Blog, Professional Training, Courses & Development

We often hear about the infamous “skills shortages” that seem to exist all over the country and across all areas of industry, threatening the UK’s recovery and ability to remain competitive in the future. Reports of these gaps between the demand and supply of relevant expertise are often accompanied by extensive debate on who should be responsible for highlighting the need for these skills, often with a particular focus on young people and initiatives to attract fresh talent to a given profession. And often the outcomes of these analyses remain unclear, with the result that they don’t end up being translated into any measurable action to tackle the problem.

That’s why it can be refreshing to read about concrete initiatives being put into place to tackle these issues head on, and the Scottish Government’s recent pledge of £6.5m in support of training for the Energy industry certainly appears to be one of these. The boost, which represents a twofold increase with respect to the amount committed just last year of £3.25m, is intended to support Energy Skills Scotland in its mission to ensure that professionals can access relevant training to develop the skills necessary for employment in an energy-related role. These include areas such as renewable energy but, even more importantly, oil & gas. Indeed, First Minister Alex Salmond also unveiled the creation of Scotland’s first oil & gas academy, bringing together six of the country’s universities and colleges for a specific focus on the sector and its more “immediate” need for skilled professionals.

Overall, predictions indicate the need for an impressive 95,000 new recruits in the next seven years across the Scottish Energy industry. If this proves to be accurate, the challenge will likely be to ensure that these needs are met quickly enough to support this demand and keep the industry growing.

So for anyone with an interest in Energy, perhaps a move to Aberdeen, Glasgow or Edinburgh is in order? If all goes as predicted, you may well be needed!

By now many of you will have heard about Learning at Work Day and the match-making service that Findcourses.co.uk is providing to get companies looking to organise an event in touch with training providers willing to offer their services.
What you may not know is that Learning at Work Day, which will take place on 23rd May, is actually part of the much bigger, week-long initiative that is Adult Learners’ Week (ALW).

Due to begin in just over a week, on 18th May, Adult Learners’ week is a seven day affair dedicated to celebrating the value of lifelong learning, and will involve a whole range of events organised by individuals and organisations across the country. Indeed, anyone organising an event related to adult learning, for a maximum cost of £20, can publicise in on the Adult Learners’ Week Calendar for others to find. Event organisers can even make use of the official attendance sheet to give their participants the opportunity to win a selection of prizes.

But the official co-ordinator of the event, the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (NIACE) is also dedicated to promoting learning among training and skills providers themselves. That’s why they are organising a number of workshops throughout June and July focusing on the social value of adult learning, which are intended to give training providers an insight into the systematic methods they can employ to collect and report evidence on the social outcomes of learning. With increasing attention being placed on these issues, this is an ideal opportunity for training organisations to gain a solid foundation of knowledge that will help them conduct future impact measurement and Social Return on Investment (SROI) analyses, which will in turn lead to the development even more successful training programmes. 

As you know, every month we like to ask our users a question related to their careers, working habits and/or training needs and desires in order to learn a little bit more about how we can help them find the right professional development resources for their needs. This month we have chosen a rather “big” question and are asking you to tell us: are you planning a career change in the next few years? If so, are you relatively set on the matter or is it just something you are considering?

Changing your career path can be challenging at the best of times, but arguably more so when the economic situation is still relatively uncertain and companies appear reluctant to recruit new talent. Perhaps more importantly, knowing where to start can be a bit tricky; in the end, the frustration may make you want to give up even when you start with the best of intentions.
So while we wait to collect all your feedback on the matter, we thought we’d give you a few simple tips on how to go about the whole thing.

1. Get inspired – You may be unsatisfied with your current role and/or industry, but have no idea what kind of professional area you would like to get into. There’s no right answer when it comes to choosing a strategy, but having an overview of what’s out there can certainly be useful and help you compare the options. Something like our inspiration page, for example, collects a whole spectrum of development areas and lets you read up on each one. You may find you like the sound of something you had never even considered. If you want to go more in depth into a single topic, an industry focus, such as our latest on HR, will give you a more detailed overview of the career options available in any given industry.

2. Get skilled – If you are already set on a particular field, taking an introductory training course (or a more advanced programme if you happen to already have some relevant skills) can be a great way to demonstrate to employers that you are serious about changing you career, and skilled enough to approach the job with confidence. If, as is more likely, you are unsure about the field and the expertise you need, the National Careers Service offers a useful Skills Health Check Tool, which serves two purposes: it tells you the skills that you could brush up on, but also gives you an overview of the types of jobs that may suit you. With this information to hand, finding an appropriate professional development course becomes much easier.

3. Get a plan – Having the skills to do a job is certainly a primary concern, but having an idea of what you’re trying to achieve is equally important. This goes hand in hand with points 1 and 2, but is also extremely important when you start actually looking for a job in the industry that you have chosen, and potentially have also already gotten training for. An action plan can therefore be extremely useful tool to keep track of your goals throughout the whole process. Perhaps most importantly though, your CV needs to be up-to-date and clearly reflect your ambitions in the field you are approaching, as well as your motivation and skills. It’s no one’s favourite job but there’s no avoiding it. And luckily, if you need help, there are training courses that can help you with this, as well as the National Careers Service’s free CV Builder Tool.

