Tag Archives: jobs

Government youth work scheme failing 90% of jobless youth targeted

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The Government’s work programme is an “abject failure” according to property maintenance boss Will Davis, MD of Aspect.co.uk.

“The fact that 90% of 160,000 18 to 24 year olds it pledged to put back into work are still out of work is a real cause for concern”.

The Government’s work programme offers business a subsidy of £2,275 for taking on a young person who has been out of work for at least six months.

Mr. Davies who pioneered ‘Boot camps’ in Britain to enable unemployed London youth to vie for a job said “bureaucrats are not getting young people working”.

“Jobs are what we need, not more hand-outs to subsidise companies to hire people to do jobs that are not a real requirement”.

“People will find money to employ people in areas that are a real requirement”.

Figures show that it has only paid wage incentives for 4,690 young people from its start in June 2012 to the end of May 2013 – significantly behind the target of 160,000 over three years.

Shadow work and pensions secretary, Liam Byrne, said: “The Youth Contract has utterly failed to get our young people back to work. This flagship scheme is on course to miss its target by more than 92 per cent”.

Davies adds: “The government needs to get out of the business of providing business with bribes to create artificial jobs”.

Two-thirds take less than an hour to apply for a job

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Two-thirds take less than an hour to apply for a job.

A new survey has shown that  two-thirds of people applying for jobs take less than an hour to fill in the application forms.

 

The survey of over 1,000 jobseekers undertaken by recruitment specialist staffbay.com showed that the days of taking a whole day filling in forms and writing covering letters to try and impress prospective employers could be at an end. Less than 10 per cent of respondents to the survey said they spend a day on a job application, with a mere 5 per cent saying they take more than a day.

 

According to staffbay.com co-founder Tony Wilmot, employers shouldn’t be alarmed at the figures, and should recognise that, these days, quality is better than quantity when it comes to jobseekers showing off their talents.

 

“I’m not surprised by these results at all,” he said. “These days, HR departments don’t have the time to plough their way through hundreds of pages of paper CVs. What they want is to be able to see if the person applying for the job is worth bringing in for an interview, and that’s why social media and video CVs have become so popular amongst jobseekers.

 

“It takes just ten minutes to build a profile on staffbay.com, and what we say to people looking to show off their abilities is: focus on what will truly set yourself apart from the competition, and don’t just concentrate on the quick and easy options or resort to box-ticking. Using the power of social media and video CVs, it should take less than an hour to make a prospective employer sit up and take notice, in which time you can leap to the front of the interview queue.”

 

The simple things work best, says Tony: “The message we hear from employers is that staff don’t have to be qualified to the hilt, just that they’ll invest some time and effort in their new job. However, not everyone has a strategy in place to identify good talent. Small businesses in particular don’t want to wade through hundreds of applications.”
According to Tony, now is the time to act if you are looking for a new career. He said: “There are definitely green shoots of growth in the employment market. At staffbay.com we have the ability to see behind the scenes, and we’re aware that employers are being very proactive at interacting with candidates and building a network and a rapport for when the economy truly recovers. Furthermore, the number of job applications via our website has doubled over the last six months.”

 

Super Secrets of the Successful Jobseeker by Simon Gray

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 Keeping ahead of the competition in 2013 From ‘Super Secrets of the Successful Jobseeker’  Author

Getting yourself to market

“Knowledge is power” might be a cliché these days, but the stark fact of the matter is that it’s never been more of a truism. When you know more about the environment you’re about to enter, then the better you can market yourself, and adapt.

I have interviewed a number of people recently who have been in secure jobs but have been thrown into the hustle and bustle of the jobs market because of redundancy. To be frank, some of their expectations have been unrealistic. They often think that the jobs market is exactly the same as when they last looked for a position –  but times have changed.

I often equate this to a prisoner who has been newly released from prison after serving a 10-stretch. Their surroundings are unfamiliar, and time, people and technology has moved on. It’s no wonder they’re confused.

In my experience, jobseekers react to this in two different ways: they bury their head in the sand and try and pretend nothing has changed; or they take a more enlightened approach and try to gain more understanding of the modern job market and how best to place themselves within in it.

It’s no secret that there are now more people applying for the same job than ever before. With this comes a downward pressure on salaries, and, as far as employers are concerned, it’s most definitely a “buyer’s market”.

Employers are under the impression that they don’t have to try too hard to find great candidates with the skills they need because there appears to be so many out there looking for jobs. They’re also in no rush to make snap decisions when it comes to appointments – nor will they hire unless completely necessary because of the cost risk that taking someone on incurs. In short: employers believe they sit in the seat of power.

