TERMS OF SERVICE - Welcome GB Shared Ltd!

Last updated: 17 March 2021

Summary

GB Shared Ltd, is a network of countywide sharing platforms [Trading as; Lancashare, Mancheshare, Cumbriashare, Yorkshare, Merseyshare, etc.] which are powered by businesses across the UK.  Since 2016 businesses have been ‘sharing’ by county, using our geographical share sites, pooling their knowledge, opportunities and resources with one another.

We do not charge anyone for using our share platforms, they are free and intended to enhance and positively impact each county.  Businesses can join as paying members, but only if they wish to share.  Funds generated through membership helps us to; continuously improve our services, invest in new services, be innovative and enhance our customer journey. 

In exchange for sharing, member businesses receive great benefits, including exposure, connections, news, funding, tender and job alerts along with other measured returns, while counties subsequently develop a central resource and plethora of opportunities which positively impacts at local level. 

General Terms

All ‘share’ sites and ‘The Gen’ are trading names of GB Shared Ltd

Anyone can visit our ‘share’ sites and ‘The Gen’ free of charge and download the information available on the sites without creating an account.

Visitors can also create a free account should they wish to receive updates from the site. There are two types of accounts:

• Free Users - Free users register their name/email address to create an account.
• Paid Users - Paid users register their company name/email address and create a page listing displaying their company details.

Paid users must have permission from their organisation to do this.

All users (free or paid) will receive automatic notifications from the site based on their membership and their self-indicated preferences. These can be turned off as and when required.

Automatic notifications include such correspondence by email as; notification of your membership expiry date, notifications in line with your preferences e.g. Job alerts, tender alerts, event and funding updates and other information indicated in your preferences.

Registering for a free account will generate these notifications either by email or leave them in your ‘share’ dashboard, or both, depending on user preferences and can be turned off at any time.

Where a user generates a free account, they register using their name, email address and an auto-generated password. This information is stored within our website and CRM system for recording members details only and is not shared with any third-party organisations.

Member data is stored for a period of 12 months after which time membership automatically expires and data is removed from our system (website and CRM) unless the user re-registers with the ‘share’ site for another year.

The only instance of data being seen or held by a third party is with those parties who host either our website server or CRM system. These organisations are GDPR compliant and we have a written agreement about the safety of our/your data.  All data is held in a secure data centre in Manchester, UK, [DataCentre Plus].

Member data is only stored to ensure their login credentials work correctly and to generate auto alerts in line with membership.

Additional marketing newsletters are released from ‘share’ sites with updates about our activity, new members, news, events, training, funding, networking groups and other general information about GB Shared.  Members can opt out of these by clicking the unsubscribe button at the bottom of our mailers. Opting out of our marketing alerts, will mean you stop receiving our marketing and news communications but automatic alerts about your membership, tender and job notifications will not cease until a user ceases their membership or turns off email notifications. In this instance the notifications will sit on your ‘share’ dashboard.

We do not reveal your email address to any 3rd parties, but members do have the option to create a ‘contact us’ button on their page or be introduced to other members.  Introductions will only be facilitated where both parties are opted in.  All ‘contact’ emails will be facilitated by us direct to you.

General

 

Members can upload information in line with their membership package only and about their own (not others) organisations and only where permission has been granted by that organisation.

We may introduce you to other ‘share’ members where a request is made or we see a suitable connection to collaborate, parties must be opted into introductions on their preference screen.

Membership will last for 1 year unless otherwise agreed in writing.

All users will be presented with a dashboard of statistics. This is your Return on Investment report and shows a complete set of measured activity received from your membership.

Dashboard / Return on Investment reports can be emailed to the organisation if indicated so in the user preferences.

‘Share’ logos are available to our members for us on their marketing, email, websites and signature strips should they wish. We ask that logos are retained in size to ensure our image is never displayed distorted.

Members should not share their login or password with third parties.

No lewd or offensive information/material can be uploaded to the system this will be seen as a breach of these terms.

Each ‘share’ site manager reserves the right to remove or not publish inappropriate content.

Charities who join at Silver level or above, are eligible to receive their membership at half price presuming they can provide a charity registration number.

