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Digital projects exceed expectations at Les Quennevais School

A vlog presentation on Jersey’s dolmens, drone footage of the island’s heritage sites and a stop motion film were among the 200 projects produced by Year 7 students over the summer break.

For over five years, JT has partnered with the school to support its new intake and every summer the school sets its new pupils a task to complete over the holidays. The students, all aged between 10 and 11, must produce a piece of work inspired by the lessons they were taught during their transition taster days in their last term at primary school.

This year’s theme was ‘Our Island Home’ and the introduction of a new award for best use of digital technology, sponsored by JT, inspired many to take their project to another level. The students used a wide range of technology including digital photography, coding, animation and videos to present their work. The projects were judged in each subject category the winner for the ‘Best use of Digital Technology’ was Mia Le Marquand, whose Lego stop motion video wowed the judges from JT. Just over a quarter of the presentations made this year were digital, up from 10% in previous years.

Pip Carpenter, JT’s Head of Commercial Market, said: “We have been supporting the Year 7 transition process for several years and have been blown away by the standard achieved this year, it made selecting the best project much harder than usual. I particularly liked the way that so many of the students brought their work to life using digital technology to explain their findings. One pupil produced a video of herself painting a beautiful piece of artwork, the attention to detail and ingenuity of all the projects was exceptional. Having good digital skills is essential in today’s world, and more so for these students who are tomorrow’s leaders. That’s why it’s so important for us to support the next generation as they begin this part of their learning journey, helping them to gather the skills they will need to succeed.”

Pete Jones Assistant Headteacher at Les Quennevais School, added: “This year’s Transition Project is by far our best yet with our most consistent level of work. There was certainly an increase in digital projects, largely due to JT’s support of our Transition Days and students’ ability to harness digital technology from a younger age. It was lovely to also see students use digital technology alongside their physical projects via QR links to videos that showed how their work was made or to complement their project. I can only see the number of digital projects increasing going forward and we are very grateful of JT’s ongoing support of our students’ transition experience into Les Quennevais School.”



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JT Board appoints new Chair

The Board of the JT Group is pleased to announce Meriel Lenfestey has been appointed as its new Chair, taking over from Phil Male, who has held the position since 2018. Meriel has been a Director on the JT Board since 2016 and was its Senior Independent Director until this new appointment.

Meriel is a customer experience entrepreneur with experience across a wide range of business sectors. Her attention is always on the impact business decisions have on stakeholders, in the short and long term.

After completing a Masters degree from the Royal College of Art, she worked for Microsoft in Seattle and the BBC in London in the 1990s. She founded, grew and sold a pioneering Customer Experience Design agency in London over the next 19 years. Meriel currently chairs Gemserv, a professional services and consulting firm in the energy and low carbon market, is a Non-Executive Director for Boku, an AIM listed global leader in mobile payment solutions, Aurigny in Guernsey, and two FTSE 250 infrastructure funds. She holds voluntary Board roles with the Guernsey IoD, and Art for Guernsey.

Meriel has lived and raised a family in the Channel Islands over the past 18 years.

Daragh McDermott, CEO of JT Group, said: “With her experience in the Channel Islands, and long-standing role on the JT Board, Meriel is the ideal candidate to help guide JT forward, and deliver on our five-year strategy. Making sure we deliver the very best customer experience for the future is a key part of that strategy, and Meriel is ideally placed to lead that.

She is taking over from Phil Male who helped to steer JT through some huge developments including making Jersey the first place in the world to connect full fibre broadband to every property, followed by the creation and eventual sale of the IoT business. I would like to thank Phil for his leadership, support and considerable achievements.”

Meriel Lenfestey added: “I’m really looking forward to taking over as Chair from Phil and supporting JT as we deliver our new five-year strategy. JT is already making great strides in ensuring the needs of all our stakeholders are at the heart of everything we do, and I’ll be working closely with the team to develop that further.



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Ten years of supporting the Autism Jersey Golf Day raises nearly £200,000

A partnership that started ten years ago has helped raise nearly two hundred thousand pounds for people on the autism spectrum, their families and carers in Jersey.

With JT’s help, Autism Jersey launched the event a decade ago, which today has become the annual flagship fundraising event and has gained in popularity every year. This year the event raised £24,000 with the maximum of 24 teams taking part and was a fitting celebration for a 10-year partnership that has contributed so much to the local Autistic community.

Nick Winsor, Chairman of Autism Jersey, said: “I am overwhelmed by the support that this event gets from the island’s business and golfing community, and I’d like to extend my thanks to JT, once again, who made it all possible. The money raised every year makes a significant difference to the lives of many autistic islanders, but it also increases the profile of our charity and the amazing work that our people do in changing the lives of those that we support.”

