Word on Work Blog

According to a survey of 5,000 businesses*, soft skills, such as interpersonal and communication skills rate highest in employers' recruitment processes.  

A 'can-do' attitude was also as an important attribute that employers looked for when recruiting new workers, with 85% of respondents saying it was a key attribute.. Academic qualifications and professional qualifications trailed behind, at 27% and 28% respectively.

Just 25% of employers said that computer literacy was a key attribute in a prospective employee as many business owners now expect employees to have basic IT skills.

Phil Stewart, director of customer service at Virgin Media Business, said:

"The change in values could be seen as a reaction to the increasing ubiquity of higher education, or an attempt to differentiate from competitors by recruiting workers that embody an organisation's values and give them an extra edge. With organisations facing enough problems as it is, it's no surprise that a 'can-do' attitude and an ability to offer creative solutions to problems now top employers' wish lists."

*Virgin Media Business

According to figures released today, unemployment fell by 45,000 and the number of dole claimants dipped for the second month in a row.

Here's some more labour market stats:

-The number of people in work increased by 105,000 to almost 30 million, but this was entirely due to a rise in part-time workers. Almost eight million people are now in a part-time job, the highest since records began in 1992, while those working part-time because they cannot find full-time work increased by 73,000 to a record high of 1.4 million.

-Self-employment has also reached a record figure of 4.1 million, up by 89,000 since the previous quarter.

-Average earnings increased by 0.6 per cent in the year to March, down by 0.5 percentage points on the previous month because of lower bonuses in the private sector.

-Average weekly pay in private firms in March was £2 lower at £460 compared to a year ago.

-But despite unemployment falling,other figures from the Office for National Statistics showed that the number of people unemployed for more than a year increased by 27,000 to 887,000, the worst total since 1996.

-In the three months to March, a third of all unemployed people had been out of work for more than a year.

-The number of people unemployed for more than two years rose by 5,000 to 428,000.

-The UK's unemployment rate has fallen by 0.2 per cent to 8.2 per cent, lower than the European average of 10.2 per cent.

-Youth unemployment has also fallen, down by 17,000 over the latest quarter to 1.02 million.

Just reminding people of the consultation on careers guidance for schools, sixth form colleges and further education institutions which ends Wednesday 1st August.

The purpose of the consultation is to gather views on whether the new duty should be extended down to pupils in year 8 and upwards to young people up to the age of 18 studying in schools, sixth form colleges and further education institutions. The government intends to amend the age range by regulations from September 2013.

You may also wish to use this consultation to express your views in other aspects of careers guidance in schools etc.

www.education.gov.uk/consultations/index.cfm?action=consultationDetails&consultationId=1830&external=no&menu=1

Asian and Oriental restaurants in the UK are struggling to recruit staff because of tougher immigration rules. The new laws, which only allow the best chefs (those who earn more than £28,000 pa) into the country to work, mean that a gap has been left in the labour market.

Asian and Oriental restaurants, which make up around one fifth of all restaurants in the UK, are being urged by the government to accept graduates from new Asian and Oriental Centres of Excellence (or Curry Colleges) to help deal with the urgent recruitment needed.

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, is opening five "centres of excellence" across England, offering training to young unemployed people in Asian cookery.

An industry expert said it can take three to four years to train someone in this type of cuisine.

The colleges are aiming to take in 50 students in the first year, but will quickly grow from that base. And now for the let-down moment - there doesn’t seem to be anything in the East Midlands.

Curry colleges

• Westminster Kingsway College
• University of West London
• Leeds City College
• University College Birmingham
• Trafford College

Read the full article

Watch the video

This news article on the BBC website has received an unusually high number of comments.... I’m flagging it up from a “need to know what some members of the government and business community are saying” point of view rather than presenting any comment or opinion....

The Foreign Secretary William Hague has called on bosses to stop "complaining" about the economy and work harder. “

In the Sunday Telegraph, Mr Hague said:

"There's only one growth strategy: work hard. Get on the plane, go and sell things overseas, go and study overseas”

And do more with less - that's the 21st Century... We're trying to rescue the work ethic just in the nick of time."

I’ve picked up on this article because if this is the rhetoric coming out of some government spheres about how we should be working in the 21st century, young people need to be aware of what might be expected of them in the future.

Hague said the economy was undergoing "rebalancing", with the private sector growing while public sector jobs declined.

"They (bosses) should be getting on with the task of creating more of those jobs and more of those exports, rather than complaining about it."

Read more http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-18048963#

A little song popped into my head after reading this article.... does anyone know the folk song William Brown (Keep That Wheel A’Turnin’)? I think I’ll be singing it for the rest of the day...

Yes the Olympics are in London (mainly) but the news that G4S, the security company are interviewing 84,000 candidates for its Olympic security contract prompted me to have a little looky at their recruitment pages. They have a lot of vacancies. Lots of jobs are in the South East (naturlich) but some are in the Midlands. They are taking on 10,000 temporary workers for the Olympics.

For anyone interested in a career in security they have quite a good careers website http://careers.g4s.com/

Good news for anyone in the East Midlands contemplating or about to embark on a career in law....

New research from the Law Society has revealed that legal practices in the East Midlands are continuing to see an improvement in fortunes, with positive signs of growth.

That’s it really. I won’t bore you with fees figures and financial health checks.

Just a brief snippet of info - British cars helped drive exports to a record high in March, as the UK sold more cars and parts abroad than it imported for the first time in 36 years.

Motor vehicle engineering and design jobs for the UK! Yay.

Schools which find the most effective ways to help children from poor backgrounds could win £10,000, Deputy Prime Nick Clegg has announced.

Nick Clegg: "Teachers will be completely free to do with that money whatever they want"

If you want to read more do so here: www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-18053619

Here is a blog post in The Guardian on apprenticeships written by someone who sounds like they’ve just come across them...

However, I have gleaned two facts:

Fact 1 It has been forecast that the engineering and manufacturing sector will need more than 2 million new workers by the time today's primary school pupils reach working age as skilled and experienced employees retire (Engineering UK).

Fact 2 According to an independent survey recently carried out on behalf of EAL more than a quarter of industry employers said that apprenticeships are more valuable than a university degree. Just under half felt that apprenticeships are at least of equal value to a university degree to help people prepare for and progress in the workplace.

If 4G mobile broadband is introduced across the UK it could create as many as 125,000 new roles, including telecoms and IT jobs, new research* has found.

4Gwould bring about private investment spurred on by a new cycle of innovation in interest services and mobile devices.

The technology could be rolled out later this year when Ofgem holds two spectrum auctions.

I was just about with it til that last sentence....

*A report by Capital Economics, commissioned by Everything Everywhere

Tourism chiefs were delighted after Nottingham came 14th on a list of the most popular tourist destinations.

Nottingham shared its 14th ranking with Newcastle, both receiving 243,000 international visitors last year, and came ahead of Bath, York and Windsor. The research also showed that visits to the East Midlands increased by 8 per cent last year.

I think that the Newark and Sherwood area can also be included in the accolade as Robin Hood will have been a major factor for some people visiting the city. It also employs the highest number of people in the tourism sector in Notts after Nottingham city.

Good news for anyone interested in a career in tourism and hospitality which, of course, is a growing sector.

(The survey, by VisitBritain, analysed overnight stays by overseas visitors in UK cities in 2011.)