Newsletter April 2006
Inside:
- Upfront: Have Training Will Travel - Comment by Maureen Scholefield
- Training Update: a review of useful websites
- Ford’s Diversity Roll-Out Cuts the Mustard: Chris Ball on how the old banger has been dropped for a new hot-wheels approach to equality
- Manx Candidates’ Success: We interview our successes on the Isle of Man
- Selected News
- Online Video at ACAS
- Work and Families - new Regulations
- Giving Access to References
- Compensation for TUPE Consultation Failure
- Expired Warnings in Unfair Dismissal Cases
- Whistle blowing – burden of proof
- Redundancy Multiplier
- News Analysis
- New Equal Rights Commission on Way
- All Change for HR Lead in Local Government
Upfront: Have Training Will Travel
Our
feature on diversity at Ford motor company in this month's newsletter,
reminds me of a saying attributed to Henry Ford, the founding father
of modern mass production. "Anyone who stops learning is
old." Actually, there is a strong case for older people to
keep learning at a faster pace if they want to remain useful and in
work. I understand what he means, however. ‘Life long learning,'
should be an aspiration that guides all of us. We certainly can't
afford it to be a cliché.
As a matter of fact, I borrowed the Henry Ford quote from a document published by the CBI in 1995; ‘A Vision for the Future – A Skills Passport.' I thought it contained good ideas then, and I continue to do so now. In a way, that's the depressing thing. Ideas put forward for reform, eleven years ago, are still as relevant today. Good ideas deserve action.
What
the CBI was supporting, was that we should all buy into lifelong learning.
Their skills passport idea was a great and yet simple notion.
It was based on the simple suggestion that people would collect stamps
to demonstrate their training and competency. A passport stamp
would be a bit like getting a visa in a real passport – the basis on
which to cross borders into new terrain. As with the traveller;
so with the worker. Training, qualifications, competence – the passport
of success. This is the way to progress in your career.
That at least was the proposal, but like so many bright ideas it appears to have been lost in the mist of time. Now it seems, the hunt for talented workers – which to me sounds more positive than the oft used skills shortages - is gathering pace. While we are on the subject, a paper in Labour Market Trends back in 2002 made a useful distinction between skills shortages and skills gaps. ‘Skills shortages' refers to a lack of external availability while ‘skills gaps' implies a lack of internal training, or more accurately, the training needs of people who have the gaps.
As
anyone who visited the CIPD's HRD exhibition this month will know, learning
and development has become a vast business. Wonderful software
and carefully crafted materials vie with downright whacky ideas to capture
the attention of training providers. It usually does help if training
is fun, though actually, this is not that difficult to achieve.
People do like to learn. Few of us want to grow old
before our time!
For this issue we have provided a short introduction to some of the policy arguments, via a Cook's tour of relevant web sites. So many of our contacts are engaged in learning and development in one way or another, either as professional trainers or in some other capacity, we thought some pointers to the policy issues for busy people would be helpful.
I hope you find it useful – and the rest of the newsletter too. Do give us feedback. Like all good trainers, we value it. It keeps us young!
Maureen Scholefield
Candidates – Your Shout!
‘Experience, that most brutal of teachers, but you learn, my God do you learn,’ (CS Lewis). Wouldn’t you like to share your experience with a wider network? Start with Cullen Scholefield people, both past and current candidates. Tell us what you know at least.
‘Learning from experience is a faculty almost never practiced.’ (Barbara Tuchman) We can’t afford to make the same mistake, can we? Telling it as it was for you, can help everyone to benefit from your experience. Please help us to develop this interactive aspect of the Newsletter.
In the last issue we had a fascinating insight into the recruitment process by Dave West. The depth and range of experience of all our candidates (past and present) is something really special to us and we don’t want to lose it. Send us an email with your ideas on cs@csgconsult.com
