Huisman builds world's largest bearings

Huisman, the worldwide specialist in lifting, drilling and subsea solutions, is currently producing the world’s largest bearings at its production facility in China. These two 30m in diameter bearings are meant for the world’s largest Tub Cranes: the two 10,000mt Huisman designed cranes which are under construction for Heerema’s new semi-submersible crane vessel ‘Sleipnir’.

Since 2012, Huisman has been successfully designing and constructing small bearings with a diameter of up to 14m.

à BLOC Bicycle Beer launches Superprestige beer in Australia

Dutch cycling beer brand à BLOC Bicycle Beer, which was part of the trade mission to Australia last November, has launched its à BLOC Superprestige beer in Australia during the Tour Down Under in Adelaide!

The launch included a number of events, led by the Car Park Party in Adelaide CBD on the 21st of January where around 5,000 guests celebrated at the finish line with a cold à BLOC craft beer.

This craft beer with added Alpine Minerals underlines that performance is of more value when shared with friends.

à BLOC Australia has teamed up with local craft beer experts Cavalier Brewing to produce the beer domestically. The craft beer will be distributed through a number of partners and will be available in bars and stores in Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney, and Brisbane, as well as online. Other cities will follow soon with plans to have 150 points of sale in Australia by the end of 2017.

EY press release - Europe remains attractive for investment regardless of the geopolitical instability

Despite the current geopolitical and economic risks, companies have ambitious investment plans for Europe: 56% of the international investors are planning to invest in Europe within the next three years. This results from EY's 2017 European attractiveness survey - Plan B for Brexit, a survey among 254 international investors.

This report is part of a series by EY on the attractiveness of Europe and European countries for cross-border investments. Since 2000, this series has provided information on international location strategies and their impact on countries and cities in Europe. The global political, economic and investment landscape has entered an exceptional period of transition.

You can read the press release in Dutch here and you can find the research in English here.

Results of the Randstad Workmonitor

New research from HR and recruitment specialists Randstad has found that more than half (55%) of Australian workers don’t think that they have the digital skills to guarantee future employability.

A further two-thirds (67%) believe that digitisation of the workforce requires different skill sets to those available at their current employer.

Randstad Australia and New Zealand CEO Frank Ribout believes that there is more pressure than ever on employers to upskill the workforce and that if skills shortages and lack of training is not addressed in the immediate future, Australia risks having a workforce that is not skilled for long-term employability.

Randstad Workmonitor highlights: Jobseeker sentiments in digital age
• 85% of Australians believe every company should have a digital strategy
• 62% of Australians surveyed state their employer has a digital strategy
• 67% agree that digitisation requires different skill sets than currently available with employees at their employer
• 55% believe they personally need to acquire more digital skills to guarantee their future employability