Member businesses who wish to ‘share’ to our share platforms, can only upload information in the specific categories of:

Our Services

Membership

On creating a paid account on any ‘share’ site, the person making payment is consenting that they have explicit permission from the company to upload business related data on its behalf.

Payment details are not held by the ‘share’ site. For safety of information, we only retain the payment ‘code’ which is powered by Stripe to enable renewal payments. No payments are taken without notifying the registered member unless that member opts into auto renewal.

We weekly email our members to keep them abreast of ‘share’ activity and to provide information and statistics relating to their account.  These preferences can be turned on or off at any time.

Paid members can upload information to various areas of the ‘share’ platform, these include;

Business Directory

Paid members can create a page listing on their ‘share’ site. A micro-page which details your business information for the purpose of marketing and raising awareness to our ‘share’ audience. You MUST have permission or be authorised by your employer to upload company information.

Email addresses will not be made public, instead an ‘email’ us button will be displayed on each user page. This is to protect your information. Visitors and other members of ‘share’ sites can contact you using the ‘contact’ us button on the site.   We will facilitate the sending of such emails and include a captcha facility to further protect you from any spam from our platforms.   Users can remove their email id where they do not require this option. 

Your page will also (at your discretion) can share other company information including your address, business name, social links, contact number, opening times, products and services for visitors to access. Only those paid members with company permission to ‘share’ this information should upload to ‘share’ platforms.

Paid members with business listings will have their business page listed live to our ‘share’ audience for one year unless otherwise agreed. Social media marketing will be carried out by the ‘share’ team to generate traffic to your page.

Business listings will be measured in terms of searches, contacts and website conversion rates. All other related areas of the site your organisation lists under will also be measured and the statistics made available to you via your dashboard or email report where this option is selected in your preferences.  This ‘return on investment’ report will show users their measured returns from membership.

Offers

Paid members can also upload ‘offers’ to ‘share’ platforms. These may include promotional offers or discounts. Offers will be shown on the latest feed on our site and be promoted to our network of followers via the site, news and social media channels.

Jobs

Paid members can upload job vacancies based on the roles that become available in their organisation. Job vacancy alerts are automatically sent to those registered with the site for job alerts in a that sector. The ‘share’ site team will promote vacancies via the site, social media and our newsletters to encourage applications.

Jobs will automatically be removed from the site and stop being promoted at the ‘deadline for applications’ date or the expiry of the related membership.

Tenders

Tenders is a member only feature and is therefore restricted to paid members only in terms of access. Basic information will be displayed in the latest feed, but only paid members can access the full information.

Users can choose via their member preferences to receive tender notifications. Any tenders uploaded on the site can only be via a paid member, who must have company permission to share the opportunity and upload the information.

Users can turn off or increase their tender notifications at any time.

Tenders will be promoted via the site, social media and our newsletters as well as via user notifications.

The aim of the tender portal is to support local businesses, local spend targets and the reduction of carbon footprint in our counties through the creation of local supply chains.  This encourages spending locally and helps each county prosper, stimulating activity at local level.

Events

Paid members (at Gold level and above) can upload their company events to the share site. Events should be related to the company listing.  Advertising events for 3rd parties is prohibited and could result in your membership being removed.

News

Paid members (at Bronze level and above) can upload their company events to the share site. News should be related to their company listing. Advertising news for 3rd parties is prohibited and could result in your membership being removed or the news article submitted being declined.

News uploaded will be checked and verified and published or declined by the ‘share’ manager.

We aim to have uploaded news published on our site within 48 hours and across our media platforms within 3 days.

Skills & Training

Paid members (at Gold Level and above) can upload themselves as a skills and training provider where their organisation offers training. This enables ‘share’ teams to promote the organisation as a training provider.

We ask that individual courses are not promoted here but the company is listed as a provider of training and indicate their delivery specialisms.

Funding

All our ‘share’ sites have a funding portal. This is managed by ‘share’ teams, but we welcome information from members or visitors to the site, who find suitable ‘share’ funding for promotion to forward this for inclusion. Where funding is deemed eligible and appropriate for upload, we will endeavour to check, verify and upload this to the site.

