Five things you need to know today

Free Tickets are now available for a host of fun and family friendly events as part of the 2015 St Andrew’s Day Celebrations in St Andrew Square.
Visit www.edinburghschristmas.com to reserve your FREE tickets.

Underbelly announce that tickets for their packed St Andrew’s Day programme of FREE events can be reserved from today online at www.edinburghschristmas.com. There will be no finer place to celebrate Scotland’s national day than St Andrew Square in the very heart of the city, where all the events take place.

The Edinburgh’s Christmas St Andrew’s Day celebrations are free to all, including performances within the Speigletent, which are ticketed.

Please pre-book to avoid disappointment via www.edinburghschristmas.com.

Police in Edinburgh are investigating after a 98-year-old woman living in a care home was found with a serious leg injury. 

Paramedics were called to Strachan House in Blackhall on Sunday night.

Read more here.

Scotland’s political parties are today being urged to adopt seven transformative climate policy proposals in their 2016 election manifestos.

The largest civil society coalition in Scotland says the seven ideas outlined today will help politicians set robust, credible plans for a thriving, fairer, low carbon economy.

Stop Climate Chaos Scotland is taking its new climate manifesto round the parties’ autumn conferences, calling for the policies to be included in their 2016 manifestos.

The challenging policy asks cover climate justice, energy efficiency, a Warm Homes Act, low carbon infrastructure, an ambitious action plan on Land Use Strategy, a shift from private cars to public transport and active travel, and using new Air Passenger Duty powers to cut emissions.

Gail Wilson, SCCS Campaigns Manager, said: “Securing a low carbon Scotland for 2020 and beyond is essential. There are challenges, but we are hopeful our politicians will rise to them.

“First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said recently that moving to a low carbon future isn’t just a moral imperative, but also a massive economic opportunity. We are encouraged that she and the other four main party leaders in Scotland committed in August to manifestos that will deliver the ambitions of our world leading climate legislation.

“Our message to them all today is that there are so many positive benefits from our seven policy asks that they are a win, win all round, delivering high quality job opportunities, improved health and wellbeing and a more pleasant environment for everyone.

“Scotland should be sending a strong message to the United Nations climate talks in Paris in December, demanding a binding global deal on climate action, and saying that our politicians are all committed to ensuring we play our fair part here.”

SCCS will be running a public campaign early in the new year so that politicians will hear the ongoing strong public call for action on climate change.

On the last weekend of November, Scots will be among hundreds of thousands of people around the world marching for action on climate change.

Scotland’s Climate March is expected to attract thousands of people onto the streets in Edinburgh on Saturday 28 November, demanding an agreement in Paris that cuts greenhouse gas emissions and helps the poorest countries adapt to the challenges they face caused by climate change.

The Director of the Edinburgh International Book Festival, Nick Barley will join the Pentlands Book Festival to bring it to a close and talk about how literary festivals are making a difference to the way we make sense of a changing world.

Having just completed his sixth and most globally ambitious programme yet, Nick Barley gives a behind-the-scenes insight into the delivery of the Edinburgh International Book Festival which welcomes over 800 writers, poets, politicians, journalists, illustrators, photographers and thinkers from 55 countries around the world.

From last year’s festival which encouraged vibrant debate around the referendum, to this year’s launch of Shifting Sands, a collection of writing from fifteen authors inspired by Book Festival discussions about the Middle East, Barley describes the big ideas which sit alongside the inspiring, entertaining and often downright hilarious events that make the Book Festival so popular.

In addition, he will share more about Booked! the Book Festival’s year-round programme of literature events, projects and celebrations outside Charlotte Square Gardens.

This event will take place at Juniper Green Parish Church Hall on 28 November 2015 at 7.30pm.

Read more about this and other Book Week Scotland events here.

easyJet has launched a new initiative to increase recruitment of female pilots.

Initial contenteasyJet, Europe’s leading airline, has  launched a new initiative to increase the proportion of new entrant easyJet pilots who are female.

This is part of a new strategy to encourage the development of female pilots at all ranks and positions and will widen the pipeline of women who enter their pilot community.

Just over 5% of easyJet’s 2,500 pilots are female – in line with the industry as a whole. Currently women make up 6% of easyJet’s new pilot intake. The airline plans to double the proportion of female new entrants to 12% over two years. This is the first phase of its long term strategy to increase the proportion of female pilots at the airline.

As part of the programme easyJet will promote the career of a pilot to young women in a number of ways including:‎

• Highlight the opportunities of pilot careers to female audiences such as school groups and other youth organisations – building on the work easyJet already does in mentoring young women.

• Work in partnership with organisations which promote female take-up of STEM (science, engineering, technology and maths) subjects.

• Work with easyJet’s pilot training providers to attract more women to apply for the easyJet cadet programme‎.

• Offer ten places for women each year on the easyJet pilot training programme with the around £100,000 training loan underwritten by easyJet

easyJet has also committed to provide additional support to develop and retain female pilots, so that more of them can go on to achieve captaincy and pilot management roles.

To achieve this easyJet will run a series of activities including:

• Introduce enhanced mentoring for female pilots (in addition to current mentoring for all pilots).

• Introduce training loan underwriting for A320 type ratings for female pilots entering from other airlines.

• Develop female captains to help them take on leadership roles such as training and base management roles.

Brian Tyrrell, head of flight operations at easyJet commented:

“At easyJet we value diversity and we believe that having a workforce which better reflects our customers will help support our future success.

“We have made sustained progress in our senior management and M&A (management and administration) communities in recent years but we recognise that the proportion of our pilots who are female is too low, as it is across the industry as a whole.

“A career as a pilot is interesting and rewarding and we want more women to bring their skills to the role.

“Our initial focus will be to increase the pipeline of female pilots, including by talking to young women who may not have considered it as a career.

“This is a long term strategy, which we hope will eventually lead to easyJet recruiting, retaining and developing many more female pilots.”

Pauline Vahey, chair of the British Women Pilots Association commented:

“The British Women Pilots’ Association (BWPA) is delighted to partner with easyJet in this ground-breaking initiative.  It aligns perfectly with the first aim of the BWPA to actively promote and encourage women into flying careers in the aviation industry.

“This initiative demonstrates that easyJet is a pioneer in the industry, not unlike the early women pioneers in aviation who founded the BWPA sixty years ago this year.

“We believe it will not only benefit easyJet and the women who participate but also the industry in general.”

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