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Apprenticeship levy has failed to increase investment in workplace training

Apprenticeship levy has failed to increase investment in workplace training

The Government made an empty promise when it said the apprenticeship levy would boost the amount of money employers spend on workplace training, claims a new report from the CIPD. Addressing employer under-investment in training, the case for a broader training levy reveals that 31 percent of levy paying employers say the levy will lead them to increase the amount they spend on training. This is down from 45 percent in July 2017 when it was introduced. More →

Women in work report highlights importance of training and apprenticeships

Women in work report highlights importance of training and apprenticeships

Self-employed women, who earn an average of 16 per cent less than self-employed men, should be supported with greater training and development opportunities, a new report has said.  The government should also remove any barriers preventing young women embarking on apprenticeships, according to the report published by the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Women and Work.  The report, How to Recruit Women for the 21st Century, is the product of a year’s research by the APPG, which is jointly chaired by MPs Jess Phillips and Gillian Keegan.

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Employers need more help in navigating the Apprenticeship Levy

Employers need more help in navigating the Apprenticeship Levy 0

Apprentices levyAccording to the latest governmental statistics, apprenticeships reached a record high in 2014/15 with over 871,000 apprenticeship participants within the UK. The majority of these were in the service sector, and almost three quarters were concentrated in three sectors: Business, Administration and Law; Retail and Commerce Enterprise and Public Services and Care. Last year the government announced its plans to introduce a new UK-wide levy on large employers in a bid to fund apprenticeships and to create 3 million more apprentices by 2020. Due for implementation in April 2017, this levy promises to have a significant impact on the existing apprenticeship landscape. As the implementation of the apprenticeship levy draws nearer, it is rising to the top of companies’ HR and Finance agendas, as businesses attempt to work out how to reap a return on investment, with the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) calling for the Government to put off its introduction.

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The UK workplace sector reacts to the Spring Budget 2023

The UK workplace sector reacts to the Spring Budget 2023

The workplace sector in the UK has been reacting to the announcements in the Spring budgetToday the UK’s Chancellor of the Exchequer, Jeremy Hunt presented his Spring Budget to the House of Commons. In it he announced what her referred to as his ‘four pillars’ of industrial and productivity strategy, namely: ‘Enterprise’, ‘Employment’, ‘Education’, and ‘Everywhere’. Perhaps the headline element of this announcement was the creation of twelve new investment zones across the UK as well as incentives for older workers to return to the country’s patchy workforce. This includes£63m for programmes to encourage retirees over 50 back to work, “returnerships” and ‘skills boot camps’. Another headline for the workplace sector was the offer of improved childcare arrangements, especially for the parents of very young children, who will see 30 hours of free childcare expanded to include one and two-year-olds. More →

Over-50s urged to return to work to deal with staff shortages

Over-50s urged to return to work to deal with staff shortages

over-50sThe British Chambers of Commerce has said employers and the Government need to work together to bring older people back into the workforce. According to ONS data,  around 500,000 older people have left the workforce in recent years, many of them prompted to do so by the pandemic. The number of over-50s who aren’t working or currently looking for work rose by 493,000 between October 2019 and December 2021. According to the Office for National Statistics, one in five did so due to stress or other mental health concerns. More →

Competition for talent is fierce, but employers edge away from pay to attract people

Competition for talent is fierce, but employers edge away from pay to attract people

competition for talentNew CIPD research claims that almost half (45 percent) of UK employers report having vacancies that are hard-to-fill, and almost two thirds (65 percent) anticipate problems filling vacancies in the next six months. The most common response made in the past six months by employers with hard-to-fill vacancies has been to increase pay (44 percent). However, only a quarter (27 percent) of organisations plan to raise wages in response to the competition for talent in the future. This suggests that organisations may be approaching their limit on this ‘quick win’ strategy and are exploring alternative options, such as upskilling people and flexible working, to attract and retain people. More →

Wellbeing, skills and diversity data absent from majority of FTSE 100 firms’ annual reports

Wellbeing, skills and diversity data absent from majority of FTSE 100 firms’ annual reports

wellbeing, skills, diversityNew analysis of FTSE 100 annual reports finds that while workforce reporting has improved in the past two years, the quantity and quality of disclosures still varies significantly and remains very poor in places. The new report, How do companies report on their ‘most important asset?, from the CIPD, the PLSA and Railpen, analysed the quality of workforce disclosures in the 2021 annual reports of FTSE 100 companies against seven key themes: Workforce cost and composition; employee relations and wellbeing; reward; voice; skills, capabilities and recruitment; and response to COVID-19. More →

Skills crisis intensifies as demand for white collar jobs outstrips supply

Skills crisis intensifies as demand for white collar jobs outstrips supply

skills crisisDemand for people to fill permanent and contracted white-collar jobs while the UK continues to battle a skills crisis. That’s according to the latest Recruitment Trends Snapshot report from The Association of Professional Staffing Companies (APSCo). The data provided by Bullhorn, claims that demand for contractors was also up year-on-year, increasing 38 percent. Month-on-month figures also showed a spike in jobs, with permanent and contract vacancies increasing 104 percent and 78 percent between December and January, which can be attributed to a bounce back following a seasonal lull. More →

Record pay rises on the cards to address tough recruitment conditions

Record pay rises on the cards to address tough recruitment conditions

record pay risesEmployers anticipate offering record pay rises of 3 percent in 2022 as they look to combat increasing recruitment and retention difficulties. This is the headline finding from the CIPD’s latest quarterly Labour Market Outlook, which highlights the scale of the growing challenge facing organisations in finding and keeping staff, and how they are responding. This quarter’s pay award figure is the highest since the survey was conducted using its current methods in the winter 2012/13 report. The Labour Market Outlook surveyed more than 1,000 employers in January 2022 about their hiring, pay and redundancy intentions for the first quarter of the year. More →

Employers expect ‘hard-to-fill’ vacancies to increase in the next six months

Employers expect ‘hard-to-fill’ vacancies to increase in the next six months

vacanciesAlmost half (47 percent) of employers report having vacancies that are hard-to-fill, and more than one in four (27 percent) expect the number of vacancies that are difficult to fill to increase in the next six months. This is a key finding of the latest quarterly CIPD Labour Market Outlook (LMO) which surveyed more than 1,000 employers across all sectors of the economy. Employers were surveyed about their hiring, pay and redundancy intentions for the last quarter of 2021 in September, just as the furlough scheme was ending. More →

Risk of generational progress grinding to a halt unless young job seekers can level up too

Risk of generational progress grinding to a halt unless young job seekers can level up too

youngA new report highlights a combination of regional disparities in access to jobs for young people, a shrinking youth labour market and an unequal recovery. This could result in young people being ill-equipped to meet the future demands of the labour market, further compounding skills shortages currently faced by employers. More →

CMI calls on the Chancellor to invest in management and leadership or risk ‘levelling up’ failure

CMI calls on the Chancellor to invest in management and leadership or risk ‘levelling up’ failure

managementAhead of the Comprehensive Spending Review on 27th October, the Chartered Management Institute (CMI) is calling on the Government to commit to crucial investment in management and leadership as a central part of its ‘levelling up’ agenda. More →

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