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Friday, November 14, 2008

P.E.S.T. is moving

Our peer sharing forum PEST has a portal for the community to share ideas and thoughts on, and this is now moving to be part of the LinkedIN platform.
You can get access to it, and information about the events, at the following link: http://www.linkedin.com/e/gis/1214687

We originally developed the portal as part of an internship project and it has served us well up to now - helping to develop the community and provide a neutral space for testers - not just TCL people - to share ideas and grow new thoughts.

The decision to move was not taken easily, but we recognise the need for the peer sharing side of things to get a life of its own, and to do this it needs to be a bit more independent and open to all. The linkedin platform provides such a space and the recent changes to linkedin have improved the site incredibly - it now does all that we were doing with our own bespoke portal - and even more.

With the extension of PEST into the next BCS SIGIST event on the 9th December we wanted to ensure that we had a suitable and appropriate platform for people to collaborate on. Our peer sharing is about developing knowledge - and opening it up to everyone who is interested.

Look forward to seeing you at PEST soon

Tuesday, November 04, 2008

The Sports Scholarship Scheme

Last week we were invited to attend the Exeter University Varsity Rugby match, which this year was against the Cardiff Medics. (http://xmedia.ex.ac.uk/sport/2008/10/29/exeter-cruise-to-victory-over-a-lighter-cardiff)

The invite for TCL came as a result of our involvement with the sports scholarship scheme at the University. It was a fun event, and what seemed to be an easy win for a strong Exeter side, but most importantly for us there was an opportunity for us to meet our scholar for this year.

TCL has been involved with this programme for the last three years, and in that time we have sponsored a young Rugby player, a Tennis Player and now a Beach Volleyball player. Over the years we have got increasingly involved with this programme and got to know and understand our scholars more - involving them in company functions and including them in our company newsletters etc.

Many people ask me why we would be involved with the sports scholarship stuff, and what the point of it all is. For my part, I have a great passion for people who aspire to be great at what they do. The scholarship programme enables people with this kind of aspiration and talent to get facilities and coaching and opportunities that they might not otherwise have had. It helps them to grow and to reach their full potential.

There is more information on the programme at: http://www.sport.ex.ac.uk/index.cfm?fuseaction=c_pages.showPage&pageID=33

Getting involved with this stuff has been great fun and very rewarding and its done something which I hadnt expected. It's broadened my horizons. Learning from sport and applying to business is a bit of a cliche - but there are lessons to learn, and there is a spirit & drive to atheletes of this kind of standard that is a model to us all. They choose their sport, they dream their dreams and they chase them as hard as they can. The ones that succeed are the ones that don't give up and despite failures and set backs continue to chase with all the passion and enthusiasm they can muster.

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