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Future generations will see it as a lost opportunity, unfortunately policy makers today don’t even know what the opportunity was. I am talking about the minimal help given in the budget to job seekers. Not because it was minimal- we all want the budget to concentrate on our personal pet issues, and we are invariably disappointed. But because there is so little awareness, across the political spectrum, of what is really wrong in the labour market and how to rectify it. (more…)

Next month the government will introduce a new list of occupations which are understaffed. This list, known as a shortage occupation list, is based on information supplied by the Border Agency. Employers will be able to offer jobs which appear on this list to migrants, confident in the knowledge that they will be able to obtain a working visa. (more…)

In a bid to stop youth unemployment rising above one million the government is to spend money tackling the problem. The details of how this is to be done are as yet unclear but if past evidence is anything to go on, training programmes and subsidies for employers will constitute the two main planks. (more…)

New research has shown that half of all employers are imposing a pay freeze on staff whilst only 4% are giving pay rises above the rate of inflation. Whilst inflation remains low the impact of pay freezes is lessened, nevertheless it will benefit those companies who rely on the understanding of their staff to help them through the recession, to make sure that co-operation works both ways. (more…)

The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development have reported that the number of firms planning to make people redundant has fallen and that the situation in the jobs market, although still severe, is better than it was a year ago. This doesn’t mean that we have turned a corner, but things do seem to be looking up. (more…)

I recently heard the chief executive of a large company speaking about his experiences when recruiting new graduates. He said that the difference between this group and previous cohorts is that these days they all want to know what the company is going to do for their own personal development. They are not so much selling themselves as making sure that they are going somewhere which is good for them. He thought this was good, and so do I. (more…)

The past ten years or so have seen a remarkable growth in coaching as a technique to help us to do more, better. There are various forms of coaching- the most effective being workplace related, particularly career coaching, executive coaching and performance coaching. There are also others, like life coaches, financial coaches and relationship coaches. An analogy is often drawn between workplace of coaching and coaching on the sports field, but there is one major difference. (more…)

One of the biggest obstacles that career changers face is accepting just how wide a range of options they have. At Career Energy we meet people on a daily basis who want to know what careers are open to them, as an ex-engineer, ex-designer, ex- lawyer or whatever. It can be difficult to accept that the career you are hoping to leave no longer defines you, that employers will exclude you because of career choices you made at an earlier stage in your life. (more…)

In a bid to reduce the demand on public funds the CBI are proposing that students personally contribute much more to the costs of their education. Students are arguing that this would result in far fewer people entering higher education. Both sides have a case. However the real issue is not the cost of higher education, but its purpose. (more…)

This weekend we saw the first indications of how public spending cuts will impact on the working landscape. The Schools Minister suggested that education departments will save money by reducing top tier management; schools and colleges are likely to share heads and deputy heads. (more…)