Daragh McDermott, JT’s Chief Executive Officer, added: “The fantastic work that Autism Jersey do touches the lives of so many people, and we are delighted with what we have helped the charity to achieve over the last ten years and what we’ve been able to give back to our community as a result of our partnership.  In particular, this year, where our own people also selected Autism Jersey as their 2022 chosen charity. We will continue to support Autism Jersey with their full calendar of events until the end of the year, bringing people together, united in a common cause to raise as much money as possible, for this fantastic and dedicated charity.

I think what makes the charity stand out is the team of talented people who advocate an inclusive community where personalised services are provided for individuals, families, and carers and it’s been a real pleasure to work alongside them.”



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JT helps empower and mentor the next generation of female leaders

JT leaders will join other business figures in guiding students from JCG and around the world as they take part in a global female leadership programme this week. LEAP, which stands for Leadership and Entrepreneurship Accelerator Programme, is open to all girls aged 14 to 18 and develops business and leadership skills with the participants launching social enterprise projects which are pitched to a group of business dragons.

JT’s Group Senior Legal Counsel and Head of Sustainability, Gill Knights, and JT International’s Head of Solution Design and Innovation, Marcus Irwin, will join local and international experts from across the business spectrum to act as coaches and mentors during the ten-day programme.

Local students will be joined by students from China, Taiwan, India, Turkey, Austria, Rwanda and the USA. They will be split into teams to come up with business ideas that they will pitch to a ‘Dragons Den’ at the end of the programme. There is real money at stake with up to £2,000 going to the winning team out of a total prize fund of £4,000. Previous projects have been based on social inclusion and waste management.

JT International’s Marcus Irwin will be on the panel of eight dragons, and he said: “This is an amazing opportunity for the young women who will be the next generation of entrepreneurs and business leaders. As a father, I understand the importance of nurturing talent from an early age and LEAP does a huge amount to bring that out of all those that take part.

As with our own recently launched JT Venture, a platform for ambitious start-ups and entrepreneurs to partner with JT and take their business to the next level, I will be looking closely at each proposition to see whether they have thought about supply chains, customer journeys, the digital outlook and just how they’ll fund their business ideas. This presents a real chance of investment and I have no doubt these girls will deliver business ideas that we’ll all see in the not too distant future.”

Throughout the week the students will take part in team building exercises and workshops and will hear inspirational talks from business leaders across all sectors, one of which is JT’s Senior Legal Counsel and Head of Sustainability, Gill knights, who will share how she came from an engineering and legal background to reach her current position.

JT will be donating SIM packs to all of the visiting students for the duration of the programme.

Peter le Masurier, from JCG, added: “This is the third year we have hosted LEAP and we are incredibly lucky to have so many prominent businesses involved along with successful business leaders who are prepared to give up their time to guide our students. I am looking forward to seeing how our students and the visiting students interact with each other, taking onboard, sharing knowledge and making the most of the invaluable advice and help they will be getting.”



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Mitel rewards JT’s continued commitment to business excellence

JT is excited to announce that it has retained the highest level of accreditation from a global leader in business communications. JT was first awarded Mitel Platinum status in 2020 and is still the only telecoms company in the Channel Islands to have reached that level.

Platinum status is the highest accreditation available, making JT one of Mitel’s key partners and one of only 14 businesses across the UK, Ireland and the Channel Islands to have ever received the accolade. Earlier this year JT was chosen as Mitel’s Innovation Partner of the Year after not only setting up its own state-of-the-art Mitel Contact centre but also for completing a world-class, multi-dimensional and complex migration process of IT systems for the Government of Guernsey.

James Singleton, Strategic Partnership Manager said: “We are really thrilled that Mitel continues to recognise JT as one of its key partners, rewarding our commitment and the team’s genuine hard work. It means that once again our teams have met the highest level of expertise in delivering exceptional service to our customers. Together we have deployed, managed and supported many complex Mitel solutions across the Channel Islands. It’s thanks to the dedication of an exceptional team that not only are our customer’s communication needs in good hands but that world leaders such as Mitel distinguish us as an elite partner.”

Mitel services are found in businesses and organisations all over the world, providing a wide array of solutions, from simple business communications to sophisticated unified and collaborative communications, whether on-site or in the cloud.

Nick Riggott, UKISA Sales Director at Mitel, added: “We demand high standards from the channel partners we work with in our partnership programme and JT has shown its continued commitment to providing a service that surpasses most. They reached the Gold level in 2019 and then Platinum a year later. This achievement demonstrates that JT is a reliable highly-skilled partner with whom we built a strong and fruitful relationship to address current and future UC needs of businesses in the Channel Islands and beyond.”



