Toyota is next on the list to train 1,500 members of staff to attain an NVQ qualification in business improvement techniques over the next year. Toyota’s bosses made the Skills Pledge at a meeting at the House of Commons, confirming its ongoing commitment to providing its 4,700 staff with skills and development opportunities. Skills secretary John Denham said: “It has never been more important for manufacturers to develop the skills of its people, as those that utilise the potential of every employee to the full will be best placed to weather the challenging economic conditions, and to capitalise on opportunities for growth.” In other words: if your staff aren’t skilled, the work will go abroad. Hats off to Toyota for making the pledge at a time when Ferrari in the UK reportedly sold just ONE car last month!

Tags: careers in luxury car industry, graduate careers with Toyota, Planes, Trains and Automobiles

Ladies: we’ve heard of the glass ceiling, well Lloyds TSB and Stonewall have got together to publish a report on The Double-Glazed Ceiling. The report claims that lesbian or bisexual women fear gender discrimination more than gay men in the workplace, which makes them more likely to hide their sexual orientation from colleagues. The research pointed to a lack of openly gay women in UK workplaces. when such role models are important for other lesbians. I know one terrifically inspiring lesbian at KPMG - my old friend Ashley Steel who came out many years ago in what was an all male environment and has made marvellous achievements in the firm. She is well worth listening too. Good to see a big brand like Lloyds TSB catching up too (when they’re not spanking our money down the drain): Their equality and diversity director was quoted as saying that commissioning the report was a way to make “Lloyds TSB a genuinely great place to work for all our lesbian gay and bisexual  staff.” (write your own jokes about deposits and withdrawals).

Tags: Graduate jobs for homosexuals, Sex discrimination in the workplace; lesbians at LLoyds, talking point for job interview

You got to stand back and think to do well when times are hard and there’s some predictable business that struggle. Dry cleaners for example all go out of business, and so do restaurants. What’s interesting this time round is that with people working round the clock to keep their business afloat, the ordering of takeaways to the workplace has increased 236% in the last six months! As staff fear getting the elbow a survey of over 1000 employees showed 42% have worked late in the past month on more than five occasions. Pizza is the most popular takeaway choice, with 83% of sales attributed to it. “I may be stressed, but at least I’m fat!” Nice one Britain.

Tags: Flexible working, Graduate job interview talking point, working late

A think-tank is a bunch of brains that get together to look at an issue and dream up news ideas – like the bra that clasps at the front. Sometimes these groups become profit making companies, one of which is Demos. They have been pondering the use of social networking sites in the workplace and concluded they it is a good thing. (Demos’ research was paid for by Orange, who are coincidentally developing their own social networking site.) Demos say the sites provide “crucial platforms for discussion and collaboration,” and say that firms that ban their use are essentially asking staff not to talk to one another. Try telling that to Virgin Atlantic who these week disciplined staff old and current who “discussed” the airlines safety procedures on Facebook. A recent study estimated that fannying around on Facebook during office hours costs UK businesses £6.5 billion per year in lost productivity.

Tags: Facebook jobs, using IT at work, Virgin Atlantic Graduate careers, working practice at Virgin

Its harvest time for the oil companies: following on from BP’s admission that it had doubled profits to $10bn in the last 4 months, Shell now beam with a 71% jump to nearly $11bn. Both have to admit that the successes come in part to oil prices getting so high. Back in July that was $147 a barrel, but now it’s about $60 a barrel – such a steep fall that the oil producers’ cartel Opec cut back production (make it scarce and you can make it expensive).  This summer, some idiots predicted oil to hit $200 a barrel on the basis that oil was close to running out – and the producers were testing how high they could price the black gold before the market said “no”. Now, the same idiots claim if the price keeps falling it will be free by Christmas (the price rose a little last night). But recession means that the big economies like the USA reduce their demands so its up to the oil companies to strike a happy medium: price it so you make a profit, but low enough so people will want it. With $10bn being made in just 4 months, its clear what side of the equation they’ve been sitting on recently. Here endeth the lesson.

Tags: BP, business explained, Careers in energy, Exxon, graduate job interview, guide to oil, Mobil, Shell, Total