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We have just published the Career Energy Guide to the top 10 choices for Career Changers in  2010. I hope you will find it valuable. (more…)

A friend of mine runs a commercial printing company. He took me into his production room yesterday. It is the size of a car mechanic’s workshop, humming with machinery, peoples bustling everywhere, piles of printing on every surface. Situated in the heart of London and with a small dedicated team of workers it is hardly the image that comes to mind when we speak of factories or manufacturing. But it is a factory and that’s what makes it important. (more…)

The 1980s play Six Degrees Of Separation is undergoing a revival at the Old Vic in London. In the play a New York couple believe that they are going to be given parts in a film directed by the actor Sidney Poitier. Their paths and his have crossed, or so they believe, through an unlikely series of connections. (more…)

The Learning and Skills Council has been roundly criticised by opposition parties for its Train To Gain scheme. The scheme was accused of being unrealistically ambitious, of setting wild targets and failing to meet predicted success rates. Government has of course defended the scheme- what else could they do- but in fact the criticism did not go far enough. (more…)

So Cadbury have finally agreed to be sold to Kraft and another British company falls into foreign hands. At least that is how many of the media are presenting the story. And of course, as facts go, it is true. Car manufacturers, utility companies, football teams, banks and now chocolate makers, the list goes on, all under new, non-British ownership. But is it as black a day for Britain and our economy as some commentators suggest? (more…)

For many years the British economy has relied on consumer spending for its growth. However, a study by leading accountancy firm Ernst and Young notes that consumers- ordinary people like you and me- are ‘cashed out’; we have spent too much money and we are tired of being in debt. The study predicts that over the next decade the British economy will be driven by exports, with sales to China being of particular importance. If this is the case, how will it affect the jobs we do, and who will benefit the most? (more…)

We saw the new George Clooney film, Up In The Air, this weekend. It is a forgettable film but it intrigued me because it is apparently about an outplacement company in the United States. And it seemed to highlight glaring differences between the way outplacement is conducted in the United States and in the UK. Until I looked into it more closely. (more…)

My colleague Justin Culver and I spent time with some contacts from another company yesterday. We had never met before, it was an exploratory meeting. They offer employee benefits to companies, we provide outplacement services to a similar market and we were all interested in discussing ways that we could work together. (more…)

In the 1960s one of the great debates in the press and at the workplace was the ‘brain drain’. This was the exodus of British talent, particularly from the academic, scientific and technical sectors, usually to the United States. The fear was that country was being drained of its most skilled people which threatened its status as a major innovative, industrial power. The brain drain was real, and it was fuelled by high taxation and lack of opportunity in the UK. (more…)

We continue to see conflicting signals from economic data about the pace of recovery, or even if there is a recovery at all. It was announced yesterday that retail sales at Christmas had beaten expectations. A good sign, you might think. But it was also announced that the pace of house price rises has eased. Not such a good sign. And in the USA there has been a surprise rise in job losses. What are we to make of it all? And there is a wildcard in the pack. What impact will the recent weather have? (more…)