UniCredit launches the second edition of Skills for Transition with POLIMI Graduate School of Management, doubling its reach for students across Europe

UniCredit has announced the second edition of Skills for Transition, a social programme that provides strategic training to young people, including both students and people not in education, employment or training (NEETS) expected to be impacted by the green transition.

The student stream, developed in partnership with POLIMI Graduate School of Management, the business school of Politecnico di Milano, offers selected students the chance to take part in two educational paths, a Master's programme for recent graduates and a four-month bootcamp open to both high school graduates and university students.

Both are aimed at increasing knowledge and awareness around the green transition and the Net Zero framework, helping students acquire skills that will boost their future employment prospects. 

Participants will have the opportunity to gain hands on experience with companies most exposed to the green transition and address sector‑specific changes shaping industries such as manufacturing, energy and urban development.

Following the success of the first edition, this stream has doubled its geographic reach, expanding from six countries to twelve, with students now able to join from Italy, Germany, Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia and Hungary.

The second edition of the Skills for Transition will also include a stream dedicated to young people who are not currently in education, employment or training (NEETs), in partnership with Glocal Factory, a social cooperative. 

Due to be launched this Spring, it will support the EU’s target to reduce the number of NEETs to below 9% by 2030, and will be open to NEETs in Italy, Germany, Austria, Bosnia Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia and Romania.

The first edition of the Skills for Transition delivered 60,000 hours in training to students, workers and NEETs, providing them with the skills they need to navigate the transition. The student stream was highly commended in the Best Partnership Award category at the AMBA & BGA Awards, in recognition of UniCredit and POLIMI’s collaboration.

The initiative sits firmly in line with UniCredit’s commitment to promoting a just and fair transition and its consistent support for education – a key driver for Europe’s future.

“Education is one of the most powerful drivers of a fairer, more sustainable future. As economies in Europe transition to Net Zero, we are proud to be launching the second edition of Skills for Transition and expanding its reach to help more students access employment opportunities and build the skills they need to adapt in a rapidly changing world." Fiona Melrose, Head of Group Strategy & ESG at UniCredit, told That's Business.

“We are proud to renew our partnership with UniCredit to address one of the most urgent challenges of our time. Skills for Transition reflects our purpose to nurture innovators to shape a better future for all, equipping young people with the capabilities needed to thrive in the green transition. 

"We look forward to expanding this programme’s impact across Europe” said Federico Frattini, Dean of POLIMI Graduate School of Management and Scientific Director of the programme.

https://www.unicreditgroup.eu/

UKs Largest survey of its kind invites disabled people to share their everyday barriers to create urgently needed fairer design

A staggering One in five people in the UK are disabled. Many face multiple unnecessary barriers every single day. 

The Unfair Index by UK charity Designability has a plan to change that.

UK charity Designability has launched a major survey calling on 10,000 disabled people across the UK to take part. The Unfair Index: Designing a Fairer Future gives disabled people the chance to share the everyday barriers they face, at home, work, online, in public spaces and in their communities. 

The findings will be used to create the UK’s first Unfair Index, highlighting the most unfair barriers in everyday life, focusing on those that are urgent, harmful, and possible to fix through better design.

Highlighting why this work matters, Saida, a powered wheelchair user taking part, told That's Business: “at the moment I’m being met with performative talk, people say they will do it... but they don’t. We don’t want slow changes. We want to live like everyone else. Why does it have to be an add-on thought? I’m a human being. Treat me like one and I’ll treat you like one.”

The project has been co-designed with a pan-disability Lived Experience Advisory Panel, made up of people with a wide range of experiences and impairments, ensuring disabled people’s voices are central. 

With over 900 disabled people applying to take part, Norin, a panel member from London, said: “As a person with lived experience facing challenges and barriers in everyday life, and coping with so many inaccessible facilities, services, products, design and transport, I joined the panel to contribute my experiences.”

