Issue 53, November 2020
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Issue 53, November 2020 WELCOME TO LABOUR MARKET & CAREERS NEWS! We hope that you find this issue of Labour Market & Careers News useful and informative. As usual, we would like to receive articles, information or your suggestions for improving C&K Labour Market & Careers News. Copy deadlines are: 8 January 2021 12 February 2021 1 April 2021 14 May 2021 Go to: Careers professional issues and policy Schools, colleges and education Employment and training STOP PRESS... The 16 to 19 tuition fund is £96m of one-off funding for the 2020 to 2021 academic year. It is ring fenced funding for schools, colleges and all other 16 to 19 providers to deal with the disruption to learning arising from coronavirus (COVID-19). It is to be used to support small group tuition for 16 to 19 students in English, maths, and other courses where learning has been disrupted. For example, vocational courses where assessment has been deferred because of lockdown. The actual tuition does not need to be for GCSE English or maths, the students supported all need to be those who did not achieve grade 5 or above in at least one of those subjects at this level by age 16. All supported students must be on a 16 to 19 study programme and providers should prioritise those that did not achieve a grade 4 in English or maths (GOV 09/09/20). For more information W: www.gov.uk/guidance/16-to-19-funding-16-to-19-tuition-fund C&K Careers staff have undertaken their first National Centre for Diversity course – FREDIE (fairness, respect, equality, diversity, inclusion and engagement) – the Basics. The courses use interactive questions and videos in an interesting way. The ‘Basics’ course begins by explaining Equality the meaning of each aspect of FREDIE and then checks to see you have understood what these are. It explains why and FREDIE is good for organisations, as well as individuals: Diversity • ‘71% of business executives said employee engagement was critical to their organisations’ success’ • Organisations with ‘high employee engagement scores are 22% more profitable • Sickness records of companies with ‘engaged employees’ have an average of 2.69 days off sick a year, compared with 6.19 days for companies with ‘disengaged employees’ 1 The ‘Basics’ course participants looked at scenarios showing unfairness, disrespect, inequality, lack of diversity, exclusion and disengagement scenarios to help them think about the effect on individuals and their organisation. Participants are then taken through what could have been done to turn these situations around. It concludes that if one of the following – fairness, respect, equality, diversity, inclusion or engagement – is missing, you cannot have a truly inclusive culture. After all staff completed the course, they met with others in small groups to discuss what they got from it and to make suggestions for improvements within C&K Careers. As a result of initial feedback from staff, some of our systems and processes have been changed to make them more flexible and user friendly. All current policies are being reviewed so that we only have the policies that we need and that these policies are applied in line with FREDIE principles. FREDIE has been incorporated into our business and training plan, and our appraisal process. FREDIE will also feature in our quarterly reporting to our board. Work is already underway to gather more information from our clients about how we may be able to meet their needs in other ways. We have also identified how we might strengthen our position in the local community, as well as through the information we share with our stakeholders. We will continue to update our progress in future issues of this newsletter. Thinking outside COVID: creative and innovative solutions to running a business during the pandemic Companies have been coming up with creative ideas to keep their business going as demand, delivery and production conditions have changed. Some of these changes are just aimed at getting them through the hardest times but others could be permanent and lead to new, permanent growth. Nearly 50% more businesses were created in June 2020 than in June 2019, according to the Centre for Entrepreneurs. Some graduates are starting their own businesses after graduating in 2020, when the number of graduate vacancies has fallen significantly. Snackcess, was set up by three recent graduates, to provide gift boxes of healthy snacks for businesses to post to employees working at home. The boxes contain high-end, healthy, branded snacks, normally found in organic food stores. They used their studies to meet what they saw as a gap in the market - two studied nutrition, while the third had been working on the benefits of gift exchange in the workplace, as part of a project. Another graduate has started Sojo, a service delivering clothes for alteration. It