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Jon Kennard

Freelance

Freelance writer

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Back in the game…

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I'm back from holiday. I had a nice week off, and was very fortunate with the weather, as I believe Sift Media HQ and the surrounding Bristol area were too, so that's nice for everyone.

Coming back to 1100 emails was a bit much for my brain to cope with, but I struggled on and dealt with everything fairly easily and swiftly. Most of them were suggestions for types of footwear made of the contents of the average spice rack though, so, like a bourgeois vegetarian dinner lady it was pretty easy to get rid of large swathes of spam.

Completely by accident I missed the budget again. When I was in a different role at Sift Media a couple of years ago I missed the budget that time too, as I was in America. I honestly don't do it on purpose. It's always a busy day for us here at Sift, as all our communities will be affected in some way (as I guess everyone is), from training managers and teachers to accountants and public sector workers. The budget this year raised questions and eyebrows as George Osborne brought in various measures to kick-start the economy. Or not, depending on your viewpoint. Some apprenticeship schemes have been cut and some have been restructured; more technical colleges have been promised, but tuition fees have been raised. One thing I believe is that it's a nailed-on certainty that more training will move online, but I think that would have happened, austerity measures or no austerity measures. So, expect much of the cultural currency of the workplace to revolve around informal learning in the next 12-24 months.

April is TZ Live month, which was slightly more topical before we moved the date into May, but that just gives us more time to publish articles from the speakers and tell everyone how great it's going to be. It's a different proposition to your average training event and we're proud of the format we've come up with for this very reason. Here's some more information as to why.

And finally, are you going to HRD? If so I'll see you there. Come and say hello at stand 563.

Author Profile Picture
Jon Kennard

Freelance writer

Read more from Jon Kennard