Designability’s Chief Executive, Jim Bowes, explained why this large-scale survey is significant: “Millions of disabled people face barriers every day that stop them fully participating in daily life. Whether that’s financially, socially or academically, we’ve designed the world to be unfair for so many people – and we believe with good design we can do better. This survey is about listening at scale and then identifying what practical solutions could make a real difference to everyday barriers.”

The Unfair Index survey covers a wide range of areas, including health and wellbeing, life at home and managing money, getting out and about, shopping, social and community life, technology and learning and work.

The survey is one of the largest of its kind in the UK. The findings will help Designability shape its priorities over the next three to five years and provide actionable insights for designers, organisations, and policymakers — challenging people to think, design and build differently. Where barriers fall outside the charity’s expertise, insights will be shared with other companies and organisations to help drive wider societal change.

Jim Bowes added: “We know some of the barriers raised will need policy change or wider behaviour change. Where that’s the case, we’ll make sure the evidence is shared with those best placed to act, so it can still help drive real-world change. The scale of unfairness means action is needed now”

Disabled people, people who are neurodiverse, unpaid carers and parents of disabled children across the UK are now being invited to take part in the survey until the end of April and share their experiences to help inform future action. The Unfair Index will be published later in 2026.

You can participate in the survey here http://www.theunfairindex.designability.org.uk.

If you know people who are impacted by the issues raised here, please forward this blogpost to them so they can participate in the survery.

Dragons’ Den Success Story Piddle Patch Defeats ‘Campaign of Infringement’ in Court

In a groundbreaking trademark infringement case the judge has found in favour of Makeality Ltd in a row with a rival brand accused of infringing the ‘Piddle Patch’ trademark. District Judge Obodai pronounced in the High Court IPEC small claims track on Friday that City Doggo Ltd and Laurencia Walker-Fooks had deliberately set out to benefit from the Piddle Patch trademark and that “…passing off is exactly what she intended when she began her campaign of infringement." 

Judge Obodai said, “I also find that they (the infringements) were not isolated or accidental incidents but were a deliberate policy to promote the sign in the relevant market."

Makeality Ltd. registered ‘Piddle Patch’ – the first eco-friendly real grass dog toilet in the UK - as a trademark in 2016. Founder Rebecca Sloan designed and developed the product, and scaled the brand over the following years. 

Piddle Patch built up significant goodwill from a subscriber base, testimonials from celebrity vets and dog trainers, plus acquiring published articles in national press and an association with major BBC TV programme Dragons’ Den and entrepreneur Steven Bartlett.

The founder of City Doggo Ltd, Laurencia Walker-Fooks, was a long-term customer of Piddle Patch before she made an offer to acquire the company during the COVID shutdowns, however these discussions did not progress. Shortly after, City Doggo Ltd was registered at Companies House and started trading in November 2020.

In 2022 Piddle Patch featured on BBC Dragons’ Den. The national exposure and associated press coverage at the time significantly enhanced Piddle Patch’s brand recognition. The rising fame of the Piddle Patch brand was quickly exploited by City Doggo Ltd. The Piddle Patch trade mark was embedded across the City Doggo website in titles, such as “SHOP: Piddle Patch”, as well as in descriptions, meta-tags and alt-tags and across landing pages and blogs. Walker-Fooks added a photo of herself on to the website tagged ‘Piddle Patch founder with her dog.'

City Doggo Ltd registered and directed the domains piddlepatch.info and piddlepatch.shop to their own website. Slogans such as “Piddle Patch Dragons Den” were embedded in hidden text on the landing page. The Piddle Patch trademark was used as a hashtag across social media platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.

The Court heard evidence that Piddle Patch experienced a decline in traffic following City Doggo Ltd’s online activities. Judge Obodai commented “It had the desired effect because, as the Claimant pleaded, the result was that the first Defendant’s Website was ranked alongside the Claimant’s when consumers searched for PIDDLE PATCH.”

