Purpose - Following a successful bid to the National Apprenticeship Service, the Peter Jones Foundation was awarded funding to develop a level 5 Higher Apprenticeship in Innovation and Growth. The ...purpose of this paper is to present a case study of how the apprenticeship was developed and the impact it will have on future managers and leaders in the business sector.Design methodology approach - Information presented in the paper is drawn from the organisation's own work in developing a higher apprenticeship (HA). It builds on information incorporated in the original bid and project plan, as well as on-going evaluation of how the programme is progressing.Findings - The development of a level 5 Higher Apprenticeship in Innovation and Growth provides a progression for those people who have already undertaken a level 3 Enterprise Apprenticeship and also offers young people a new and speedier route to a career in business. Responding to gaps in intrapreneurial skills in SMEs and larger companies, the HA builds and develops these and aims to identify and nurture entrepreneurial talent. The evolution of this apprenticeship and potential benefits are brought to light in this case study.Originality value - The paper is based on the author's own experience and employer consultation. It presents a case study of an apprenticeship programme specific to the author's organisation.
Air-pollution has frequently been suggested as a cause of the decline of some butterfly species: a suggestion based mainly on lowered species richness close to industrial areas in Europe. There have ...been frequent calls, in vain, for research on the direct effect of air-pollution on Lepidoptera, recent research being confined to the indirect role via climate change. Based on studies of the species loss and natural recolonisation of Epping Forest (a large woodland area close to London, UK) I suggest that those species feeding as adults on sugar-rich fluids direct from the surface of trees or leaves (i.e. aphid honeydew on leaves or sap-runs on tree-trunks) were affected by particulate air-pollution. Species loss was high during the period of maximum smoke emissions. Since 1950 five species have recolonised naturally, of which four are honeydew feeders. It is possible that high levels of particulate air-pollution caused the extinction of butterflies feeding on honeydew from polluted leaves. Predictions are made which will allow this hypothesis to be tested.PUBLICATION ABSTRACT
Apodemus sylvaticus and A. flavicollis are distinct but sympatric species in Britain and parts of north-western Europe. Much data exists on the ecology of A. sylvaticus in areas where A. flavicollis ...is absent. This has been summarised and compared with a new study of a mixed A. sylvaticus / A. flavicollis population in central Essex. In the presence of A. flavicollis the winter average population densities of A. sylvaticus were significantly lower than in single species populations. In other respects investigated (survival, breeding season, movements, habitat selection within woods, annual population cycle) A. sylvaticus ecology did not appear to be affected by the presence of A. flavicollis . A. flavicollis ecology differed from that of A. sylvaticus in the following respects: a. It was rarer---representing about 1/4 to 1/5 of the Apodemus population. b. A. flavicoilis was less selective of habitat within woods but less likely to be resident outside woodland habitats. c. Individuals were more mobile. d. The breeding season may be shorter. In Essex both species of Apodemus are widespread but A. flavicollis does not spread so far into urban areas as does A. sylvaticus nor is it equally common in all woodland areas. There is some evidence that the most favourable woods are those in close proximity to arable land. On a national basis the restricted range of A. flavicollis is difficult to explain but the species seems to show some tendency to favour lowland areas with a mixture of woodland and arable land. If this relationship is genuine then large edge effects must occur. It is suggested that A. flavicollis can avoid competitive exclusion by A. sylvaticus when habitat conditions allow a partial separation of breeding habitat by the two species, and that the two species were brought into competition by man's fragmentation and intermixing of woodland and more open habitats.
Apodemus sylvaticus and A. flavicollis are distinct but sympatric species in Britain and parts of north-western Europe. Much data exists on the ecology of A. sylvaticus in areas where A. flavicollis ...is absent. This has been summarised and compared with a new study of a mixed A. sylvaticus / A. flavicollis population in central Essex. In the presence of A. flavicollis the winter average population densities of A. sylvaticus were significantly lower than in single species populations. In other respects investigated (survival, breeding season, movements, habitat selection within woods, annual population cycle) A. sylvaticus ecology did not appear to be affected by the presence of A. flavicollis . A. flavicollis ecology differed from that of A. sylvaticus in the following respects: a. It was rarer—representing about 1/4 to 1/5 of the Apodemus population. b. A. flavicoilis was less selective of habitat within woods but less likely to be resident outside woodland habitats. c. Individuals were more mobile. d. The breeding season may be shorter. In Essex both species of Apodemus are widespread but A. flavicollis does not spread so far into urban areas as does A. sylvaticus nor is it equally common in all woodland areas. There is some evidence that the most favourable woods are those in close proximity to arable land. On a national basis the restricted range of A. flavicollis is difficult to explain but the species seems to show some tendency to favour lowland areas with a mixture of woodland and arable land. If this relationship is genuine then large edge effects must occur. It is suggested that A. flavicollis can avoid competitive exclusion by A. sylvaticus when habitat conditions allow a partial separation of breeding habitat by the two species, and that the two species were brought into competition by man's fragmentation and intermixing of woodland and more open habitats.
