Search Results for: graduates

Majority of employers want students to acquire leadership skills but few offer placements

by • News, Workplace

The majority of employers want students to have work experience to help acquire leadership skills, yet not even a third say they actually offer placements. This is according to new research published today by the Chartered Management Institute (CMI) which is calling on employers to collaborate with business schools and universities in creating courses to provide future leaders. The Chartered Management Institute’s 21st Century Leaders report found that seven in 10 (70 percent) of prospective employers now want management, enterprise and leadership modules made available to all higher education students to improve their work-ready skills. Two-thirds (66 percent) of employers say they want to see graduates achieve professional qualifications as well as their main degree. The growing emphasis on graduate employability has been driven by employers concerned about skills shortages, with 82 percent of employers reporting problems recruiting managers. A majority of managers (85 percent) said work experience should be embedded into courses to help develop these skills and make students more employable. Yet only 29 percent of businesses work with business schools to offer placements.

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Countries with greater gender equality have a smaller proportion of women taking STEM degrees

Countries with greater gender equality have a smaller proportion of women taking STEM degrees

by • News, Workplace

Countries with greater gender equality see a smaller proportion of women taking degrees in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), a new study by Leeds Beckett University and published in the Psychological Science Journal has found. The research found that countries such as Albania and Algeria have a greater percentage of women amongst their STEM graduates than countries lauded for their high levels of gender equality, such as Finland, Norway or Sweden. The researchers, from Leeds Beckett’s School of Social Sciences and the University of Missouri, believe this might be because countries with less gender equality often have little welfare support, making the choice of a relatively highly-paid STEM career more attractive.

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Skills gaps will increase this year and shortages will worsen following Brexit, predict employers

Skills gaps will increase this year and shortages will worsen following Brexit, predict employers

by • News, Workplace

Skills shortages to increase this year and get worse following Brexit, predict employersHalf of employers believe that Brexit will worsen the UK skills gap and nearly a quarter (23 percent) believe that Britain is not prepared to compete on the global stage, which will become even more important following the UK’s exit from the European Union in 2019. These are the findings of a research paper entitled “Solving the UK Skills Shortage” from Rober Walters, totaljobs and Jobsite which claims that almost two thirds of employers (65 percent) believe that they will be negatively impacted by skills shortages in 2018, with this shortage predicted to be most acute at junior and mid management level according to over half (52 percent) of employers. According to the research, employers may have to look to different industries to find the transferable skills that are essential to grow. This means that there will be more opportunities for skilled candidates to use their knowledge and experience in different sectors, providing them with new challenges and opportunities in industries that they may not have considered before.

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We need to stop talking about self-employment as a monocultural phenomenon

We need to stop talking about self-employment as a monocultural phenomenon

by • Comment, Flexible working

Self-employment has grown considerably in the UK over the past 15 years, now totalling around 4.8 million workers, or 15 per cent of the workforce. There is a debate about the extent to which this growth in self-employment is a positive development: some believe that it is a positive feature of an entrepreneurial and flexible economy, while others fear that it is increasing levels of precariousness. This is a difficult issue to address as there is great heterogeneity among the self-employed workforce. In order to shed light on this, IES undertook research for the Centre for Research on Self-Employment (CRSE) to divide the self-employed workforce into segments. The policy debate on self-employment has often been carried out on the assumption that there is some homogeneity among the self-employed workforce. However, this is far from the case, and it could be argued that diversity is increasing due to the growth of the so-called gig economy. In order to help clarify the debate, IES undertook research for the CRSE that aimed to achieve greater clarity in terms of the size and nature of the different segments of the self-employed workforce. The aim is that if the sector is better segmented, this will help policymakers to avoid taking a broad-brush approach to the treatment of self-employed workers.

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Soft skills are vital for organisational success, say business leaders

by • News, Workplace

A majority of business leaders see a positive impact on revenues following soft skills training investment as Apprenticeship Levy gathers pace, new research claims. Almost two-thirds (60 percent) of senior decision-makers said training employees in communication, leadership and sales skills leads to business growth. The findings suggest the new government-funded apprenticeship schemes introduced in April will improve companies’ bottom-lines, with 63 percent of respondents already seeing an increase in revenue from an investment in staff training. ‘Hard’ skills such as technical abilities were more of a focus under old apprenticeship schemes, but the data reveals business leaders want to invest in less quantifiable skills such as communication, leadership and customer service since the introduction of the Apprenticeship Levy.

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Just half of UK businesses have the right skills to combat a cyberattack

Just half of UK businesses have the right skills to combat a cyberattack

by • Legal news, News, Technology, Workplace

Only half (50 percent) of UK companies believe they have the right skills to address a cyberattack, despite some high profile cyberattacks this year against the NHS, Uber and Equifax. A lack of cybersecurity skills may be due to a wider skills gaps facing the UK tech industry, claims new research from IT jobs board, CW Jobs. Nearly a third of tech employees reported feeling they were insufficiently trained in coding, cybersecurity and cloud migration. The gaps in employees’ skills is translating to the businesses they work for with 23 percent saying their business is missing programming and cybersecurity skills. A little over half (51 percent) of IT workers said that cybersecurity was included in their training, and almost one in four (23 percent) say they are not confident in handling a cyber security attack. Despite the growing threat and lack of in-house expertise, only half (50 percent) of employers look for cybersecurity skills when recruiting new IT talent. However, despite awareness around the risk of cybersecurity and the lack of preparedness, only 22 percent of employers are currently training their existing staff in cybersecurity.