Les Quennevais welcomes the leaders of the future
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Les Quennevais welcomes the leaders of the future – meet the class of 2027

Later this week Les Quennevais School will host a two day transition programme for the largest cohort of new students they’ve ever had.

For over five years JT has partnered with the school to support Year 6 pupils as they experience a taste of life at the state of the art school, seeing for themselves where the next step on their learning journey could take them. The aim of the two day experience is to overcome those first day nerves for pupils, making sure they are familiar and happy with their new surroundings and the new faces that will greet them.

Pip Carpenter, Head of Commercial Market said: “When we started working with Les Quennevais School, we made a long-term commitment to support its students and teachers. At JT, we are genuinely passionate about nurturing the next generation. One of our ambitions, and a big part of our Sustainability Strategy, is to champion and support digital education and inclusion projects for everyone.

Technology has introduced revolutionary changes in all areas of our lives, from communication to the entertainment industry, but most especially in education. We believe that it’s really important our young people learn to harness all the potential of digital technology while still at school, and at Les Quennevais they are lucky to have that opportunity.’’

Over the summer, the Year 6 leavers will be asked to work on a project set by the Assistant Headteacher, Pete Jones. Students have the option to use a wide range of technology in their final project. This can be using digital photography, coding, animation or videos to present their work.

Sarah Hague, Headteacher of Les Quennevais School, added: “Transition to secondary school is such an important rite of passage. It opens doors and prepares students for the next stage of their school journey. I hope that this intake of students will come away from their transition days feeling excited as they embark on the next chapter in their lives. I am delighted that JT continue to support our future students who will be joining hundreds of other amazing young people, all making the most of the excellent facilities and teaching we have in our school.

We have a full programme of activities and experiences planned for their introduction to the school which I hope will be memorable, useful and fulfilling. I’m also hoping it will fuel them with inspiration that they can then use on their summer project.”



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Sark test bed for solar powered mobile network

JT has installed six solar panels on Little Sark as part of a trial to see whether further mobile sites in the Channel Islands can be powered by renewable energy.

The panels, which were installed by the Little Green Energy Company, will maintain the batteries that power the antenna which provides JT’s mobile phone coverage in Little Sark. If successful, this model could be used at other JT sites across the Channel Islands, meeting JT’s commitment to reduce the company’s reliance on power from the grid.

Joseph Donovan, Private Circuit Project Manager, said: “Operating in Sark provides its own challenges, so it’s the perfect place for JT to test equipment that needs to work with minimal intervention and maintenance. This trial will provide an opportunity for our engineers to gauge how well our network will handle calls and data using 100% renewable energy. The mobile site will use the electricity grid to provide the initial charge of the batteries, but after that, it’s the power of the sun that will keep those charged up and working, day and night.’’

Six panels have been set up next to the small mobile radio site, using kit specially designed to run in remote areas that are not connected to the grid. If the trial is a success, it is hoped that more of JT’s equipment and infrastructure can be transferred to sustainable sources of power.

Tom Noel, Director of Corporate Affairs and Sustainability, added: “We have set out to make significant reductions in the amount of carbon emissions our activities generate. Everything we do, from decisions made by JT’s Board to the vehicles our engineers drive, must fit into the strategic goals we have set to become carbon neutral. Our renewable energy initiatives will make a real difference and we are proud to be backing this project in Sark to reduce emissions and our carbon footprint. We’re really hoping that during the summer it will run 100% of the time on solar power, providing a greener way to run our network in Sark.”



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JT provides Autism Jersey with a smart way to raise funds

JT is donating smartphone accessories to its charity partner Autism Jersey so they can raise funds to continue their vital work in the community.

The accessories, which are still widely used by islanders but no longer sold by JT, will now be available from the Autism Jersey shop which has become a popular hub in The Parade. Customers can buy them at a discount, with 100% of the proceeds going straight to the charity.

The shop also provides somewhere for people on the autism spectrum and their families to meet, find out information and receive support.

Pip Carpenter, Head of Commercial Market, said: “Autism Jersey’s vision is that everyone on the autism spectrum is given the opportunity and support to reach their full potential in an inclusive community, and we fully support that. As a responsible business that believes in the circular business model, we’re donating surplus accessories to our charity partner so they can benefit from selling them alongside their range of excellent products in the Autism Jersey shop.”