Awards

All our ‘share’ sites have an awards section where local awards are promoted to ensure our visitors. Paid members at Gold level and above, can provide details of their awards for promotion.

Awards will be promoted via our site, newsletter and social media channels.

Networking Groups

All our ‘share’ sites have a Networking Groups section. This aims to help businesses in the county make an informed choice when it comes to selecting the right group for them. Only paid members at Gold level and above can list themselves as a networking group. All groups will be promoted to raise awareness of the group via our news, emails, site and/or social media platforms.

Statistical information regarding page views, enquires etc. will be available via the ROI report in member dashboards.

Property

Only Platinum members will have access to full ‘property for sale’ section and be able to upload/view this section. This is to ensure only ‘serious’ buyers or investors go through to our ‘property/business for sale’ section and only serious properties and investments are uploaded.

All paid members will be able to view the ‘property for let’ section to help their property/office search in the county. Only platinum members will be able to upload to these sections, however.

Properties can be displayed for an unlimited time frame but will expire with any related listings once membership expires.

Forums

Online employer forums are available through our ‘share’ sites. These are also available for sponsorship and will be ‘run’ jointly by the ‘share’ team and the sponsor.

No offensive content can be uploaded to our forums. They are highly monitored. Any offensive uploads could result in users being removed from the forum and having their membership revoked without refund.

Forums are intended to ‘share’ best practice, to help businesses through the provision of local advice, guidance and signposting.

Sponsors of our forums is not allocated on a first come, first served basis, there is a process in place to ensure all our sponsors are best place to lead that sector and decisions will be made at the discretion of the management team and ‘share’ stakeholders.

Sponsors

Various areas of each ‘share’ site are available for sponsorship. Usually these will represent a sector. Companies wishing to sponsor should email info@lancashare.co.uk and submit their sponsor request. Sponsors will be selected based on their position to best lead the chosen sector.

Renewals

Where members pay by card, after one year, membership will automatically renew using the same card, unless you login and downgrade to a free account prior to expiry.  Members who pay by invoice, will receive an invoice notification 2 weeks prior to their renewal.  Members can; auto renew, pay the invoice to renew, or login and downgrade to a free account to close their account.

In year cancellations do not warrant a refund in full or in part, unless a complaint is upheld.

Complaints

Complaints should be registered with ledge@gbshared.co.uk

We aim to respond to any complaint within 3 working days.

Cancelled subscriptions will result in related listings being removed from the ‘share’ platform.

All registered users can login and deactivate or delete their account at any time.

In 2021, GB Shared launched The Gen, our national youth platform powered by businesses who are members of our share sites.  Members can highlight opportunities for sharing with ‘The Gen’ where content is aimed at the next generation [16-24]. 

The Gen – Terms of Service

Everything young adults need to succeed already exists.  The Gen does not replicate products or services, it simply allows businesses to share, categorise and centralise opportunities providing equal access to all.  All the data we hold on our share platforms & The Gen, is willingly and publicly shared by our member businesses.

The Gen enhances membership for our users and includes the following services:

• EMPLOYERS;

To help young adults find employers with a suitable offering for their age group, we ask our member businesses to indicate if their company is youth facing or has a youth offering, to indicate as such on their membership dashboard.   GB Shared will approve businesses which are suitable for a 16-24 audience.  All businesses are pre-approved by GB Shared for accuracy and relevance before being published to The Gen.

• NEWS;

To ensure young adults can read news that’s relevant to them, we extract news content from our share sites where members indicate articles which are geared toward a 16-24 audience.  To do this, we allow member businesses to ‘flag’ such articles for The Gen.  All news content is pre-approved by GB Shared for accuracy and relevance before being published to The Gen.

• FUNDING:

Both GB Shared Ltd and its share member businesses can ‘share’ funding opportunities to our share sites.  The Gen allows funding to be shared which 16-24-year olds are eligible for these funding opportunities.  All funding is pre-approved by GB Shared for accuracy and relevance before being published to The Gen.

