University education can’t deliver the skills we need for the economy of the future EUAN BLAIR TOO many jobs, wage inflation, and an abundance of flexible working opportunities. Compared to the threat of mass unemployment when the pandemic began two years ago, these feel like better problems to have. But labour market figures released last month revealed one serious problem: an exodus of older workers. Since March 2020, the number of [...]
UK government should upskill managers to level up the country, CMI says Management The UK government should invest in efforts to upskill Britain’s managers in its bid to tackle regional inequality, according to the Chartered Management Institute (CMI). The trade body for managers said the government should fund schemes to improve Britain’s leadership skills, in order to increase productivity and level up the country. CMI chief executive Ann [...]
Starting salaries see biggest jump on record amid staff shortages UK employers are being hit hard by labour shortages giving new starters the upper hand when it comes to negotiating pay. A September survey by the Recruitment and Employment Commission (REC) found that nine in ten employers, some 88 per cent, said their biggest concern for the rest of the year was labour shortages. Amid [...]
Visas for shortage woes are a sticking plaster sowing division between industries October 8, 2021 As thousands of temporary visas to plug shortages across the UK are released in the run up to and beyond Christmas, the uncertainty from affected industries has not abated: Are there enough visas? Do they help sectors in need? And will they address region-specific challenges? In the backdrop, there are yet more shortages. The latest [...]
Global Britain: UK-based HGV driver ads snubbed by EU-applicants October 4, 2021 While the government’s temporary visas for overseas HGV drivers may loosen the choking impacts of the shortage on UK supply chains, there are few truckers coming in from the EU, according to new research. The HGV driver shortage, which triggered both a fuel crisis and pushed a third of mid-size firms to shrink their offering, [...]
UK worker shortage: Home Office to announce five-year work visas for ‘skilled’ refugees July 18, 2021 Priti Patel is set to announce a new five-year visa for refugees fleeing war, reserved for those who can show proof they have the skills to fill jobs in the UK that are suffering a shortage of workers. The home secretary will next week reveal a new displaced talent mobility scheme, offering refuge to highly [...]
Can learning improv improve your presentation skills? August 25, 2020 Public speaking frequently appears at the top of lists of people’s worst fears, making it even scarier than death. So how can we address this common phobia? Improv could be the answer. After all, improv comedians have learned several techniques to help them own any room and overcome even the most hostile of audiences. Here [...]
The UK has £10bn skills gap, so investors must back the ‘edtech’ boom August 17, 2020 The “edtech” revolution began long before 2020. The last two decades have seen a surge in demand for skills such as coding and data science, which traditional educational institutions have, as yet, been unable to meet. A recent study by Qlik and Accenture estimates this skills gap, evidenced by the difficulty to fill positions or [...]
Death of a sales tradition: Tomorrow’s sellers can’t rely on the gift of the gab September 25, 2019 Over the course of the last decade, the art of selling has undergone a radical transformation. A key factor in this has been a shift in the buyer-seller dynamic. Buyers are changing substantially faster than sellers, with younger generations increasingly self-educating – a CSO Insights study found that 70 per cent of them now fully [...]
Public speaking – why are we so scared of talking to a crowd? July 18, 2019 Public speaking. It is the stuff of nightmares. Standing in front of your peers, colleagues and managers, words that you’ve prepped for weeks rendered to a mere whisper. It’s incredible the number of senior professionals, business owners, chief executives and managers – highly intelligent, articulate, funny and above all inspiring people – who hate the [...]