Lesley Harrison, Head of Charitable Services at Autism Jersey, added: “Working with our partners at JT is really helping us to boost the profile of our charity and is helping to increase the acceptance of autistic individuals in our community. Our fundraising activities are really important so we’re over the moon that JT has been able to donate surplus stock for us to sell, using the money raised to support our services. Not everyone has the latest smartphone so it’s great that we can sell accessories to people who already have a phone but need to replace the cover. The AJ Boutique on the Parade has a dual purpose of being shop, and a hub where people can get support and information about autism. It’s also somewhere autistic individuals can gain work experience.”



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JT accredited by the Institute of Leadership and Management for their future leaders programme

JT has become the first employer in Jersey to become accredited by the Institute of Leadership and Management after having two of its Internal training programmes independently assessed against the Insititute’s robust framework, to become Institute Approved. The accreditation further marks the business’ commitment to the development of its people and future leaders.

The telecoms company has signed up 29 of its people onto the courses with the introductory sessions starting last week. There are 12 people from JT on the ‘Aspire’ course which gives them the opportunity to accelerate their careers through the development of a range of early management skills. A further 17 members were put forward for the ‘Accelerate’ programme, which enhances the capability of JT’s talented people managers to create and support high performing, highly engaged teams.

The Institute of Leadership and Management has an active community of over 50,000 leaders, managers and coaches. They create award winning learning resources and undertake practical research to support individuals and businesses, such as BT, the Royal British Legion and Siemens Energy in developing and inspiring great leadership everywhere.

Gaynor Lewis, Director of Strategic Partnerships, from the Institute of Leadership and Management, said: ‘It is so great to see businesses like JT investing in the development of its people and providing them with lifelong skills. We’re very proud to support the two programmes and we wish JT’s employees the best of luck as they develop and grow into the leaders of tomorrow.”

Nicola Reeves, JT Group HR Director, said: “Being accredited by the Institute of Leadership and Management is a real boost for our training and development plans and provides a world-class leadership development experience for our people. JT is committed to supporting the ambitions and drive of our team members, investing in our people and helping them grow. We want to attract and nurture the very best island talent as we encourage a culture of continuous learning, building on our reputation as a great place to work and grow a career. These programmes will equip our people with world-class skills and qualifications that will help them to succeed and give them the recognition that they deserve as valued members of the JT team.”

JT is also a key advocate of Learning at Work Week. Commencing next week (16th May), leaders and specialists from around the business are hosting a series of virtual showcases with the aim of providing colleagues with new skills and knowledge sharing.



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JT supports Alternative Transport Week

Alternative Transport Week, between 16th and 20th May, challenges islanders to leave their cars at home and either walk, cycle, run or take the bus to work. To help spread awareness of the many alternate transport options available and show its support for the initiative, JT is sponsoring four EVie cargo bikes during the week, which will be available for people to try for free.

The telecoms company is also encouraging their own people to use alternative travel for the week, as well as encouraging the whole community to share scenic routes on their commute by using the GPS function on their phone or other wearable technology to plot their route, creating a community social board for the best routes around the Island.

Gill Knights, JT Group General Counsel and Head of Sustainability at JT, said: “The future of transport must be sustainable, and here in Jersey there are plenty of opportunities to use alternative modes that don’t involve jumping in our cars. At JT we’ve made a commitment to become carbon neutral in scope 1 and 2 emissions, by 2030 and ensure our business and our products are a force for good. We already encourage and support our people to cycle,  by offering a subsidy towards the purchase or servicing of a bicyle and we’ve joined eVie’s pan-island Corporate Partner Programme which provides employees at JT with a discount on their e-bikes and e-vehicles hire. By sponsoring the eVie cargo bikes during this week we hope islanders will see just how much they can achieve, and carry without their car. There are sustainable solutions to climate warming caused by fossil fuel emissions, and together we can make a difference, no matter how small, starting with being mindful about how we travel and walking, running, cycling or getting the bus, wherever possible.”

Kate Huntington, the creator of Alternative Transport Week, added: “The idea behind Alternative Transport Week is to get people thinking about their choices when it comes to how they get about the island. I switched my car for a cargo bike three years ago and use it  for all the daily tasks I would have previously used my car for, and I love it. I’d like to thank JT and all the businesses taking part, they’ve all been incredibly supportive.”

Anyone wanting to take up the JT sponsored offer of a free cargo bike for a day during Alternative Transport Week should apply directly to Alternative Transport Week via its facebook page (enter link).  Successful applicants will then be provided with a code which they can use directly on the EVie website when booking their cargo bike.

More info on Alternative Transport Week can be found by visiting Alternative Transport Week on Facebook and alternativetransportweekjersey on Instagram.