Jobseekers, meanwhile, are going into the jobs market believing it’s going to be tough to land a role. They’re thinking to themselves: “I’m going to have to work really hard to find a job and I’m not guaranteed to find one – is there any point?” They also believe they should be grateful for any job that’s offered to them at whatever salary. But the main thing they believe is that they have absolutely no power in the jobs market at all.

I think this is misguided. Why? Because you simply can’t control what is out of your reach. The mindset of employers is beyond a jobseekers capability to alter, and so trying to do so will only waste time and lead to a dead end. The jobseeker would be better spending their time and effort trying to understand what their future potential employer is thinking, and how you can tailor your skills and experience to meet their requirements. In doing this, you’ll be instantly rebalancing the relationship.

The first thing any jobseeker should do is remember who their competition is. Make sure you differentiate yourself from other jobseekers; instantly falling in-line with what the competition is doing will put you at a distinct advantage. Arm yourself with the weapons you need to make you stand out from the crowd.

This can seem like a daunting task, but it needn’t be. Research is vital, and this can be done at a local level rather than trying to ascertain what’s happening nationally.

The local press is a good place to start. Find out what’s happening in the regional economy, and basic steps such as measuring the thickness of the local jobs paper is a good place to start if you want to take stock of hiring activity in the market.

Recent figures show that as many as 20 per cent of people online at any time are looking for a job. Use this time to take a look at jobs boards and search for skills that employers are looking for.

Talk to the professionals – set up meetings with local recruitment businesses. Ask their advice on what’s happening, skills sought after and salary levels.

Do your homework on your local business scene; who are the larger businesses and who are the up and coming SMEs (small and medium sized enterprises)?

By undertaking these simple steps, you the jobseeker, will have a more realistic handle on the jobs market and a better of the times on the times your are living in.

With a clear picture of how things are, you are far better informed and more empowered to plan your attack and find your next position.

The Unpaid Acting Work Dilemma by Professionally Resting.

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Casting call: ““Unfortunately we’re not able to offer a fee on this occasion.”

Sadly this type of casting call is one that I’m all too used to seeing. At least 75% of castings will
contain the above sentence or a wonderfully inventive version of it (such as the incredible ‘This is
a no-pay experience!’) It’s unfortunately become a fact of acting life and I’ve become as skilled as
sifting through castings as I have at rifling through sandwiches for rogue tomatoes. Directors will try
and soften the blow by telling you that you’ll get a credit to put on your CV (gee, thanks) and that
they’ll be providing you with food on set. On-set catering can be a thing of beauty (pizza) but it can
also be an utter horror made of stale sandwiches. Apparently actors can live on credits and bread
alone. If only landlords, phone companies and councils could be fobbed off in the same way.

Unpaid work has become a rather aggressive disease in the acting world. What was once the domain
of film students and wannabe filmmakers; it has now entered the world of television. And this is
a worrying development. I understand that however much they’d like to, students and smaller
production companies can’t always afford to pay people. The ethics bother me because I believe
that if you can’t afford to pay everyone then you probably shouldn’t be making the piece in the first
place but that’s an argument for another day. Unpaid work happens and sadly, just like the damp in
our flat, I have to deal with it for now and watch it ever so slowly ruin me. I should also admit that
I’ve taken on my fair share of unpaid work in the past. Unfortunately there are times when you have
very little choice and so you can either do nothing or take on some unpaid work in the hope that
it might just get you spotted. It won’t, but you never know when that top agent is going to turn up
at a secondary school in Northampton to watch you prance about telling kids about the dangers of
heroin. But now the bigger companies have jumped on the bandwagon and suddenly everything is
starting to topple over.

There have been a string of very high-profile companies that have recently started advertising
unpaid or expenses only work. And when I say ‘high-profile’ I mean the type of companies
that produce widely watched primetime programmes that air on terrestrial channels. These
are companies that clearly have plenty of money, or at least enough cash to make sure that all
performers are fairly paid. When they start offering unpaid work, what kind of message does that
send out to all the other companies? Apparently it’s now perfectly acceptable for these businesses
(one of whom made a profit of £471m last year) to get performers to work for free. But these
companies forget that actors often have a lot of time on their hands so it doesn’t take too long
before they’re ousted via the beauties of social networking. But what happens when they get found
with their devious trousers around their tight-fisted ankles? Well, what has happened recently
is that they make like George Osborne and u-turn. However, they don’t then promise to do the
honourable thing and actually pay actors. Oh no. Their reaction is to say that they will instead be
casting friends, family or employees. That’s what this profession has been downgraded to. Actors
are now regarded so poorly that we can be instantly replaced with the make-up artist’s cousin and
the focus puller’s university mates the second we start to complain. We find ourselves so low on the
career ladder that we’ve now been downgraded to the lackey that just holds the ladder and watches
everyone else climb up it.

