We said it yesterday and probably the day before that and the week before that and the month before that, but get yourself some work experience.  Get yourself an internship!  Even the government are catching onto our ideas and it’s a well known fact that they’re a bunch of f*** wits! Never missing the chance to provide a sound bite or two my good friend David Lammy The Minister for Skills (He has some mad beat boxing skills!) attended a conference organised by the East of England Development Agency and said that graduates could provide fresh talent for businesses: “The Talent Pool will sit alongside the thousands of other opportunities available to new graduates that will help them improve their chances to get a long-term and well paid career�.  If the government know it’s a good idea, then businesses will also know it’s a good idea so check out some of these videos on internships or our friends at RateMyPlacement or WEXO.

Job cuts, job cuts and more job cuts are on the menu today.  Virgin Atlantic are cutting 600 jobs and Diageo are cutting 900 jobs.  I know it all looks bleak, especially after the release of figures showing the economy is still shrinking, but there is a ray of hope in the form of British Gas as they’ve announced that they’ll be creating 2,600 jobs. The job cuts by Virgin Atlantic are a result of reducing services such as daily the flights to Chicago and the twice daily flights to Hong Kong.  As businesses continue to tighten their belts, Virgin expects that travel will continue to suffer.  Diageo’s 900 job cuts in Scotland is an attempt to save an estimated £40million a year and will be spread over a several years. But good old British Gas are riding to the rescue in a rickety old blue van with the creation of 2,600 jobs to roll out the new Smart Meters by 2012.  I know you’re probably thinking: “I didn’t go to university to install gas meters�, but these jobs are spread across the whole company so you there won’t be an extra 2,600 blue British Gas vans on the road.

What with the recession and all, the Institute of Directors have found themselves with a little extra time on their hands, so they’ve decided to have a chat with 1,000 business leaders.  My invitation must have been lost in the post.  This chat, probably over brandy and Hob Nobs by an open fire, revealed that over the last 6 months 80% of the directors either maintained or increased their organisations training budgets.  But as one hand gives and the other hand takes, as 47% declared that their training focused on short courses that directly addressed their businesses needs, rather than long term universal training.  I now have a flurry of stats, so prepare yourself: 76% believe training increases employee morale, 69% believe it enhances customer satisfaction, 62% think it aids staff retention, 21% believe training improves recruitment and 43% believe in the Easter Bunny.  For more training information check out these videos

If you work for Kellogg’s I’d guess that the last thing you’d want more of is Tony the Tiger, Snap, Crackle, Pop or the unimaginatively named Cocoa the Cocoa Pop Monkey, but apparently I’m wrong.  Kellogg’s have decided to reinvent their staff reward system, abandoning jargon and buzzwords and instead use their ‘popular’ mascots to make their staff reward statements easier to understand and beautiful.  Within the staff reward scheme is the company’s pension system, so if you managed to land yourself a job at Kellogg’s you to could open up a pension statement delivered by Tony the Tiger with Snap Crackle and Pop sat in the background.  There is a serious reason behind their choice (although it’s completely lost on me!), which my good friend David Lowe will attempt to explain: “Now, more than ever, we want our people to know they matter to us so we made a conscious decision to ‘sell’ our reward offering a lot more proactively than we have done in the past.  Our trademark characters are fun, and features such as our ‘Corn-flex’ section are backed up with a serious agenda. The statements are a new way of talking about reward for us - they do more than communicate the facts and figures relating to an employee’s pay and benefits; they embed our company culture, inspire employees and demonstrate we value them enough to put serious consideration into communicating their reward.”

The sales of apples are going to go through the roof!  That’s right, apple farmers around the country are rubbing their hands together at the news that the recession has seen the number of graduates attempting to enter the teaching profession raise by 10%.  And there’s no signs of things changing as 80% of teachers are in favour and the Training and Development Agency reports that Government initiatives won’t be stopping.  The golden hand shake and fast track training for science and maths teachers will continue as it’s triggered a 45% growth in training enquiries.  The good people at Hays education have been out with their clipboards and also found out that 59% of teachers are happy with the balance of their life (career vs. Personal life).  Martyn Best (my soon to be new best friend) from Hays Education said: “Interest in teaching jobs has increased during the recession. Naturally, people are looking for the added job security but also taking stock and assessing they really want a career - particularly if they have been made redundant and feel let down by their previous employer”.  IF you want to be a teacher when you grow up why not check out these videos?