News: Saatchi & Saatchi X offers internships for grads with best ‘elevator pitch’
In order to win a paid internship at Saatchi & Saatchi X, graduates will be given 30 seconds on Friday to impress senior managers with an ‘elevator pitch’ that demonstrates their advertising skills. This is the second year that the advertising agency has run its ‘Saatchi & Saatchi X Boot Camp’ training programme using the […]
Case Study: Nokia attempts to ‘Bridge’ the gap with employee outplacement scheme
Nokia is attempting to take the sting out of its redundancy programme by introducing an ambitious employee outplacement scheme. Changes to the mobile phone company’s strategy led it to announce the closure of some UK sites during Easter 2011. The move meant that hundreds of people across all sections of the business from product […]
Tower Hamlets demands Apprenticeship Institute as part of outsourcing deal
London’s Tower Hamlets Council has outsourced its ICT operations to Agilisys on condition that the vendor sets up a new Apprenticeships Institute to provide young people with opportunities in the deprived borough. The seven-year deal, which is worth £70 million, was signed in a bid to help the local authority make £100 million-worth of cuts […]
Prior work placements boost apprenticeship success rates
Although about a quarter of young people who start apprenticeships currently drop out, they are much less likely to do so if they have had previous work experience, a report has found. According to a study of 15 of the UK’s best apprenticeship schemes conducted by schools inspection body, Ofsted, to pinpoint best practice, vocational […]
Legal Insight: How will changes to apprenticeship laws affect you?
As of 6 April 2012, the law concerning apprenticeships will change, which means that employers must be wary of apprentices’ protected status and how it could impact upon their ability to manage and/or dismiss them. What is changing? Under the new regulations, which are set to come into force tomorrow, if an apprenticeship agreement […]
Employers offered hiring incentives under £1bn ‘Youth Contract’ scheme
Employers are to be given financial incentives for taking on young people and/or providing them with work experience or apprenticeship places as part of the coalition government’s £1 billion Youth Contract scheme. The aim of the initiative, which is being led by deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg, is to help 18 to 24-year olds either […]
Creative industries ‘collective’ to speed date work placement candidates
Around 100 employers in the creative industries have formed a “co-operative” to offer 300 young people posts as apprentices or paid interns after interviewing them in a speed dating contest. Organisations such as Facebook, RSA Films, Aardman Animation, Saatchi & Saatchi and gaming firm Activision have all signed up to take part in the ‘Creative […]
‘Pop-Up Shop’ provides unemployed youth with retail work experience
A ‘Pop-Up Shop’ has opened in London in a bid to help prepare unemployed young people for a career in retail. The move came as work and pensions secretary, Iain Duncan Smith, wrote to Simon Cowell also asking him to offer work experience to out-of-work 16 to 24 year olds, following a war of words […]
Boots pulls out of 2nd controversial unemployment scheme
Even as ministers found themselves compelled to drop sanctions from a work experience scheme aimed at young jobseekers, Boots has pulled out of a work programme for the long-term unemployed due to similar elements of compulsion. The pharmacy and retail chain said in a statement that some of its stores had already provided work experience […]
Neet employer funding: ‘Why fill in forms for a social experiment?’
The government’s new £126m training scheme for young people has drawn a mixed response, with one entrepreneur claiming that it will only help training providers rather than businesses or the unemployed. Deputy prime minister Nick Clegg announced today that the funding would be made available to pay charities and private sector organisations to provide 55,000 […]
Tesco changes work experience terms in bid to end protests
Tesco is to offer work experience candidates paid placements and a guaranteed job at the end, after claims that it was using benefit claimants as unpaid labour generated an angry consumer backlash. The UK’s biggest supermarket chain said that participants in the government’s ‘Workfare’ scheme would now be offered the choice of remaining on Jobseeker […]
Tesco accused of “exploiting” workers in ‘free work’ row
Tesco has blamed a job advert for an unpaid permanent night shift worker on an “IT error” after outrage in the twittersphere led to claims that the supermarket chain was “exploiting” workers. The advert, which was posted on the Jobcentre Plus website, said that Tesco was looking for a permanent night shift worker for a […]
UK unemployment is double official figures at 6.3m, reveals study
The true state of UK unemployment is more than double official figures at 6.3 million if US rather than domestic metrics are used, research has revealed. If the US U6 measure, which includes unemployed, economically inactive (discouraged), marginally attached and under-employed workers, is applied to measure ‘total’ worklessness in the UK, the figure is higher […]
Unions launch year-long ‘treat interns fairly’ campaign
The TUC and the National Union of Students have launched a year-long campaign calling for interns to be treated fairly. The initiative, which kicked off at a seminar at TUC headquarters in central London today, is intended to address concerns that graduates undertaking work experience are being exploited as a useful source of free labour […]
National Apprenticeship Week: ‘Schemes cut hiring costs’
Four out of five employers that currently provide apprenticeship schemes claim that they will play a bigger role in their recruitment policy in future as they help to cut hiring costs. A survey undertaken among 349 people responsible for apprenticeship recruitment at their company by Populus Research revealed that three quarters believed providing apprenticeship places […]
Youth unemployment “time bomb” to cost economy £9.2bn per year
Employers must be given more incentives to hire young people in order to avert a youth unemployment “time-bomb” that will cost the country £9.2 billion per year from 2013, a report has warned. The study undertaken by the Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations predicted that, from next year, some £2.9 billion per annum […]
National Apprenticeship Week: How to get started
As we enter another year of economic uncertainty, recruiting fresh faces may not be at the top of the corporate agenda for all companies in 2012. Organisations ranging from large firms through to small and medium-sized enterprises are increasingly being asked to balance up diminishing budgets with a need to boost productivity and continue providing […]
National Apprenticeship Week: Training the Baker Tilly way
We first introduced our five-year apprenticeship scheme about six years ago as a way to get a variety of talent through the door. Since then, we have had between 70 and 100 school leavers with good A-level grades studying with us to gain an Association of Accounting Technicians qualification, 17 of which were taken on […]
National Apprenticeship Week: Who’s doing what and where
The coalition government is attempting to use ‘National Apprenticeship Week’ as a means of drumming up more interest among employers in offering taxpayer-backed apprenticeship schemes. At the official launch event at Channel 4’s offices in London today, Business Secretary Vince Cable kicked off more than 500 events across the country, which are intended to celebrate […]
National Apprenticeship Week: Apprenticeships O2-style
With the economy still faltering, unemployment at 8.4% and the promise of more job cuts to come, people are naturally becoming more and more worried about their employability and job security. With over one million 16 to 24 year olds out of work, the situation is even more acute for young people as the pressure […]