So what this means is that actors will yet again be forced into unpaid work as they desperately try
to keep hold of a career that’s more slippery than a greased-up seal. We continually find ourselves
being held to ransom where we can either ‘shut up and put up’ or keep fighting and risk the chance
of never working again. Just like the next actor, I’d love the exposure that a primetime programme
would offer but never at my own expense and certainly not just so an exec can save a few precious
pennies and ensure that their bonus is intact for another year. Why should they get to go on exotic
holidays when I’m left wondering how to survive for the next week on a tin of chopped tomatoes
and a rapidly ageing nectarine? It’s at its lowest, meanest level and until all actors make a stand against these companies, all we’re doing is encouraging them to turn our already fragile
industry into a laughing stock.

Medical Training: A Brilliant Career.

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Doctors may be striking all over the country but medicine is still a brilliant, fulfilling and secure profession to go into. You will go to work everyday knowing you are making a difference. Training may be expensive but it is the one profession were you will almost certainly find a job at the end of it. The NHS may be making cutbacks but there are still jobs to be found. From teaching medicine to working in management. People will always need doctors.

Even when you become a doctor your training should not stop. There are a lot of training courses on offer, from the consultant interview course to a medical teaching course the (medical) world is your oyster.

Just have a look at a medical training company and see how you can broaden your horizons. You may also want or need to move into another field. If you would rather move into management then you can do a medical management course or if you want to teach do the teach the teacher course. Knowledge is power and if you want to work in other medical areas all you really need is a training course, hard work and perseverance. Though, if you are already a doctor you will already know that. Let us know how you get on.

Women Become The Breadwinners.

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In this wintry economical climate some things have changed. More women than men lost their jobs, but it also changed people’s attitudes. Women have become entrepreneurial.

Avon, the company for women has proven some of the top female Sales Leaders are not only comfortable with running their own businesses, but also with having their husbands help look after the children and even work for them.

Some of these entrepreneurial women have become the main breadwinners in their families. What’s more, they have been able to take their success to the next level, even employing members of their own family to work within their team – including their husbands. Working closely together, and sharing their private lives and careers, these unconventional ‘power couple’ partnerships appear to be a prosperous success, with men that agree to the arrangement perfectly comfortable working for their wife.

Avon Sales Leader Rebekah Testar, who is responsible for training and recruiting her own team of Representatives comments:

“I love having the opportunity to work with my husband, Tony, taking time off together when we want to, and supporting each other on a daily basis. It’s not for everyone, but like other Avon couples I know we make these unconventional partnerships work by carefully delineating the respective roles and playing to each other’s strengths.”

“From my personal experience the most successful, full-time working relationships will find ways to work together at home by creating a separate balance of power in their business relationship, resting on how much each person wants to put in.”

Avon Sales Leader, Tony Testar says:

“I don’t feel intimidated that I technically work for my wife, I’m proud to be a part of such an enterprise that we can run together. When she started working for Avon, the money opportunities, and flexible hours allowing us to holiday and spend time with the kids was certainly appealing. When Rebekah first recruited me I did have a few male friends that took the micky, now some are thinking about setting up their own Avon business.”

Grace Dawodu, 41 from Essex is an NHS community nurse but decided to become an Avon lady due to our current economic climate as a lot of people in the health sector are at risk of losing their job. Grace viewed her Avon role as more job security for her.

Grace is a Sales Leader in training. She lives with her husband who works in admin. With her job as a nurse and an Avon lady, she is now the main breadwinner. Grace used to buy from her local Avon lady but was inclined to become one with the cuts the NHS were making. Grace enjoys working for Avon for several reasons; as a community nurse , she sees her Avon role as an extension of helping others. Secondly, Grace also trained as a therapist at a domestic violence so has a personal connection with Avon’s causes.

Nadine Rowlands and Wayne Rowlands, Manchester

Nadine started her Avon business five years ago, and two years ago, she recruited her husband Wayne as part of her team. They initially started the business because they had just moved house and had a big mortgage to pay, but as time went by, it became more and more of a passion for the couple and nowadays they very much run their business as an Avon partnership. At the last count, they had 1,200 Representatives and Sales Leaders in their team, and an annual turnover of £2.5 million! This year they are on track to earn an impressive £95k.

