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Carry on developing
The HR profession is familiar with moves towards more personally driven approaches to learning, but school is still predominantly about teaching. It is white boards and PowerPoint these days, not "talk...
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Make the grade
How often do factory-floor workers say they "enjoyed" the 80-minute exam they’ve just sat? Not often, I suspect, but that’s what most people told us when interviewed about an online assessment they...
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Placements: from lost souls to valued staff
Beyond the rather sterile debate about how far the government has “backed Tomlinson” or not, the recent 14-19 white paper carried the seeds of a potentially rather helpful innovation. We were told that...
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Skills councils share their knowledge
Businesses could be forgiven for thinking that the Sector Skills Councils (SSCs) spend their time on skills issues in their own sectors: after all, isn't that what they're there for? But an...
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Demand-led training offers chance for HR
I wonder if civil servants in the education department really understand what they're doing? They appear to be offering employers a new deal by encouraging universities and further education colleges...
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Uncovering the real purpose of universities
What are universities for? This is not a question that came up after too much wine by the pool on holiday, but one provoked by employers' responses when we asked them recently about two-year degrees....
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Plain speaking needed on paying language bill
Who should pay for workers to learn English may soon cease to be an abstract question. A recent report has recommended that instead of relying on state-subsidised college courses, employers should pay...
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Raising the esteem of vocational qualifications
People have been talking for decades about “parity of esteem” between the academic and the vocational – and we have made, I suggest, no progress at all. Yet now I do see signs of progress, not so much...
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Skills focus for young people in the spirit o’ Burns
Friday night is Burns Night: the anniversary of Robert Burns’ birth, celebrated by Scots the world over with a haggis, and just possibly a dram or two. So, in the spirit of his great poem “A Man’s a...
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How Canute might change your mind about social media
With one of England’s classic bad kings, Richard III, ‘trending’ this week, I thought I might take inspiration from another who gets a bad press, Cnut (or Canute, if you prefer the traditional...
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How to spot ‘good practice’ when you see it
Simply changing an approach – like training teams together instead of individually – can really reap results, says Iain Mackinnon“Glasgow’s miles better” was the catchy slogan adopted some 20 or so...
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Apple’s Steve Jobs was a one off
Would you hire this guy? A senior executive, about whom a board colleague said: “He got ideas in his head, and … went off and did them regardless of whether it ended up being good for the company.”Or...
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Replying to job applicants
The spotlight is on youth unemployment and it’s common to hear young people complaining that they don’t hear back, in any way, from most of the employers they apply to. It’s common, but is it right?The...
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Why don’t more employers share training costs?
Even if you think of it as an investment, it’s undeniable that training carries an up-front cost. So if we want more firms to train, we should try to get costs down, shouldn’t we, and reduce at least...
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Putting HR learning to work
You know what it’s like when you go away: even if you do check your emails now and then, you still come back to a pile of messages not urgent enough to act on from abroad, but important enough to keep...
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Will replacing GCSEs with EBaccs work?
“In England,” Alison Wolf reminded us last year, “virtually everyone stays on post-GCSE, and an overwhelming majority participate to age 18”. So what should business make of the government’s proposals...
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Time for informal hiring processes to shake off their bad name
Is there a place for recruitment that reflects ‘messy human beings’, asks Iain Mackinnon“Don’t e-mail me”, said the managing director of a multi-million pound company to his audience at a careers fair...
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Why student loans are an HR nightmare
Kafkaesque bureaucracy makes Iain Mackinnon's blood boil – and it's probably costing your company dear Never mind Mars, is there intelligent life in the Student Loans Company? My wife has just...
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Know the value of a first job, however lowly
Lessons learned over 40 years ago have stood Iain Mackinnon’s career in good steadIt’s 40 years ago this week that I did my first paid work. I was a temporary clerk in Surrey County Council’s motor tax...
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Opinion: How can British workers compete with cheap international labour?
The maritime ‘industrial partnership’ could hold the answers in a globalised labour market, says Iain Mackinnon You’d expect Mick Cash, RMT general secretary, to say something challenging to a room...
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Opinion: When is it ok to say ‘no’ at work?
Working back-breaking hours, for little or no money, brings a whole new meaning to the term ‘pro-bono’, says Iain MackinnonWe've all been there; been left out of pocket after completing a piece of...
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