employs 20 cyclists to collect clothes from people’s homes and take them to and from sewing shops in west London for alterations, with plans to expand the business further. Alcuris, the developer of Memohub, an app that monitors social isolation, employs 15 people. Memohub is a telecare system that combines a certified social alarm system, activity monitoring, health device integration and carer logging in a single product. It has come into its own during the current crisis, helping monitor vulnerable individuals (BBC 07/10/20; NCUB 10/07/20). Cafes and restaurants have faced particularly difficult conditions. Top end restaurants, for example the three star L’enclume, have come up with high standard takeaway meals that can be delivered locally or posted out. The 10pm curfew has made it difficult to get two sittings in, vital for restaurants to break even, so some are offering puddings, cheese and biscuits and coffee as takeaways, so customers can finish the evening at home. Artisan food and drink producers are being creative, for example The Courtyard Dairy near Settle, has increased home delivery by offering ‘bundles’ of cheeses. Small pubs with microbreweries have turned their pubs into off-licences and are posting/delivering their brews out to customers. An animal sanctuary is generating business by offering companies the chance to have a goat, llama or other farm animal appear at their zoom meetings, as a way of boosting moral and bringing a smile to attendees. 2 Care homes are losing residents, as families prefer to care for their elderly family members at home, so some are moving to a mix of residential and home care. The Black Dementia Company was launched during lockdown when its owner noticed that there were no relevant images or objects to help people from non-white backgrounds. People with dementia find it comforting to reminisce about the past, so this online company was set up to make and sell dementia care aids with cultural symbols aimed at people who grew up in Afro-Caribbean households (BBC 15/10/20). Many gyms and fitness studios have moved classes online. Careers professional issues and policy Careers resources Careers resources The Top 100 Apprenticeship Employers is a new site showcasing employers committed to employing apprentices, their creation of new apprenticeships, the diversity of their new apprentices, and their apprentices' progression to further apprenticeships and employment. In future years, the site will list the previous year's top 100 employers, compiled by the National Apprenticeship Service in partnership with High Fliers Research W: www.topapprenticeshipemployers.co.uk and 2020 top 100 Amazing Apprenticeships has launched the 2020/21 ASK (Apprenticeships Support and Knowledge) for schools and colleges programme, which offers face-to-face or virtual support. There is a brochure and a short film explaining the ASK programme (AA 09/09/20). The Primary Schools Toolkit has been launched by the Careers & Enterprise Company (CEC) W: www.careersandenterprise.co.uk/schools-colleges/primary-school-toolkit Schools, colleges and education Qualifications School news Further education news Higher education news Lifelong learning Qualifications In England, A level and GCSE exams due to be taken in 2021 will go ahead with reduced content for some subjects and start three weeks later than the usual mid-May, with the aim of making up for lost teaching time. Vocational courses are likely to follow a similar pattern. The OCR exam board has aligned many of its Cambridge Technicals and Cambridge Nationals exams with the A level and GCSE timetable. The government will announce further back-up plans later to cover 'all scenarios' (BBC 12/10/20; OCR 22/10/20). 3 BTEC qualifications in esports at level 2 and level 3 have been launched by Pearson in partnership with The British Esports Association W: https://qualifications.pearson.com/en/campaigns/btec-esports.html For further information about esports, see issue 52 of our labour market and careers news, under Computers & IT below and W: https://britishesports.org/careers/ School news Pupils in the north of England are facing the most disruption from COVID 19. The percentage of pupils attending primary and secondary schools across England, fell to 86% in the third week of October, down from 89% the previous week, according to the Department for Education (DfE). The DfE said 55% of secondaries and 20% of primaries in England reported having one or more pupils off school, self-isolating, rising from 46% and 16% respectively on the previous week. Attendance in secondary schools fell from 87% in the second week of October to 83% in the third week (BBC 27/10/20). Around 150 of the 1,000 academic mentors promised as part of the government’s £1bn education catchup plans will be in schools in England by the end of 2020. The remaining 850 will be put in place in January and February 2021.