Is President Obama Right About Engineers?

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Is President Obama Right About Engineers?: Significant Numbers Unemployed or Underemployed

WASHINGTON,  During a recent video chat session, President Obama told a woman that he could not understand why her engineer husband was unemployed because “industry tells me that they don’t have enough highly skilled engineers.” However, in an analysis by the Center for Immigration Studies of the data from the American Community Survey collected by the Census Bureau show that there are a total of 1.8 million U.S.-born individuals with engineering degrees who are either unemployed, out of the labor market, or not working as engineers. This is true for those with many different types of engineering degrees.

For a complete review of the American Community Survey, including a table containing detailed employment figures for specific engineering degrees, visit the Center for Immigration Studies website at: http://cis.org/obama-and-engineers

The 2010 American Community Survey shows:

  • There are 101,000 U.S.-born individuals with engineering degrees who are unemployed.
  • There are an additional 244,000 U.S.-born individuals under age 65 who have a degree in engineering but who are not in the labor market. This means they are not working nor are they looking for work, and are therefore not counted as unemployed.
  • In addition to those unemployed and out of the labor force, there are an additional 1.47 million U.S.-born individuals who report they have an engineering degree and have a job, but do not work as engineers.
  • President Obama specifically used the words “highly skilled.” In 2010, there were 25,000 unemployed U.S.-born individuals with engineering degrees who have a Master’s or Ph.D. and another 68,000 with advanced degrees not in the labor force. There were also 489,000 U.S.-born individuals with graduate degrees who were working, but not as engineers.
  • Relatively low pay and perhaps a strong bias on the part of some employers to hire foreign workers seems to have pushed many American engineers out their profession.
  • There are many different types of engineering degrees. But unemployment, non-work, or working outside of your field is common for Americans with many different types of engineering degrees.
  • The key policy question for the United States is how many foreign engineers should be admitted in the future. Contrary to President Obama’s statement, the latest data from the Census Bureau indicate there is a very large supply of American-born engineers in the country. It would be better for the president to seek more diverse sources of information than simply relying on “industry” to determine what is going on in the U.S. labor market.

Data Source: Figures for the above analysis come from a Center for Immigration Studies analysis of the public-use file of the 2010 American Community Survey (ACS) collected by the U.S. Census Bureau. Figures on degrees and employment are based on self-reporting in the survey and have been rounded to their nearest thousand. The survey asks about undergraduate degrees, so some of the individuals who have a Master’s or Ph.D. may not have their graduate degree in engineering. Also, those who indicated that they have a “professional degree” are not included in the discussion of those with Masters’ and Ph.D.s because a large share have law degrees. The 2010 data is the most recent ACS available.

The Center for Immigration Studies is an independent research institute that examines the impact of immigration on the United States.

 