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Boosting skills is the key to improving sluggish growth and productivity

by • News, Workplace

The United Kingdom has record-high employment levels and very low jobless rates compared to most OECD countries. However, labour productivity growth remains weak and the job prospects of many adults are hurt by their poor literacy and numeracy skills. To boost growth, productivity and earnings, the UK should encourage lifelong learning among adults and promote better skills utilisation, according to a new OECD report. Getting Skills Right: United Kingdom says that educational attainment has been rising in the UK, with 42 percent of adults having a tertiary degree, compared with 34 percent across the OECD. Sixteen per cent graduate in the field of sciences, more than in any other OECD country, and nearly half of science graduates are women. The share of young adults enrolled in vocational education and training has risen to 43 percent but remains lower than in many other European countries. Apprenticeships are also less popular, pursued by around 24 percent of upper secondary students, compared to 59 percent in Switzerland or 41 percent in Germany.

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Time for Britain to face up to its post-Brexit skills shortage

by • Comment, Technology, Workplace

A new and dramatic wrinkle seems to be added to the process of Brexit talks every week. But rumbling underneath the political positioning are some fundamental problems for business. Perhaps the most startling challenge is the prospect of a cavernous skills gap. A lot of attention has been paid to the problems of low-skilled workers – the “left-behind” who voted for Brexit in the first place, and the migrants who are currently propping up the agricultural economy and doing the jobs that UK workers don’t want to do. But a more pressing issue is the fact that for too long a large proportion of our skilled labour has been coming from outside the UK. This is not only in the form of skilled individuals who are recruited to work for companies and public sector organisations in the UK, but also in the way Britain outsources the manufacture of complex parts to companies in the rest of Europe. (more…)

How our smartphones stop us from living in the moment

How our smartphones stop us from living in the moment

by • Comment, Technology, Wellbeing

As a teacher who has long witnessed and worried about the impacts of technology in the classroom, I constantly struggle to devise effective classroom policies for smartphones. I used to make students sing or dance if their phones interrupted class, and although this led to some memorable moments, it also turned inappropriate tech use into a joke. Given the myriad deleterious effects of phones – addiction, decline of face-to-face socialisation, deskilling, and endless distraction, for starters – I want students to think carefully about their phone habits, rather than to mindlessly follow (or not follow) a rule.

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New analysis reveals shrinking pool of younger workers in the UK workforce

New analysis reveals shrinking pool of younger workers in the UK workforce

by • Legal news, News, Workplace

New analysis reveals shrinking pool of younger workers in the UK workforceAn increase in the number of UK-born employees leaving the UK’s workforce, either through retirement or emigration is coinciding with a shrinking pool of younger workers, which a fall in immigration can no longer fill, a new report warns. An analysis of the UK’s workforce showed that the UK’s workforce grew in 2016-2017 only because of an increase in EU and non-EU workers. Mercer’s Workforce Monitor showed that retirement, opting out (i.e. due to caring responsibilities) or emigration saw around 143,000 UK-born employees leave the UK workforce with the loss of workers only being offset by the entry of around 147,000 EU-born workers and around 232,000 Non-EU workers.  In sum, the UK’s workforce grew by an estimated 234,000 over 2016-2017. From Q1 2016 to Q1 2017, the number of workers over 50 in the UK economy grew by 230,000, the under 35’s grew by 50,000 while the number of workers aged 35-49 shrunk by 48,000. According to the analysis, if net migration into the UK levels off at 100,000 per year from 2020, the number of under 50s in the workforce will fall by 200,000 by 2025; the over 50s would increase by over 1 million while the number of under-25s in the population would fall by 100,000. This means apprentices and graduates numbers will be less.

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Being on a temporary or zero-hours contract is bad for your wellbeing, especially if you’re young

Being on a temporary or zero-hours contract is bad for your wellbeing, especially if you’re young

by • Flexible working, News, Wellbeing

Two major new studies claim to show the impact of temporary or insecure work on the wellbeing of people, especially younger workers. Research into the lives of 7,700 people from the UCL Institute of Education (IOE) suggests that young adults who are employed on zero-hours contracts are less likely to be in good health, and are at higher risk of poor mental health than workers with stable jobs. Meanwhile, an analysis from the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) and Business in the Community suggests that younger workers (born since 1982) in part-time and temporary work – or who are underemployed and/or overqualified – are more likely to experience poorer mental health and wellbeing, compared to younger workers in more permanent and secure work.

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Manchester leads the UK as regional creative talent market place for tech and media

Manchester leads the UK as regional creative talent market place for tech and media 0

by • Facilities management, News, Property, Technology, Workplace

Manchester leads the UK regional creative talent market to house tech and media

Manchester tops the ranking as the leading UK regional creative talent market, having the key ingredients required by this sector to progress and develop as a future destination for the creative industries (including publishing, film, TV, media, digital, computer programming and information services). This is according to ‘Creative Regions’, a first of its kind report, showcasing the Top 25 Regional Creative locations in the UK [outside of London] published by CBRE. Common characteristics of successful creative locations, suggest the report, include large concentrations of creative businesses and professionals, deep talent pools of highly educated graduate populations, large and growing millennial populations, good transport connections, quality of life and proximity to world class universities with strong research and computer science ratings. The report’s also found that Reading punches well above its weight as a creative talent destination, given the size of its office market; Scotland features particularly well with Edinburgh and Glasgow in the top five list, and 11 of the top 25 creative talent locations are in the East and South East.

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