Sexism in writing is still commonplace
Putting male names in front of female names may be normal practice, but it is also according to Dr Peter Hegarty and colleagues of the University of Surrey a remnant of sexist thinking. The practice of putting male names before women seems to have started in the 16th Century when men...
McVitie's man is Union Learning Representative of the Year
Jonathan Waterhouse a member of the USDAW trade union has been awarded Union Learning Rep (ULR) of the Year today at a ceremony at TUC Congress in London, for his success in introducing hundreds of his colleagues at McVitie's, Manchester, to learning. A negative experience of school...
Has the internet become an external hard drive for the brain?
The Internet is a kind of collective memory,’ wrote Stephen Kosslyn (Harvard University). "When I write with a browser open in the background, it feels like the browser is an extension of myself." The British Psychological Society has reported the work conducted by a research team...
WorldSkills 2011 hunts for professionals to supervise competition
Over 100,000 people have already booked to attend WorldSkills London 2011 and the organisers are looking for professionals from across a range of industries who would like to volunteer as supervisors of the competition. WorldSkills is where the best young talents come together to test...
Green economy threatened by skills gap
Britain can not meet its renewable energy generation goals according to Steve Bratt Group CEO of the Electrical Contractors’ Association (ECA) who has warned that the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) Microgeneration Plan doesn’t go far enough in addressing the skills gap...
Apprenticeships given a boost by EEF
The Engineering Employers Federation (EEF), the manufacturers’ organisation, has teamed up with the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills and Apprentice Ambassadors Network to boost the number of employers who provide apprenticeships. The government has...
Managers are over confident and under skilled
Research from the Chartered Management Institute (CMI) managers believe that they are better managers than their performance suggests and that this is causing stress for their workers who leave work each day feeling unfulfilled. The survey of 2,000 workers across the United Kingdom...
UK Commission for Employment and Skills strengthened by new appointments
Business Secretary Vince Cable and Work and Pensions Secretary, Iain Duncan Smith have appointed nine new Commissioners to the UK Commission for Employment and Skills. The UK Commission works with government to raise skill levels, helping drive enterprise, create more and better jobs and...
Skills investment projects get the go-ahead
Projects totalling with a value of over £5 million have been given the green light, thanks to a new Employer Investment Fund (EIF), run by the UK Commission for Employment and Skills. Launched on 8 March, the fund aims to raise employer investment in skills across the UK by...
CIPD attempts to identify what employees actually engage with
Employee engagement is an important driver of sustainable organisation performance, but a new report from the Chartered Institite of Personnel and Development (CIPD) has attempted to identify what it is that employees actually engage with? Where the focus of their engagement is? Essentially...
17 days before the National Training Awards close for entries
17 days to go until National Training Awards close for entry! Yes the closing date for entries to the National Training Awards has been extended by a week and will now close at 5pm on 27th May. The decision to extend the deadline was taken following the impact that the recent public...
Employers need to hire more apprentices says CIPD research
New research from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development has shown the challenges of gaining apprenticeship training and hightlighted the need for the Government to work with employers to demonstrate the business case for employing apprentices. Nearly half of...
Learning and development funding still taking a hit
A survey from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development shows that learning and development funding is taking a hit as cuts to public sector funding take effect. Over two-fifths of organisations have decreased funding (43%) for learning and development this year, with...
Budget puts skills development at the centre of economic growth
George Osbourne MP Chancellor of the Exchequer described British workers in his Budget yesterday as being less skilled that their counterparts in many other industrialised nations. But at the same time he also described skills development as a key ingredient in...
NTA and IIP partner for awards
National Training Awards and Investors in People have formed a partnership that will restrict entries to the Awards to companies that have been accredited to the IIP standard. The partnership is a natural development as both organisations are involved in encouraging organisations of all...
Growth and Innovation Fund will boost investment in training
Secretary of State for Business, Vince Cable, and Minister for Skills, John Hayes, today launched a £50 million a year fund to help businesses develop the skills they need to drive growth. The Growth and Innovation Fund (GIF) will deliver targeted help for employer groups...
Work Place Learning Centre exhibits at IOSH 11
Abeceder managing director Michael Millward has confirmed that WorkPlaceLearningCentre.co.uk the learning resources shop of Abeceder will be exhibiting at the IOSH 11 Conference and Exhibition on 15th and 16th March 2011, on stand F116. The conference and exhibition are being held at ExCel...
IoD calls for end of right to request time for training
The Institute of Directors (IoD) has proposed two dozen policy changes over ten areas of Government policy which it claims could transform growth prospects at little or no cost to the taxpayer over the period of the Spending Review. What it describes as ‘freebies’ are a mix of...
Eating more fruit would save lives
The messages about eating five portions of fresh fruit and vegetables a day may be widely known if not completely understood, but new research published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health has found that in the UK, some 33,000 deaths each year could be prevented or delayed...
HRD conference speakers announced
Dealing with change, adding value and demonstrating a return on investment are the focus of the programme for the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development’s (CIPD) annual HRD conference and exhibition which is being held at Olympia from 6-7 April 2011. The conference is...
Prepare Employees for Winter Sports Activities
With the winter sports season upon us it is worth remembering that an ill prepared winter sports enthusiast is more likely to suffer injury on the slopes and be prevented from returning to work at the end of their holiday. It could be to an employers advantage to remind their employees...
WPLC Leaders presentation is a must for any entrepreneur
This evening Michael Millward the head of the Work Place Learning Centre leadership team addressed a Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development meeting of Self Employed HR and training professionals and explained a strategy for how they could earn whilst they slept. Mr...
Trainers have role to play in rebuilding British work force
Up-skilling workers to undertake jobs in areas where talent shortages are still being experienced must be made a top priority if the UK economy is going to pull clear of another economic dip, says the Recruitment and Employment Confederation. The latest Report on Jobs, published by the...
Work Place Learning Centre gets into motor sport
Well a 23 year old Audi 100 isn’t exactly a formula one car and Andrew Murphy and Peter Bennett are far from Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton, but it’s still motor sport, says Abeceder managing director Michael Millward and “everyone at Abeceder and Work Place Learning...
Music can create a positive atmosphere in the workplace
Being a manager is a job full of challenges but according to Ellis Rich, chairman of PRS for Music having the right music helps to create a positive environment and could make managing both employees and customers that little bit easier. Speaking after the publication of new figures from...
Managers fear redundancies and talent shortages in 2011.
New research from the Chartered Management Institute (CMI) paints a bleak picture of the ability of British business to cope with the demands of the 2011 economic landscape. Almost half of UK managers (48%) are expecting further redundancies in 2011, and 43% do not believe their...
Training cuts threaten future of UK plc
Research from the Chartered Management Institute (CMI), shows that 43 per cent of UK managers anticipate that their training budgets will be drastically cut during 2011, a move that is expected to create skills shortages that will damage businesses across the country. Ruth Spellman,...
CIPD Announces HRD Conference Programme
The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) has announced the programme for its annual HRD event, the leading conference and exhibition for learning and organisation development professionals which will be held at Olympia, London from 6-7 April 2011. The...
Work Place Learning Centre pops-Up at Employment Law Conference
The Work Place Learning Centre web shop popped-up at the North Yorkshire Forum for Voluntary Organisations employment law conference today. The Work Place Learning Centre pop-up shop makes learning resources that are related to a conference, exhibition or other business event available to...
Hard Business Case for Soft Skills Training
A new research report from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) demonstrates the business case for putting soft skills at the heart of an organisation's learning and talent development agenda. Using the head and heart at work: a business case for soft skills provides an...