With just a few tricks like the above, the whole process can hopefully seem much less daunting. Even for those who are not really or not entirely convinced about changing careers, they can be useful steps for your own personal insight into what’s out there for the future. And let’s face it, having an updated CV, much as you  may hate doing it, will surely come in handy sooner or later no matter what you do!

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You can answer our Question of the Month from the right column box on our homepage.

In a competitive market that is still feeling the aftershocks of a severe economic crisis, being innovative and distinguishing yourself from your competitors is a key focus for virtually any organisation. But what factors really drive innovation and this ability to be different?  On occasion of the 2013 HRD Conference, the CIPD decided to give at least one answer to this question by launching its latest report looking at HR and its role in innovation, The Innovation Imperative.

It is the most recent in a series of studies that looks at HR and the impact that it can have on creating a culture of innovation inside companies, in particular with respect to learning and professional development tools. Its main finding was that the training methods often preferred by companies, including in-house development programmes, in-house coaching and in-house knowledge sharing initiatives, can serve to block innovation rather than to promote it. According to the research, collaboration with external forces, whether it is outside of the organisation through ‘formal’ classroom courses or outside of the team that individuals work with on a daily basis through cross-company events, is key to fostering a culture of innovation and forward-thinking. This, in turn, is what will help organisations stay ahead of the game and act as role models for other businesses.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the research found that the innovation capacity of an organisation will depend both on its size and the industry it works in, particularly when it comes to the critical role that management plays in promoting creative thinking and innovative behaviours. In addition, employee involvement and a systematic, collaborative approach were identified as key to propelling innovation and ensuring that it both drives and draws strength from the learning solutions implemented across an organisation.

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Findcourses.co.uk exhibited at CIPD HRD for the third year running, presenting our mission to help training buyers meet training providers and the range of products we offer in support of this vision.

Edexcel has long been the largest awarding body in the UK, delivering both academic and vocational qualifications in a wide range of subjects that are recognised on both a national and international level. These range from GCSEs and A levels to NVQs and BTEC certifications, which are becoming increasingly popular for professionals looking to complete flexible training programmes that focus on practical skills to apply in the workplace.

Not everyone may know, however, that as of 3rd April the names of these awards have begun to change. This is because Pearson, which has been the parent company of Edexcel since 2003, has decided that the moment has come to apply the Pearson brand to all of its awarding activities. As a result, all qualifications delivered by Pearson, which also acquired the EDI awarding organisation in 2010,
will now begin with the name ‘Pearson’, followed by the existing brand name such as ‘Edexcel’ or ‘BTEC’.

The change is geared primarily towards developing a single brand identity for the Pearson awarding organisation; nothing has changed in terms of how the qualifications are accredited or where they are recognised. Over time, however, all awarding materials including official documents and website information will be branded in such a way as to reflect the fact that Pearson is now the official registered name of the awarding organisation.

So if you happen to be taking any of these qualification courses, don’t fret but do bear these changes in mind should you find an unexpected name on your certificates!

We often talk about the issues in workplace learning and training that are affecting the UK and Europe. As the leading search engine for professional development courses in Britain – and across Northern Europe through our international sites – it would be rather odd if we didn’t.

But we can often forget that education, training and development are important issues for the rest of the world too, and particularly for developing countries. At Findcourses.co.uk, we strive to always keep this in mind and to make our commitment to learning and development reach as far as possible.

That’s why, on initiative of Findcourses.co.uk account manager Mark Smith, our parent company FindCourses Global has been supporting Mary’s Library in Homa Bay, Kenya since the beginning of 2012. The library is the only one of its kind in the municipality and works to promote education for everyone in Homa Bay by providing books but also by making computers and the Internet more accessible to local people, keeping costs to a minimum so that even the poorest residents can benefit. The ultimate goal is to advance the value of education, primarily for those who have the least access to it, aiming towards a sustainable model that allows the library to become self-sufficient and managed entirely by the community.

FindCourses supports the initiative by making a donation every time a user respond to one of our questionnaires about a course enquiry they have made. This support has just recently allowed Mary’s Library to purchase three new computers from Computers 4 Africa, a charity dedicated to helping bridge the digital divide by providing the best value computers possible to the areas in which they operate. This marks an important step forward for Mary’s Library and its efforts to make education accessible to more and more people, a mission that FindCourses is happy and proud to support.

So next time you receive a questionnaire from us, help us gage how we are doing and help Mary’s Library at the same time by taking a few short minutes to fill it in.

A recent study produced by the World Intellectual Property Organisation and highlighted today by the Chartered Management Institute (CMI) indicates that the UK is lagging behind when it comes to attracting and incorporating foreign talent into British organisations.

The research focused on collecting data from the various countries analysed to determine how successful they are in recruiting skilled professionals from overseas. Overall, European countries including the UK were found to be less successful in attracting these “innovative workers” than places such as the United States, Canada and Australia. Merja Kauhanen, who coordinated and co-authored the study, suggested that institutional differences relating to the level of country-specific skills required of overseas workers play a significant role in determining their global mobility. As a result a primary recommendation was that countries should analyse the potential disadvantages suffered by immigrants looking to enter their borders for work-related purposes and take this into consideration when developing future immigration and integration policies.

