Managing coalitions: Do they ever work?
Stephen Walker discusses new political coalition and asks, do too many cooks always spoil the broth? You had to have been in an isolation tank (or not in Europe) to avoid hearing the outcome of the UK’s General Election. The media has ramped up discussions and tried to reinforce public interest in the latest speculation. […]
Sector Skills Council unveils ‘Train the Trainer’ initiative
A Sector Skills Council for the process and manufacturing sector has unveiled a ‘Train the Trainer’ initiative in Northern Ireland to accredit in-house training professionals. The project was developed by Proskills and funded by the Department for Employment and Learning in order to try and tackle a skills shortage that had resulted in local employers […]
British Gas opens green skills training centre in South Wales
British Gas has opened a green skills training centre in South Wales, with the aim of equipping 1,300 local long-term unemployed and its own engineers with the necessary expertise to handle the emerging technology. The centre, which was opened by Carwyn Jones, First Minister of the Welsh Assembly Government, is based in Tredegar in […]
Sainsbury’s train unemployed to fill skills gap
Sainsbury’s has struck a deal with 60 of its suppliers to train 100 unemployed people in trades that are currently suffering from underinvestment and skills shortages. The Sainsbury’s Supplier Trainee Partnerships scheme will provide successful applicants with a 12-month paid contract to work for one of the supermarket chain’s key suppliers in construction, engineering, facilities […]
Managing the magnificent middle
Are we failing our leaders when it comes to skills and talent management? Paul Daley argues that it’s time to embrace the mid-level management. The future of talent development is something that I have to consider in my job every day. And there are many opinions on how to get the best out of a […]
20 reasons to invest in sales training
Often we as sales trainers are asked to justify why a business should pay for our services. In this article I will provide 20 compelling reasons why sales training is not simply a cost that your company should carry but rather an investment that all ambitious companies and organisations should seriously consider to help them […]
Training budget crunches causing management skills gap
While the UK is suffering from wider skills gaps than ever, it is a particular problem among those in leadership, management and technical roles because investment in training is not being targeted correctly – or simply not being made available at all. A report, which was commissioned by the government and has just been published […]
The skills jigsaw puzzle
How can you identify skills and skill gaps in your organisation? George Blair shows us how with this handy ‘can do’ chart. When it comes filling competency gaps and recruiting the right people it’s all about planning ahead, rather than just by throwing money at the problem. This is achieved by focusing on implementation, as […]
Free resources: Piece negotiations
Another great free resource. This group energiser also focuses on boosting negotition skills. A big thank you to Andrew Wood of Trainer Bubble for supplying this. If you have any free resources you would like to share with the community, please let us know – drop us a line editor@trainingzone.co.uk Image credit: Miamiamia Another great […]
Skills crisis threatening the future of UK manufacturing
The manufacturing and process industry has called on the government to invest directly in retraining its workforce to cope with new technology in order to help pull the sector out of recession and ensure that it remains competitive in world markets. Proskills, the Sector Skills Council for the industry, has got together with the British […]
Training investment needs to rise if the economy is to recover
Dwindling levels of investment in training must rise this year if UK employers are to remain competitive on a global basis as the economy starts to emerge from recession, an expert has warned. According to the National Employer Skills Survey (NESS) for England undertaken among 79,152 organisations and commissioned by the UK Commission for Employment […]
Call for employers to shape qualifications
A new website is set to increase employer involvement in vocational reform. SkillsActive this week has called on the active leisure, learning and well-being sector employers to shape the future of vocational qualifications. The sector has urged employers to visit a new website recently launched, to raise awareness of a large overhaul of sector-based qualifications. […]
e-Skills UK launches IT call to arms
e-Skills UK has published a manifesto setting out the actions needed to ensure the country can compete in IT and technology alongside the rest of the world. The document, supported by representatives from across the sector, has made several recommendations needed to make the target, including the reform of IT-related education, an update to the […]
HMRC boosts IT training to avoid future security gaffes
Managers at Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) have launched an extensive retraining exercise for 85,000 employees, in a bid to avoid a future data security disaster. In 2007, the organisation lost the personal details of all UK families in with a child under 16, affecting some 25 million people across the country. Details of […]
Government launches National Apprenticeship Week
The government today launched National Apprenticeship Week, celebrating the commitment of employers to recruit apprentices and urging people to look at the benefits to their skills and career of becoming an apprentice. Major UK employers are expecting to hire thousands of apprentices in 2010 and the government is encouraging all businesses to take up […]
Government publishes ‘time for training’ guidance for employers and employees
Guidance to inform employers about the new right for employees to request time for training has been published. The guidance for employers is being made available through Business Link and is being published 12 weeks in advance of its introduction on 6 April. Available through the DirectGov website, the guide informs employees about how they […]
Study through work has more clout than college qualifications, reveals report
A new report published today has revealed that vocational qualifications, often viewed as the poor relation in the qualifications framework, frequently have far more value in the labour market than those gained at college. Research conducted by the University of Sheffield and published by the UK Commission for Employment and Skills has revealed that the […]
Karren Brady: Being the new ‘Margaret’
Karren Brady chats to Jon Wilcox about her new role as Lord Sugar's right-hand women on The Apprentice, the recession, and the importance of business skills for today's young people. As fans of BBC One's The Apprentice, we were thrilled when TrainingZone.co.uk’s Jon Wilcox recently caught up with Karren Brady, the former managing director at […]
Talking ’bout my generation
Cross-generational mentoring is a great way of banking those essential skills that could be lost over time, says Gaby Marcon. For decades we have known about the importance of mentoring in developing people. Yet few organisations have successfully leveraged it as part of their HR and training strategy in a way that aligns it […]
Government set for skills make-over as whitepaper is announced
The UK is set for a skills shake-up after Lord Mandelson announced a new government strategy that aims to simplify the national education and training system. Launched yesterday, ‘Skills for Growth – The National Skills Strategy’ whitepaper, produced by the Department for Business Innovation and Skills, heralded new beginnings for the heavily critisised and complicated […]