• ACCOMMODATION;

To help young adults become independent and find property & accommodation opportunities, our share sites allow member businesses to ‘share’ available properties.  Where these property and accommodation opportunities are suitable for young adults (16-24) member businesses have the option to ‘flag’ these as suitable for The Gen.  This can include residential and commercial property such as student accommodation, halls of residence, first homes or business property and office space.   All accommodation is pre-approved by GB Shared for accuracy and relevance before being published to The Gen.

• EMPLOYMENT;

To help young people find employment opportunities, The Gen allows member businesses to ‘flag’ their shared vacancies for 16-24-year olds.  This creates a central employment pool of opportunities for young adults to peruse.  These vacancies can include; part-time, full-time, seasonal, apprenticeships, traineeships, kickstart and other employment opportunities.  All vacancies are pre-approved by GB Shared for accuracy and relevance before being published to The Gen.

• EDUCATION;

Education establishments across the UK who are already members of our share platforms can list themselves on The Gen in the ‘education’ pages.  This helps young adults to make better informed education choices and browse the various further and higher education opportunities.  All education providers are pre-approved by GB Shared for accuracy and relevance before being published to The Gen.

• CAREER ADVICE

Career advice is ever changing, as new job roles emerge and the required training for such roles also changes.  The Gen aims to provide up to date career advice across a range of professions, direct from business.  The Gen allows member businesses to ‘share’ career advice in video format.  Only selected businesses will be invited to record our career videos, each video will be produced and approved by GB Shared Ltd before publication to The Gen.

• AWARDS

The Gen aims to showcase awards which allow young adults to be recognised for their efforts and achievements.  Business members who already share their awards via our share platforms can ‘flag’ awards which are suitable for young adults.   Awards listed can be personal, community or business themed.   All awards are pre-approved by GB Shared for accuracy and relevance before being published to The Gen.

• EVENTS

The Gen aims to showcase events which are targeted at young adults.  Business members who already share their events via our share platforms can ‘flag’ events which are suitable for young adults / a 16-24 audience. Events listed can be personal, community or business themed.   All events are pre-approved by GB Shared for accuracy and relevance before being published to The Gen.

• LIFE SKILLS

The Gen aims to aid young adults with life skills which are often not part of the national curriculum.  Life Skills can include advice on; ‘how to open a bank account’, ‘what to look for in a first mortgage’, ‘what is a contract of employment’, ‘how do I access support for mental health etc…   The Gen allows our member businesses to ‘share’ life skills with a 16-24 audience.  All life skills are pre-approved by GB Shared for accuracy and relevance before being published to The Gen.

• OFFERS

GB Shared Ltd allows its member businesses to share offers with young adults.  These offers can include; free or discounted offers and savings on products or services to help young people find opportunities and gain value for money products & services.   All offers are pre-approved by GB Shared for accuracy and relevance before being published to The Gen.

• WORK PLACEMENTS, WORK EXPERIENCE AND INTERNSHIPS

GB Shared Ltd allows member businesses to share their work placement, work experience and graduate internships through our share sites and onto The Gen.  The Gen will list opportunities available allowing education establishments and young people to find meaningful placements and enhance employability.  All opportunities are pre-approved by GB Shared for accuracy and relevance before being published to The Gen.

• GUEST SPEAKERS

GB Shared Ltd allows member businesses ‘opt in’ to guest speaking opportunities.  This creates an online ‘bank’ of industry speaker’s which education establishments and other businesses can link with, providing easy access to industry leaders with content to inspire future generations across a range of professions.  All speaker opportunities pre-approved by GB Shared before being published to The Gen.

• GUEST TUTORS

GB Shared Ltd allows member businesses ‘opt in’ as guest teachers.  This creates an online ‘bank’ of guest teachers with which education establishments and other businesses can link.  This provides easy access to industry leaders with or without teaching qualifications to support the education sector and inspire future generations across a range of industries.  Using business professionals who can teach, adds value to curriculum delivery and ensures inclusion of the latest industry standards, enhancing education. 

• EMPLOYER PROJECTS & LIVE BRIEFS

GB Shared Ltd encourages its member businesses to share work projects and live brief opportunities direct from industry.  We know this experience enhances the employability of young adults, it further strengthens education and industry links.  All projects are pre-approved by GB Shared for accuracy and relevance.