While these factors are with little doubt highly influential, CMI also pointed out that spotting talent can represent a challenge for many managers, particularly if they have not had extensive training and/or do not hold a management qualification. Perhaps there should be more of a focus on these professional figures and on ensuring they have the skills to effectively recruit and retain expertise, not just from abroad but from the pool of talent already available in their countries.

The CIPD HRD Conference is fast approaching and the buzz surrounding the event and exhibitors is growing every day. This is particularly true of the recently revamped City & Guilds Group, which will be providing demonstrations of the latest training technology in collaboration with its newest partner, e-learning company Kineo.

City & Guilds acquired Kineo in December 2012 and announced an ambitious new initiative to change the face of workplace learning by combining the former’s strength in vocational qualifications with the latter’s expertise in innovative technologies. The goal is to respond to the practical challenges faced by companies, HR Managers and L&D professionals in particular, and to provide a comprehensive, blended workplace learning solution that is faster, more affordable and highly effective. Combining community tools with learning journeys, guidance, assessment, coaching and tutor support, the ‘City & Guilds Way’ is intended to benefit employers, learners and training deliverers alike, giving
them access to an increasingly vast range of innovative training resources.

Ultimately, the goal is to ensure that staff remains compliant and skilled, anticipating industry trends and securing both greater productivity and reduced costs for their organisations.

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Findcourses.co.uk will also be exhibiting at CIPD HRD 2013 - come visit us at Stand 509.

Don’t have a conference pass? Win one here!

With recent European contamination scandals continuing to dominate news headlines, the issue of food safety and security is attracting more attention than ever. The events associated with the latest horse meat affair have prompted wide-ranging debate on a number of topics, from EU legislation and its effectiveness in preventing such events to farming practices and the use of unlawful, potentially harmful substances in the breeding of animals. But what about potential knowledge- and skills-gaps on the part of professionals working in the industry, from quality auditors to hygiene personnel? Are they adequately trained to play their part in governing the safety aspect of the food manufacturing process effectively?

A recent study conducted by Alchemy Systems (leader in occupational safety training) in collaboration with Campden BRI (food & drinks research organisation) and certification bodies BRC Global Standards and Safety Quality Food Institute set out precisely to discover the challenges and effectiveness of food safety training in the industry. With insights from the 649 food and drink manufacturers across the world who responded to the survey, the results are encouraging and alarming at the same time. On the positive side, the companies generally agreed that training serves to promote higher product quality as well as improved employee morale, indicating awareness of the benefits associated with workplace learning. At the same time, the data revealed that over 60% of employees receive no more than 8 hours of training per year, with the most popular methods being  on-the-job training (almost 85%) or requiring staff to “read and understand policies” (around 80%).

Why not more? When asked about their challenges over 70% of the companies indicated a lack of time as the greatest barrier, while 43% admitted having trouble evaluating the effectiveness of training. On the other hand, a disappointing 66% claimed to be satisfied or very satisfied with the training they did receive, pointing to incomplete records and unsatisfactory levels of employee comprehension as the main deficiencies.

So it appears that, while food and drink manufacturers and processors should take a moment to reflect on their training policies and take a critical look at the skills within their organisations, training providers should also do more to ensure that they produce tangible learning results for the industry in a way that encourages further learning opportunities. The ultimate result will be a win-win situation for manufacturers, trainers and, essentially, the rest of us who consume manufactured food and drink products every day of our lives.

Source: Global Food Safety Training 2013

With the marketing sector in the UK accounting for 7% of the country’s gross domestic product and producing 6 pounds for the economy for every pound spent on marketing, it would seem that the industry is doing really quite well. It may seem doubly ironic, then, that a recent seminar held by the Guardian in collaboration with the Marketing Agencies Association (MAA) should shed light on the trouble that marketing agencies across the UK are having marketing themselves to young people.

The event, which involved a series of talks from industry experts, followed by open discussion with marketing professionals and creative industry enthusiasts, covered a number of different topical issues related to the marketing industry. What emerged as one of the primary areas of concern was this lack of 'young blood', which is considered problematic as a result of the fact that younger workers tend to have the advanced digital skills that are becoming increasingly important to success in many (if not all) professional sectors. Indeed, many panelists agreed that a knowledge gap is being created across the sector, and suggested that companies need to have the courage to embrace and indeed attract young talent to have any hope of remaining innovative.

It seems that what may be missing is awareness on the part of young people of the opportunities available in the marketing industry, or a failure to understand how they can develop and apply the skills they may already have in areas such as web writing and social media to a professional career. Many panelists agreed that the government should play a bigger role in promoting the UK’s achievements in innovation and the creative industries, but also that marketing agencies themselves should do more to, well, market themselves to young talent. In addition, a successful strategy will also likely hinge around marketing skills training that stimulates and prepares individuals for a career in the sector. Only by engaging young people with a combination of these factors can the UK marketing sector, even during difficult times, continue to thrive and contribute positively to the British economy.