£38m boost for apprenticeships
The Learning and Skills Council (LSC) is putting a further £38 million into apprenticeships in a bid to meet its targets of increasing this year’s cohort of apprentices to 175,000.Part of the money will fund new apprentice places and will be directed to employers and training providers. Stephen Gardner, the LSC’s Director of Work Based […]
Feature: The coach route for learning and development
Rosey Village, training co-ordinator for engineering company MWH, gives a personal account of how coaching has meant a step-change in the way learning and development is approached in her organisation. BackgroundMWH is a global water supply, wastewater engineering and environmental management company offering professional consultancy, engineering design and construction services, to water companies, towns, cities […]
Trends: A workforce of drifters?
Michael Graham, managing director of Pitman Training, explores changing attitudes toward the workplace. The annual workplace survey conducted by Pitman Training has unearthed a clear trend towards "job drifting" similar to our larger cousin the USA. Whilst the geographic nature of the USA tends to dictate some of the drifting activity within the workforce our […]
Vocational training is failing girls – EOC report
Britain is failing to provide real opportunity and choice for young people entering training and work, according to a report published today by the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC). The Free to Choose report reveals that young people – particularly girls from lower socio-economic groups – are not being given the access to careers advice, work-experience […]
Training on the Chain Gang
A new team-building activity based on the notion of chain gangs is being touted as the ultimate way to build staff camaraderie while also helping firms meet their corporate social responsibilities. The activity, from training group Una Perform, sees staff spending a week chained together while carrying out tasks such as road sweeping and trimming […]
Opinion: Crossing the cultural divide
The increase in cross border human traffic has meant that companies are no longer dealing with a homogenous native community from which they recruit their staff but now have to face cross cultural challenges in how they hire, manage and develop a multi-cultural staff. One area of note where HR and management are finding difficulties […]
Feature: Employment and occupational health
Guy Hollebon, Partner and Head of the Employment Team, discusses employment and occupational health in the latest article of a series produced by Bevans, solicitors. An Occupational Health (OH) adviser is a vital tool to employers when managing any form of sickness absence. The majority of SME’s do not have their own in-house OH adviser […]
Review: Lend Me Your Ears
Title: Lend Me Your Ears Author: Professor Max AtkinsonPublisher: Ebury Press VermilionISBN: 0091894794Price: £9.99Reviewer: Anne TeggartThis book was written by the same man who trained former Liberal Democrat Leader, Paddy Ashdown, in the art of public speaking. How do I know? Well, he mentions it at the front of his book. He has also included […]
Charisma Key to Success
Almost half of UK company directors and senior managers believe that a plummy upper-class accent is a hindrance rather than a help when it comes to succeeding in business, according to research from The Aziz Corporation. However, having a working-class accent is considered even worse, with 86% of those who took part in the survey […]
Leadership: Visionary, Popular or Sledgehammer?
Fraser Murray of Fairplace categorises different styles of leaderhip and assesses when each style is most successful. I have observed some common patterns in ‘leadership styles’ and, before you ask, no my views are not statistically tested or validated – but I’m sure you’ll have come across these people in your company. When a company […]
Feature: When is Coaching Destined to Fail?
Tony Dixon, author of The Performance Coach, examines the conditions that contribute to coaching success. At any level in almost all organisations there is a serious shortage of talent. This contrasts somewhat paradoxically with the greatest number of coaches practicing in corporate life. So we have to ask the question, are coaches failing their clients […]
UK’s first Skills Academy
The UK’s first skills academy – focussing on fashion retail – is expected to be launched this autumn.The UK Fashion Retail Academy is to be a joint venture between the Government and Arcadia Group, with an initial intake of 60 16-18 year-olds.Arcadia’s Philip Green, who said the eventual intake would be nearer 350.Green said: “The […]
A third of employers don’t train staff
While two-thirds of employers consider skills development to be a high priority within their organisations one-third do not provide any formal training for their staff, a study of 13,000 UK companies has found.The research, released to coincide with the announcement of new sector skills agreements, also found that over half of employers felt the education […]
CSR and beyond: Does it really pay to be good?
Leo Martin is a director and founder of GoodCorporation, the corporate responsibility standard and is the principal character in the BBC’s series, Good Company, Bad Company; in this the second of a new series ‘CSR and beyond’ Martin looks at how to make a business case for corporate social responsibility. In the last article we […]
I&C legislation leaves UK Plc in crisis
The Information and Consultation Regulations will be introduced into UK law on 6 April 2005 but despite facing potential fines of up to £75,000 businesses are far from ready to meet the new obligations.Latest research conducted by Croner reveals that 74% of employees are not aware of new rights to be consulted on major employment […]
Member wire #92 – CSR and beyond: Does it really pay to be good?
================================================================ HR Zone Members Newswire Issue 92 29 March 2005 http://www.hrzone.co.uk ================================================================ SITE HIGHLIGHTS **** SITE HIGHLIGHTS **** SITE HIGHLIGHTS **** 1. CSR and beyond: Does it really pay to be good? 2. HR Tip: Reasonable alternative work 3. I&C legislation leaves UK Plc in crisis 4. Government gets tough on corporate manslaughter 5. Any […]
Mental Health Action Week begins
Mental Health Action Week (27 March to 2 April 2005) will be raising awareness of mental health problems and the impact of stress in the workplace.Campaigners are drawing a correlation between job satisfaction and a poor state of mental health.According to the Health and Safety Executive call centre staff on the front-line have the lowest […]
White paper pledges to close skills gap
The government has set out the proposals it believes will help England become “a high skills, high value-added economy” in the face of competition from China, India and other emerging economies.The Skills White Paper – the government’s second in two years – promises new mechanisms to get employers involved in designing training courses, free training […]
HR Tip: Reasonable alternative work
These questions are being answered by Learn HR, a market leader in the provision of HR and payroll training and nationally-recognised professional qualifications. Q: What constitutes ‘reasonable alternative work’ in law? A: It is work that is suitable in terms of factors that include skills required, pay, location and status. For example a woman returning from […]
Software providers expect PAYE problems
A software industry group has warned that the system used by employers to send PAYE returns to the Inland Revenue via the internet has not been properly tested and “will not be able to cope with demand”, according to a report in Computer Weekly.The report said: “Although suppliers of payroll software have been able to […]