The defendants argued that their actions were so small, that they were ‘de minimis’ and not actionable. However the judge found otherwise, pronouncing on all counts that City Doggo Ltd had deliberately infringed on the trade mark and passed off its product as Piddle Patch. Judge Obodai said, “I find that all of this was a deliberate attempt by the Defendants to benefit commercially from the use of the Trade Mark. It was deliberate because of the history between Ms Sloan and Ms Walker-Fooks and the failed attempt to buy Ms Sloan’s business because she [Ms Sloan] changed her mind. Ms Walker-Fooks, therefore, knew exactly what she was doing and why”.

The case will now progress to a separate quantum trial to determine the extent of the damages.

Commenting on the judgement, founder of Piddle Patch, Rebecca Sloan, commented, “We are very happy with the result. I’d like to thank our direct access Barrister, Christy Rogers, who worked tirelessly to help us make our case to the Court. This was by no means a straightforward process.”

www.piddlepatch.com

UK energy sector must diversify leadership amid geopolitical uncertainty and net zero challenges, Say Experts

As the UK energy sector faces growing strain from geopolitical instability and the accelerating demands of net zero delivery, the industry must urgently diversify its leadership portfolio. 

That’s according to the executive search firm, Newman Stewart.

The specialist has warned with Government energy plans relying on rapid progress across nuclear, renewables, grid expansion and distributed generation, the sector faces an increasingly complex operating environment. 

With the UK energy system also entering a period of significant volatility due to global supply risks, shifting regulatory frameworks, and sustained pressure to decarbonise, energy leaders are facing unprecedented demands.

However, according to Newman Stewart, leadership pipelines in energy remain narrow, limiting access to the breadth of skills and perspectives now required. The skills shortages are well-documented, with recent research from the International Energy Agency (IEA) revealing that more than half of businesses are facing recruitment bottlenecks. These are also being felt at leadership level, which is putting future strategic growth at risk.

Consequently, diversification of leadership, including greater representation of women in senior and plant leadership roles, is no longer a cultural aspiration but a strategic necessity. As energy assets become more technologically complex, politically sensitive and publicly scrutinised, leadership teams must be equipped to manage risk, uncertainty and long-term transformation in parallel.

John Tilbrook, Managing Director of Newman Stewart, told That's Business: “The challenges facing the UK energy sector today are becoming increasingly complex and volatile. Geopolitical uncertainty and net-zero commitments have created a demand for leaders who can navigate ambiguity, engage diverse stakeholders, and make complex decisions under pressure. Relying on the same leadership profiles will not deliver the resilience the system now requires.”

“Diversifying leadership involves strengthening the sector’s ability to adapt. When leadership teams draw from a wider range of experience and perspectives, organisations are better equipped to manage risk, innovate, and maintain delivery during disruptions.

"In the context of the UK’s energy plans, this is a business imperative rather than a side issue. Having recently celebrated International Women’s Day amid growing gender disparity and increasing leadership skills gaps, I believe there must be a renewed focus on developing genuinely inclusive leadership pipelines that reflect the scale and complexity of the challenge ahead.”

https://newmanstewart.co.uk

fiskaltrust Launches Portugal’s only Certified Fiscalisation Middleware and CashBox

fiskaltrust.eu, the European fintech company delivering Compliance-as-a-Service for point-of-sale systems, announced the launch of the only fully certified fiscalisation Middleware and CashBox for Portugal.

Through a single integration to fiskaltrust's POS System API, Integration Partners can now access the Portuguese market with full compliance coverage without building or maintaining any local fiscal infrastructure themselves.

fiskaltrust's certified Middleware and CashBox for Portugal handles the full compliance stack through the POS System API, the same interface used by Integration Partners across Austria, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and Greece.

Payments Integration Through Viva.com

Every payment generates a fiscal event and fiskaltrust aligns payment and receipt data in real time. For Portugal, payment is available through Viva.com while fiskaltrust covers fiscalisation compliance. Integration Partners get payment and compliance in one place, with no need to build separate connections or reconcile data manually.

Other Payment Service Providers (PSP) looking to operate in Portugal can integrate with fiskaltrust's POS System API to connect their payment flows directly to a fully compliant fiscal layer.

