Darlington, also attended the event. He said: “I warmly welcome the Student Loans Company’s announcement that they are now recruiting for over 100 new permanent Student Finance Officer roles based in Darlington. These new roles offer a fantastic new opportunity for local people and offer a fantastic rewards and benefits package.

“These are exciting times to live and work in Darlington, with huge Government investments and the Darlington Economic Campus bringing more jobs and opportunities to the town. I know that these new roles with the Student Loans Company will offer more local people the chance to stay local but go far.”

Successful candidates will receive a reward and benefits package, which includes access to the civil service pension scheme, generous holiday entitlement, options to buy and sell holidays and access to a range of lifestyle benefits. They will also benefit from SLC’s routes for progression, with opportunities to learn, develop and upskill. SLC has a blended approach to work, with colleagues spending time in the office and at home, so applications are being encouraged from across the North East.

Find out more about the new roles and how to apply at https://careers.slc.co.uk/apply/.

• UK Government pushing for further protections for endangered species including pangolin and sharks on the global stage
• Move comes just weeks ahead of crucial UN Convention on Biological Diversity

The fight against international wildlife crime received a boost today with the announcement of new funding for the International Consortium’s Vision 2030, a long-term vision of working towards a world free of wildlife crime.

The government is pledging £4m of new funding for the International Consortium on Combatting Wildlife Crime (ICCWC). The announcement has been made at the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) in Panama, where the UK government is pushing to secure stronger protections for some of the world’s most threatened species such as pangolins and requiem sharks. Ongoing pressures, including legal and illegal international trade, continue to threaten their survival.

CITES is an international agreement between governments that protects over 38,000 wild plant and animal species from the impacts of international trade. Wildlife crime undermines efforts to ensure that international trade is legal and sustainable. Since 2010, the ICCWC, with their collective expertise and extensive experience, has been delivering essential work to eradicate this vile trade.

The new funding will go towards the next phase of ICCWC programming and will help fight wildlife crime by increasing the detection, disruption and detention of criminals. Transnational criminal networks profit from illegal trade, causing serious security implications for many countries and regions.

Environment Secretary Thérèse Coffey said:

We want to keep protecting our most endangered plants and animals. This £4 million of funding going to the ICCWC will help tackle criminals and stop this vile trade.

The UK is showing global leadership on conservation and proposing stronger protections for a range of rare species at this summit such as pangolins and sharks. We will also be driving global efforts to secure a post-2020 global biodiversity framework at the UN Convention on Biological Diversity in Montreal next month.

The UK is demonstrating global leadership on conservation and sustainable use at CITES CoP 19, advocating for:

• Better protection of 54 species of shark to help shield them from overexploitation in the fin trade.
• Strengthening commitments to protect pangolins, the most trafficked mammal in the world, through cooperation and demand reduction measures.
• Improving CITES implementation for agarwood to assist in conservation efforts.
• Upholding the ban on international commercial trade in ivory and rhino horn, managing ivory stockpiles, and ending trade in live African elephants to non-range states.
• Enhancing CITES’ role in relation to reducing the risk of zoonotic disease emergence, tackling the illegal trade in CITES species, better engagement of indigenous people and local communities.

Welcoming the additional funding as an endorsement of ICCWC’s work, CITES Secretary-General, Ivonne Higuero, said:

We’re grateful to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland for this important contribution to support the efforts of CITES Parties to combat wildlife crime. It is a vote of confidence in the coordinated work being done by ICCWC partners to put an end to this scourge affecting our planet and its people.

The 19th meeting of the Conference of the Parties has acknowledged and welcomed the excellent work with Parties conducted under the Consortium and the development of the ICCWC Vision 2030. This funding means more Parties will be assisted by the Consortium to further strengthen their capabilities in the decade to come.

Poaching and the illegal wildlife trade (IWT) has been estimated to be worth up to £17 billion a year. It fuels corruption, creates instability, impacts economic development and deprives some of the world’s poorest communities of sustainable livelihoods. For some of the most endangered species – like pangolins, succulents and turtles – the illegal wildlife trade is the gravest threat to their future.

This funding will provide for a range of training courses, tools, services and capacity building activities, designed to strengthen criminal justice systems and support co-operation among countries exposed to the threats of wildlife trafficking.

The company has won 4 awards at the prestigious Institute of Chemical Engineers (IChemE) event and a highly commended in the ‘Research Project’ category.

The annual event celebrates the achievements of chemical engineers around the world.

The ‘Process Safety Award’ went to Sellafield Ltd employee, Joe Hayward, a process responsible engineer in retrievals, for his MSSS entry – helping to solve the site’s decommissioning challenges.

The ‘Team Award’ went to Sellafield Ltd for ‘Collaborating to Develop Nuclear Chemical Engineering Skills’ entry, which was collected by process engineer Kathleen Feller. This entry celebrated the collaboration between Sellafield Ltd and Loughborough University in developing our engineering skills and capability.

Simon Malone, a technical assurance manager at Sellafield Ltd, came away with a highly commended for his research project ‘SMART Sensors in Can Monitoring’.

And the night was topped off with Sellafield Ltd and the National Nuclear laboratories, in a joint entry, picking up the ‘Overall Achievement Award’ for its winning entry ‘Process Flow Smoothing Optimisation of Nationally Critical Nuclear Infrastructure’, which was submitted by process engineer, Jack Newton.

Martin Chown, chief executive officer, Sellafield Ltd said:

These awards are a clear demonstration of the contribution our chemical engineers are making to our purpose and is a testament to our long-standing collaboration with our partners.

I’m so proud to see that our professional chemical engineering community are doing great things. Congratulations to all our deserving winners.

Chief process engineer, Sellafield Ltd, Elisabeth Cooke said:

Congratulations to all finalists and our own winners. This is great achievement for all the authors and winning teams who contributed to representing us at these global awards.

To be recognised on this scale is tremendous and for all their contributions to make Sellafield a clean and safe environment for future generations.