BSW Timber, the largest sawmilling business in the UK, has announced a huge expansion of its Fort William site. It ensures the long term future of the 150 workforce and could create knock-on job opportunities in Lochaber.

The Statistical First Release shows that apprenticeship numbers have risen across all age ranges and levels of training across the apprenticeships programme. The data shows that there were 442,700 apprenticeship starts in the full 2010/11 academic year (final data for 2009/10 shows 279,700 starts).

Vinci Environment UK has been selected to design and build two incinerators in Hertfordshire and North Yorkshire. The projects are worth £330 million and could require the use of contracting software and construction software.

WorldSkills London 2011 attracted more than 200,000 young people over four days, who watched competitors using professional hand tools and power tool accessories provided by Irwin Tools, one of the main sponsors.

Doosan Power Systems apprentice Jake Rambaldini won a bronze medal in the welding category at the World Skills event held recently. The 20-year-old, from Daventry, East Midlands was selected to fly the flag for the UK's engineering construction sector at this year's event where over 1,000 competitors from 53 countries competed for medals in 45 different skills.

The curse of the UK's first carbon capture and storage (CCS) competition has struck for the final time. Wednesday's announcement that funding will not be awarded to the sole remaining bidding project at Longannet confirmed what had been expected. Many initial reactions have proclaimed this to be the death of CCS in the UK, but that simply isn't the case. A quick tour of the recent history of UK CCS policy helps us see how.

UK based CAS (Construction Access Systems) and The University of Southampton RIFI (Research Institute for Industry) have developed a common mast to accommodate more than one manufacturer's mast climbing products.

Staff at Coleshill-based firm Frank Haslam Milan (FHM) are limbering up to take part in Bupa’s Great Birmingham Run this weekend in a bid to raise money for youth homeless charity St Basils.  Five members of staff from the leading community regeneration specialist will take part in the 13.1 mile televised race through the centre of Birmingham, aiming to raise £1,500 for the worthy cause.

A blueprint for the UK construction industry has been launched by the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) in “a bid to maintain and replicate the high standards set by the London 2012 project”. Learning Legacy is a collaborative approach between the ODA, contractors, professional institutes, government bodies and academia, and builds on the ethos set by the ODA of setting targets well above the industry benchmarks, meeting the majority of these and, in a number of cases, exceeding expectations.

The Energy Technologies Institute (ETI) is to model the UK’s tidal energy resources in a project that will improve understanding of the possible interactions between tidal energy extraction systems as they are deployed between now and 2050.