Today, the City & Guilds Group unveiled the findings of its first Skills Confidence Report – an international study of 8,000 employees in the United Kingdom, United States, South Africa and India. The study measured how confident people feel about their skills and jobs today, and in five and ten years’ time.

The research reveals that the British workforce is unthreatened by the predicted rise of automation and artificial intelligence. When asked about the impact of automation on their job prospects over the next decade, 18% said it would have a negative impact, and 42% said it would not have any impact.

https://www.cityandguildsgroup.com/whats-happening/News/skills-confidence-16

-Nearly a third of young women (30%) do not get feedback after a job interview, compared to less than a fifth (18%) of male applicants.

-Half of young women who had a bad recruitment experience say it knocked their confidence – but just a third of young men say the same

Young women are far less likely than young men to receive feedback after a job interview, research by the City & Guilds Group and Business in the Community (BITC) has revealed.

The survey of 4,000 young people (18-24 year olds) found that young women are at a stark disadvantage in recruitment practices. While 82% of young men receive feedback after applying, just under a third (30%) of young women are losing out on this vital constructive guidance. For young people applying for a job for the first time, constructive feedback can help them learn from their experiences, improve their applications and access future employment.

Read more of the research >

http://ow.ly/Vfzhv

National Apprenticeship Week was full of discussion. We heard about the productivity gains of hiring apprentices, and concerns around the gender divide. We celebrated the amazing things apprentices have achieved, and heard from business leaders who are pledging to create more apprenticeships.

But the one thing that’s front of mind for businesses is the levy, which will help to fund the Government’s ambitions of three million apprenticeships by 2020.

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/chris-e-jones/apprenticeship-levy-frien_b_9522488.html

I’ve been with the City & Guilds Group nearly six months now and recently I’ve been thinking about what our Group purpose really means to me and where I feel I am now in relation to it.

‘We help people develop the skills they need to progress into a job, on the job and onto the next job.’

Read more -
https://www.cityandguildsgroup.com/…/our-v…/ellies-first-job

We’re looking for a talented and passionate PR Executive. You’ll have a couple of years experience working in a busy press office and a solid knowledge of the media. If this sounds like you, read the full job description here: https://lnkd.in/d4rvS57

Remember, we no longer have qualification requirements for any of our jobs, so it’s worth checking our careers page for new opportunities:https://lnkd.in/dXuuBPb

City & Guilds report, Great Expectations, highlights young people’s job expectations and splits them in to male vs female expectations. You can read the full report here : http://www.cityandguilds.com/~/media/Documents/Courses-and-Quals/Apprenticeships/EMSI%20reports/cggreatexpectationsonline%20pdf.ashx

City & Guilds 

Our Skills Development Fund is a £5m investment in projects which transform individuals and communities through developing skills.

We created the Skills Development Fund to benefit the communities, organisations and individuals we work with each day. The fund supports projects which have a strong connection to our Group purpose – of enabling people and organisations to develop their skills for personal and economic growth.

Read more about the Skills Development Fund >

It’s been more than 20 years since Michael Howard declared that ‘prison works’. Since then, there have been extensive debates about whether he was right, whether our sentencing guidelines are appropriate, and which steps we need to take to reduce crime.

As it stands, the numbers suggest the system isn’t working. The prison population of England and Wales is 85,641, compared to 44,246 in 1993. Reoffending rates are 25.4 per cent. And according to the National Audit Office, reoffending costs us the equivalent of staging another Olympic Games every year.

So what can we do about it? Well, to quote another famous saying from 1990s politics: education, education, education. 2016 has got to be the year we talk seriously about skills development for high-risk populations, in prisons and after prison.

“We’ve got to correct the misunderstanding that educating prisoners is a reward for committing a crime. It’s not.”

Luckily, in the current Justice Secretary, we’ve got a champion. Michael Gove may have raised more than a few heartrates while at the Department for Education, but hiscurrent agenda of upskilling prisoners is certainly to be commended.

In September, Mr Gove announced a review into prison education, led by Dame Sally Coates. At the time, he said that it was key to equip prisoners with the skills they need to be employable.

To me that’s common sense, given that only 53 per cent of the prison population have any qualifications, compared to 85 per cent of the working-age population.

Prisoners are some of society’s most marginalised and vulnerable people, and many were let down by the education system as children. Obviously, there are dangerous criminals who belong behind bars, but there are others who, with the right rehabilitation and support, could go on to make a positive contribution to society. Making sure they have the skills to work rather than revert to crime is at the core of that.

Unfortunately some of the public prefers the ‘lock ‘em up; throw away the key’ mentality. After reports that Gove was considering bringing tablets into prisons – which the Ministry of Justice is looking into, but not confirmed – a newspaper letter writer commented that they’d only recently been able to afford an iPad. “I have never committed a crime,” they wrote. “Perhaps that is where I have gone wrong”.

Read the full article from Chris Jones, chief executive of the City & Guilds Group>

A new report released today by the City & Guilds Group shows how increasing professional and technical skills can benefit different countries’ economies.

The report explores skills training in the UK, US, India and South Africa. It found that increasing professional and technical skills by 10% could boost UK GDP by £163 billion by 2025.

It also highlights that a 10 percentage point increase in the number of upper secondary school pupils enrolled in vocational education could lead to a 1.5 percentage point reduction in youth unemployment in the UK and the US.

It further proves that skills education can significantly benefit employers in all of the markets studied. On average, the net annual business benefits of training an apprentice in the UK in 2013/14 was £1500 per annum.

Apprenticeships also benefit individuals; in the US, nine years after enrolment, apprentices will see cumulative career benefits of $60,000 more than their similar counterparts who did not participate in an apprenticeship.

However, despite the potential benefits of investing in skills, there are currently a number of barriers standing in the way.

Read the full reports here > 

Respondents rated their top three most important requirements to getting a job they enjoy. 

Read the Great Expectations research here > 

Welcome to our most recent piece of research, an exploration into the career aspirations of 14 – 19 year olds at one of the most crucial decision making cross roads in their lives. The 3,154 young people we surveyed are making decisions now that will shape their futures. But do they have all the information they need to make informed choices that will give them the best chance of thriving in the workplaces of today and tomorrow? 

We have compared the findings of the research with labour market predictions provided by economic modellers EMSI, enabling us to demonstrate differences between the young people’s aspirations and the job opportunities that will be available to them as they hit the jobs market over the next 5 – 10 years. We commissioned this research as we forge pathways to the workplace for young people with our new curriculum for 14 to 19 year olds, the City & Guilds TechBac, and through our apprenticeship offer. 

The findings of the research are concerning but not entirely unexpected. Young people are optimistic but often not prepared for the realities of the UK jobs market. Salary expectations are high, often career aspirations don’t match demand in the workplace and young people aren’t generally aware of what employers are looking for. They have great expectations now but their dreams are likely to be dashed if they carry on along their current trajectory.

The research backs up what we’ve been saying for some time: young people need better and more consistent exposure to employers and the workplace throughout their education. This includes the chance to undertake work experience, hear from employers about the range of jobs available and get inspired to work in previously unimagined areas. It is this early understanding of the workplace that can help young people secure that all important first step on the career ladder.

Read the Great Expectations report >