How is The Gen funded?

The Gen, and indeed all our share platforms across the UK are free to use resources.  We measure impact, not income.  However, we do generate revenue to ensure our platforms deliver a first-class service, add real value and are continuously improved.  Whilst anyone in the world can visit our sites for free and access a plethora of support and information, only paid members can ‘share’ content to them.  Anything they share, we share, anything we share, we report on.  This is how we measure the reach and impact of collaboration & sharing.

Businesses who join their local share platform to connect, collaborate, find funding, recruit, win business, contracts, get brand awareness or find property (and much more) can also share to The Gen.  Membership fees’ fund our share platforms starts at just £149 a year.

There is no cost for access to The Gen and NO additional charge to our member businesses for sharing content to The Gen.  In 2020 GB Shared Ltd was successful in an application to Innovate UK to deliver The Gen in a global pandemic to offer a lifeline of opportunities for young people.  The Gen launched in March 2021.

The Gen does not use the personal data of businesses or young adults to promote tailored advertising to you, moreover, it’s a place of choice and equal sharing of opportunity for all.  As such, we do not use any of your data to personalise services to you. 

Our aims and expectations

Our aim is to provide a national platform for young adults which is filled with live support and opportunities direct from business, to make their journeys through work and life easier.  100% of our content is business led, live and relevant to 16-24-year olds.

Only content from paid share member businesses can be showcased on The Gen.  Businesses who join GB Shared, are expected to adhere to the GB Shared Ltd Terms of Service.  These terms set the standard for sharing; no lewd content, no personal or political opinions etc.

Paid member businesses have the extended opportunity of sharing to both their regional share platform and to The Gen.  Only content from our member businesses which is deemed as suitable for 16-24-year olds, will be approved for publication on The Gen.

Member businesses who share to a share platform will gain regional coverage, whilst sharing to The Gen can attract national coverage.

Who can use The Gen?

The Gen has four main audiences:

• Young people 16-24 who can access a plethora of information and opportunities free
• Parents who can help to guide young people through work and life
• Education Establishments who can strengthen employability prospects for learners
• Employers who can showcase their products, services & opportunities & access future talent.

Whilst anyone can visit our site, only those aged 16 and over can create a login to access certain opportunities on The Gen.  This is there to protect all parties.

We will restrict those under 16 and other non-registered users from accessing certain data like contact information of businesses. 

What can you share or access on The Gen?

We want The Gen to be a central source of support and a pool of opportunity for young adults, employers, educators and parents.  The Gen does not replicate products or services, it simply allows businesses to share and centralise opportunities.

Only content from our members businesses will appear on The Gen.

All content for The Gen is twice validated and approved by GB Shared Ltd, initially at county level before going on a local share platform, then again, to assess its suitability for The Gen, ensuring content is relevant for 16-24-year olds.

All content shared to The Gen must fall into one of the designated categories under ‘our services’.

Users of The Gen can browse our site for free and access many opportunities and vast support without creating an account.

You must be 16> to create an account on The Gen and must sign a declaration to confirm this.

Each account dashboard will allow users indicate their own preferences, including;

• Opting into job alerts by sector (we’ll email you job vacancies which are shared in your chosen sectors) each week as they are shared by businesses.
• Opting into our weekly newsletter (we’ll email a weekly newsletter with funding, job and news updates) based on that week’s sharing activity.

GB Shared reserves the right to reject or remove any content it deems in appropriate or in breach of these terms.

Additional Terms of Service

Updating These Terms

GB Shared is a uniquely innovative organisation on a journey of continuous improvement.  We are always exploring new ways of working and improving our services to you.  This means we may need to update these Terms of Service from time to time.

These terms will always be updated and dated on our platform.  There is no obligation for you to visit our site or create an account should you not agree with our terms of service.

Should any share member businesses or users of The Gen, seriously or repeatedly breach any of the terms herein or other related policies, we reserve the right to delete your account and remove future use.  If we act in this respect, we will inform you of your options.

Some of our products (our share sites) require members to agree to separate terms of service, these can be viewed here.