For Commercial Partners and POS resellers considering Portugal, fiskaltrust's market entry provides a ready market entry foundation. fiskaltrust's certified Middleware and CashBox for Portugal are available now for commercial Partners and POS resellers. Explore the offering at fiskaltrust.eu/en-pt, access technical documentation at docs.fiskaltrust.eu, or reach out directly at sales@fiskaltrust.eu

ITV extends interactive services partnership with Fonix into its 10th year

ITV PLC, the UK’s leading commercial broadcaster, has entered into an agreement to extend its partnership with Fonix PLC, continuing a long-standing relationship focused on delivering mobile interactive services across ITV’s portfolio of programmes since 2017.

Under the extended agreement, Fonix will continue to power mobile carrier billing across ITV’s competition portfolio, while supporting SMS payments and interactive services across a range of flagship programmes, including I’m a Celebrity Get me out of Here, Love Island, Britain's Got Talent, Good Morning Britain, This Morning and ITV Sport.

Leveraging its Campaign Manager platform, Fonix provides secure, scalable SMS engagement infrastructure alongside real-time data insights, helping ITV enhance audience participation and deliver more dynamic, engaging viewer experiences.

Peter Mossman, Director of Production and Strategic Delivery at ITV, said: “Our partnership with Fonix has played an important role in shaping our interactive services. As audience behaviours continue to shift, it’s vital that we work with partners who can combine reliability with innovation. Fonix brings both, and we’re excited to continue building on what we’ve achieved together.”

Rob Weisz, CEO of Fonix, told That's Business: “Extending our work with ITV reflects the strength of the relationship we’ve built together, as well as a shared ambition to keep improving the viewer experience. Interactivity continues to play a key role in broadcast, and we’re proud to provide the technology and insight that helps ITV engage audiences at scale.”

https://www.fonix.com

Electrical faults found in 1 in 4 London rental homes

Electrical engineers are warning landlords and tenants to take safety checks seriously after inspections revealed that one in four rental properties in London contains potentially dangerous electrical faults.

According to engineers at Efficient Home Energy UK, which carries out electrical safety inspections across London, a significant number of rental properties fail their Electrical Installation Condition Report (EICR) due to issues that could pose a risk to occupants.

Common problems discovered during inspections include damaged wiring, overloaded consumer units, missing earthing protection, and outdated fuse boxes that no longer meet modern safety standards.

“Many landlords assume if the lights work and sockets turn on, the electrical system must be safe,” Ethem, an engineer at Efficient Home Energy told That's Business.

“However, customers are unaware of preventative measures that can be easily taken to prevent this. Installing a RCD unit or a new fuse box can mitigate risks substantially.”

Electrical safety regulations introduced in recent years require landlords in England to have a valid EICR carried out at least every five years, ensuring that electrical installations meet safety standards. Despite this, engineers say many properties still fail their inspections due to ageing wiring or DIY electrical work carried out by unqualified individuals.

Among the most common issues found during inspections are:

• Lack of RCD protection (residual current devices)

• Black and red cabling (indicating a very old type of wiring)

• Damaged or deteriorating wires

• Old MCBs (miniature circuit breakers)

• Unsafe consumer units or outdated fuse boxes

• Missing bonding or earthing protection

Electrical faults remain a leading cause of house fires in the UK, with engineers urging landlords to treat electrical inspections as a crucial safety measure rather than a formality.

“An EICR is designed to identify hidden risks before they become serious problems,” the spokesperson added. “Carrying out regular inspections helps protect tenants and ensures landlords remain compliant with current safety regulations.”

Tenants are also encouraged to report signs of electrical issues to landlords or property managers. Warning signs can include flickering lights, burning smells near sockets, frequently tripping circuit breakers, or discoloured plug outlets.

Landlords who fail to comply with electrical safety regulations can face enforcement action and fines of up to £30,000 from local authorities.

Further guidance on electrical safety inspections and landlord responsibilities can be found at https://efficienthomeenergy.uk.