THE Get on North East initiative, which aims to improve adult literacy and numeracy in the region, has created a post to target businesses.

Business in the Community, a member of the initiative's Skills for Life Taskforce, has appointed CHERYL WILLIAMS as regional Skills for Life manager, with the aim of bringing businesses on board.

She will work with the region's Learning and Skills Councils and other partners to increase awareness among businesses of the benefits, for the individual and the company, of training staff in Skills for Life.

The Get On North East campaign aims to improve Skills for Life among the estimated 400,000 North-East adults who have difficulties with reading, writing and basic maths, as well as English for speakers of other languages.

* TRACEY LYTH has been appointed operations director at Newton Aycliffe-based Eurest Criminal Justice (ECJ).

ECJ provides catering, cleaning and hospitality services to police, prison authorities and the fire service.

Ms Lyth, 38, has been promoted from retail sales executive for Compass Group's Government services division, which operates ECJ.

After graduating from Leeds Polytechnic, she began her career in the catering and hospitality industry as a management trainee with Swallow Hotels.

She lives in the Elmtree area of Stockton and is married to Paul with two children, Jessica, 11, and five-year-old Megan.

* Able UK, which has a number of sites in the Teesside area, has appointed MARTIN HOPKINS as group managing director.

The dismantling, reclamation and recycling business is creating the position to strengthen its management structure prior to expansion.

Mr Hopkins joins Able from global waste management business Cleanaway Limited, where he was a UK board director.

* Staff at the Northallerton branch of Skipton Building Society have welcomed JULIE PENNINGTON as their new manager.

Ms Pennington, from Ingleby Barwick, joins from Browns Financial Services, in Stockton, where she was an independent mortgage advisor.

Before that, the mother-of-one spent 18 years with Lloyds TSB as branch manager, financial advisor and mortgage advisor in the Teesside area.

* Newcastle-based commercial law firm Robert Muckle has appointed IAN JACKSON as director of IT. He joins from national law firm Hammonds Direct, where he was head of IT.

* Stockton-based chartered accountancy Baines Jewitt has appointed two accounting technician trainees.

JULIE-ANNE BAINBRIDGE, of Yarm, has just finished her A-levels at Northallerton College and LUCY RUSSELL, of Norton, near Stockton, has joined from a barristers' chambers, but decided on a career in accountancy.

* NIGEL CLASBY has joined Newcastle law firm Watson Burton as an associate in the commercial property department.

He has joined from Eversheds' Newcastle office, where he worked in the real estate department for six years.

* Architecture company Browne Smith Baker has welcomed three people to its fast-growing Darlington practice.

ELLIOTT CASTLE joins the firm as an architectural technician with more than eight years' experience in the North-East, including on projects for the Cleveland Police Authority and the University of Teesside.

STEWART ANDERSON has been recruited as an architectural technician, with more than seven years' experience in the North-East and Scotland.

LOUISE GLYNN has joined the firm as an architectural assistant and is working towards her final professional qualifications, having recently graduated.

Browne Smith Baker, which has bases in Newcastle, Leeds and Hull, has also welcomed seven new associate directors to the existing four across its entire operation since it became a Limited Liability Partnership in February.

* North-East businessman MARK I'ANSON has been appointed as the "David Goldman" visiting professor of business innovation at the University of Newcastle Business School.

The post is in memory of the former chairman of Sage PLC, an entrepreneur who was committed to teaching young people.

As well as delivering the annual David Goldman lecture, he will get involved in the university's teaching programme - sharing his business experience with students.

He will also be a member of the judging panel for the North-East Young Business Person of the Year award, which is sponsored by the Business School.

Mr I'Anson has been involved with successful commercial ventures in the technology industry across the world. Since selling his computer company, Integrated Micro Products, in 1996, he has remained active in the North-East business community.