Best Business Student Award

In the week even high achievers struggled to secure university places, we were delighted to be able to give Peterborough Regional College student Chris Burling that extra something to set himself apart.

Chris was the winner of the Best Business Student award at Peterborough Regional College – an award we have sponsored for the last two years.

According to his tutors when Chris started his BTec course ‘he had very little self-confidence’. But they said ‘he applied himself well to his studies… is well motivated and has achieved excellent attendance’. They also said his ‘self confidence has grown…. And he has given verbal presentations and led groups which have helped him to develop’.

He was unable to attend the official presentation evening because he was working – he’s a part time swimming instructor at the pool near his home in Godmanchester.

That’s a demonstration of Chris’ work ethic which also resulted in a string of distinctions and merits throughout his course.

He was a charming young man, very polite. He’s now looking for some more part time work to gain some practical work place experience before going to Northampton University next year to study accountancy and finance.

He wasn’t the most academic student, or the most confident but he applied himself and, as a result, was chosen to receive the award, a valuable addition to his CV.

There’s a lesson in there for teenagers who are starting to despair about their chances of gaining a solid grounding from which to launch a future career. Academia is important but demonstrating a good work ethic and developing as a person is just as vital.

Unemployment figures

The number of people working in the UK has jumped by the largest amount in more than two decades. Unemployment now stands at 2.46 million.

But in an interesting twist the figures show the rise in employment was lead by a record number of part-timers and people aged over 65 remaining in work.

That ties in with our experience.

The number of opportunities has increased – certainly since this time last year – which is good news. But many employers are remaining cautious and preferring to take on temporary or contract staff. Often the thinking is that, if all goes well, the person will be offered a permanent contract but, for the moment, they’re reluctant to make a wholesale commitment.

And, from the other side, we’re finding that candidates winning at interview are the ones who are flexible and happy to consider temporary or contract opportunities – rather than the ones holding out for full time permanent positions.

While these kind of roles don’t offer long – or even medium – term security they can be a valuable stepping stone and a way back into the workplace and we often advise candidates to seriously consider them.

The other thing we advise is a positive approach – in fact, you might have seen me saying just that on the Anglia Television news bulletins on Wednesday. However frustrating it is answering the same questions for the 20th time you have to approach each interview as if it’s your first – but with the benefit of having done dress rehearsals!

Anglia approached us to talk about the employment situation in Peterborough – something we like to think we know quite a lot about! One of our candidates was interviewed on camera too, talking about the difficulties of finding the right kind of work.

You can watch the full report by clicking here.

Agency Workers Regulations: do we have to provide temps with car parking spaces?

* Guest blog from Nel Woolcott, Recruitment Partner

I’m still wading through the comprehensive notes I made following our Breakfast Law Briefing where Tom Hadley, director of external communications for the REC spoke.

His presentation on the Agency Workers Regulations was excellent – he was obviously incredibly knowledgeable, and very passionate, about his subject.

He shared some very interesting points and valuable insights.

He has been involved in high level discussions about the finer points of the Regulations which will be in place by October 2011.

The Regulations overall say that, after a 12 week assignment, temporary workers must receive comparable pay and benefits to a permanent employee doing the same job.
It’s the ‘benefits’ part of that which could be the most challenging part for employers to manage.

According to Tom the discussions and feedback they have had is that generally it is felt temporary staff won’t quibble over the odd few pennies an hour difference in their salary to that of employed staff.

“It’s collective facilities which can become a big issue, things like access to the canteen, on-site gym or car park,” Tom told our seminar.

Generally, the regulations will give temps the right to enjoy those perks, if staff do. But there is a ‘get out’ clause for employers. If the number of car park spaces is restricted or the gym is very small for instance employers won’t be obliged to offer the facility to temp workers.

It is those kinds of issues which we will be discussing with our clients before the cut off date of October 2011 to ensure they have a transparent policy in place.