SOURCE Center for Immigration Studies

I am NOT Jeremy Clarkson

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I’m not Jeremy Clarkson. Let me make that absolutely clear. In fact I care not one bit for pretty much everything he says and does and his attitude, which can be summed up as, “Shut the fuck up, hippie, I’m talking,” makes me wish I was a short, black lesbian working-class aristocratic motorphobe, just to be as unlike him as possible.
I have gone to great pains to make the above distinction because I’m about to write some things that might, on the surface, look like they were written by the planet-murdering controversy whore himself- or Jeremy Kyle. And, just to keep an unexpected ‘Jeremy’ theme running a little longer, I suspect I shall become as popular as Beadle in his wilderness years and look as big a dick as Ron’s by the end of this blog, but I just have to do it.
I don’t have a job. Up until now it has been by choice because I’ve been trying to make it as a writer, but my dear wife will no longer be able to pay the bills in a few weeks when her contract ends so it falls to me to take the reins and get off my frigging backside. I am job hunting.
I’ve only signed on once in my life. It was in my late teens when I left film school and was trying to find funding. Apart from that, I’ve always worked when I had to find money and even though I don’t want to wear my pride like superman’s cape, I’m proud that I have a work ethic that stops me from signing on now.
I’m working class. Not because my family have always been skint or because I’m from the grim north, but because I am from a class of people who believe in work. In paying their way. In doing the right thing so that those who, through no fault of their own, can’t, get whatever help they need until they can.
It’s not just that though. I genuinely believe that benefits are essential for people unable to provide for themselves and their families and that’s not me. It’s single parents, people caught out by redundancy or disability, or anyone who just can’t get work in spite of their best efforts and has bills to pay and a life to live. These are the people who should be looked after by those of us able to work- that’s the principle behind the welfare system and I think it’s a marvelous thing.
That’s why I get so upset when people abuse it.
When I see some twat on Jeremy Kyle (him again) with a face tattoo that will almost certainly stop him getting his first ever job outside a cave or the London Dungeon, it riles me. When I then work out that, if he’s never had a job, the several hundred pounds that his ‘personal statement’ cost has come from tax payers money I start to froth at the mouth.
“WE!” shouts the man who hasn’t had any paid work for over a year, “have been handing you money to help you get by until you find a job and start chipping in to help others, and you spend it on something that guarantees you never will!”
That’s theft. Isn’t it? Surely if someone takes money that is given in good faith and pisses it up the wall on tattoos, facial piercings or anything else that makes him, or her, unemployable in real terms, it’s theft. the only other explanation is that he paid for it from some other source of income- which he shouldn’t be earning if he’s claiming benefits.
And before anyone says it. Fuck his freedom of expression, fuck his personal liberties, and fuck his right to do whatever he likes to his own body. If he was funding himself he could have more ink than Squidopollis and pierce himself with a Renault Clio for all I care but he’s not. He’s essentially asking for money from society to fund his life until he funds it himself, and now he’s got a head like a Stilton bowling ball, he never will.
I’ve spent the last two weeks sending my CV off to every minimum wage job I can find from shelf stacking to laboring on building sites and, eventually, I’m sure I’ll get something. When I go to the interviews and sit before a prospective employer, I’m going to try and look as employable as I can. It’s boring, in fact it’s demoralizing having to put your best suit on and get your hair cut in the hope that someone will pay you next to nothing to shovel shit but it’s the least I can do. It’s the least EVERY job seeker should be doing.
Imagine you met an out of work juggler and gave him a few grand to keep him going till he got a job, then, next time you met him, he’d spent it having his arms chopped off for a laugh, you’d close your wallet before he could say, “hold this mate, I need to pee.”
At what point do we stop benefits? When does someone finally get sat down by a lady in a cardigan to be told, “You know breathing isn’t a job don’t you?” I want to see the government ad campaign where a cleaner, a mechanic and a lollipop lady stare down the camera lens and say, “If we all lived like you, you’d be dead. Start making an effort dick head!” It doesn’t have to rhyme but it’s nice of a party slogan does- makes it easier to remember.
While I’m in the stocks, how hard is it NOT to have kids? I’ve been doing it for all my adult life with no training or special skills. My wife and I want to be parents but it’s expensive so we’re waiting for a time when we have some sustainable income. Why aren’t people who can’t afford their own lives being bollocked when they start making new ones?
Again, before anyone says it. Fuck their human right to have kids- there’s no such thing. Nobody has the right to have kids, you either can or you can’t and if you can’t, whether it be for physical or financial reasons, you just don’t. It doesn’t get much simpler.
Here’s a radical idea that’s going to make Clarkson look like Shami Chakrabarti and me look like the love child of King Herod and Karl Pilkington.
What if every male child born in this country, along with various inoculations and blood tests, had, at birth, small plastic plugs injected into his Vasa Deferentia (sperm pipes to you and me) so that every male is incapable of reproduction until they’re ready to be a parent? No? There must be a safe and cheap way to do something of this nature though- surely? Anyone?
If you’re going to throw fruit please make sure it’s fair trade.. and out of it’s tin.
Call me Hitler if you want but if people are physically incapable of stopping themselves reproducing then it needs to be taken out of their hands and trousers until such a time that they’re responsible enough to take on the weight of parenthood.
You need a license for a dog and if you want to adopt you have to pass more tests, checks and selection panels than an astronaut and yet bored skint merchants can happily populate their surroundings with gay abandon and the sure knowledge that it won’t cost them a bean and nobody so much as raises an inquiring cough.
My scheme, which I admit needs a little smoothing out in the technical details, would leave everyone free to shag to their hearts content. It would be like the sexual revolution in the twitter age- the sixties with hash tags, and we’d then only have STDs, AIDS and moral decimation to worry about.
Once someone can demonstrate their ability to support a child, their plugs are removed on the NHS- naturally, because it would be loaded by then and every hospital would be made of gold and every nurse would be on the kind of wage they deserve. I’m sure the procedure could be done in an afternoon.
Selective social engineering? ‘Big Brother’ control? Favoring the fortunate? Maybe, but right now, as I stand on the brink of doing shit work for very little money and then still having to give some of it to twats with face tattoos, I really don’t care.
All those with a greater understanding of social decay, economic forces and the causes of deprivation please form an orderly queue, or educate me via the comments section. Cheers.