While the british performance in Riga may have curled some toes last Saturday – I refer, of course, to the nul points result at the Eurovision song contest – the Baltic states are continuing to hit the right notes over here.
As our Baltic states supplement shows, Latvian, Lithuanian and Estonian companies are adding value, improving quality and increasing exports to the UK.
We’ve been running a Baltic states supplement for several years now and have always been struck by the high level of co-operation from the various companies and associations we’ve contacted.
Cynics might say they are simply keen to grab the opportunity of some free publicity (and there’s nothing wrong with that), but my impression is that they are just good communicators. As relatively young countries, they have embraced new technology, such as e-mail, with a great deal more enthusiasm than some longer established operations.
Good communication is the essence of good education and, as two of our features show, the timber industry is getting in on the act at all levels and age groups.
The Forest Education Initiative has an ambitious aim: to secure the future of the UK timber industry and, in targeting schoolchildren, is applying “the Jesuit approach” of getting them young and keeping them for life.
Further down the education pipeline, Napier University‘s new Centre for Timber Engineering is opening its doors to its first batch of fresh-faced undergraduates this autumn.
And, as Charles Trevor explains in this week’s guest column, wood. for good is galvanising schoolchildren and students into action with design competitions.
If all these educational initiatives go to plan we may soon all be singing from the same hymn sheet. Which is more than can be said for some…
