The New Qualification Credit Framework

 
 

Next year will see some of the biggest changes in the further education system for quite some time, but what are they and are they going to be of benefit to us, the employer? 

Short or long answer? 

Well the truth is no one really has any answers as the information is coming out very slowly and in no particular order, awarding bodies such as City and Guilds have already updated a large amount of their qualifications to meet the new framework but what is the difference?

Under the new framework learners will be assigned their own personal reference number so they can effectively build up  their qualification over a period of time, the benefit of employers here is that the training can be relevant to their particular job and has the flexibility that has been need for so long.  Learners can achieve three different levels; Award, Certificate and Diploma depending on the amount of credits they build up of period of time. 

Sound good, well in theory it is a vast improvement and should allow colleges and training providers to tailor their service to meet employer needs.  So what's the problem?  Well as ever there are a few obstacles, firstly the time frame has been argued that it does not fully allow for changes of this kind but that will always be a sticking point for various people in the sector, but the main one is funding, which is the one area that dictates to providers how training is delivered.  With the LSC disbanding next year they seem unwilling to commit on whether funding will be available per units as the QCF promotes or per minimum amount of units (i.e. a full qualification) which to be honest has no real difference to the system in place now.  So when will we know?

Your guess is as good as mine, my main worry is that if the professionals in the education sector are not fully aware of what is happening how can the employer be informed of the options available to them?

We shall see.

VAT – back to 17.5%

3 months sees the end of the VAT reduction introduced by Alistair Darling in December 2008. VAT dropped by 2.5% and government reports state that the average household will benefit to the tune of over £400 per year! While a large amount of businesses were against the temporary change there are now a number of them who would admit that it has helped them keep their prices down and remain competitive providing stronger results than analysts predicted, particularly in Retail sector.

So when does it revert back to 17.5%? New years day believe or not, one of the busiest days for a large number of businesses, restaurants, pubs, shops to name but a few, and there have been a large number of requests for the government to delay the date allowing businesses enough time to adapt and make the necessary administrative changes. Unfortunately the government have said a resounding no as it would cost the country millions of pounds if only delayed for one day and they are not prepared to waste that money, well I guess that makes a change!

So I guess the best we can hope for is that HMRC adopt a flexible approach throughout that time frame. We shall see!

Is the economy on the up?

I was talking to a former colleague of mine who now works for an insolvency practice about the current state of our economy and when she felt it would start to recover.  Normally (as I have been informed) a recession takes the form of 'V' shape, when the economy is contracting is depicted as a downhill slope and the steep slope is a sign of economic recovery.

However it has been suggested that this current climate takes the form of an irregular 'W', so where are we now you ask?  Apparently approaching the tip the of centre point, housing process are starting to increase as are sales, however and this is important, unemployment is still rising and quickly approaching the 3 million mark…..not good, to say the least.

So why a 'W'?  well there are many suggestions, and one that I seem to hear more regularly than most, some employers are concerned that they cannot meet the costs of redundancy and are waiting for business to increase (which it has started to do so) before committing to any further expenditure.  This is now starting to happen so regardless of the positive signs in the housing market, while unemployment levels increase the economy will not be able to stabilise itself and will start to contract again as consumer spending decreases and people fall into arrears with mortgages etc as they no longer have a regular income to cover their monthly overheads. Although this will not be anywhere near as serious as what we have already been through it does tell it that economy as it stands is in a very fragile state.

So when will the economy return to normal?  Well firstly what is normal?  The over inflated prices of 2007 and the ease of which credit was issued?  It is unlikely that credit will be dished out with disregard for a very long time.  With regards to housing market, experts predict that prices will not come close to that of its 2007 peak until around 2013, but really who knows, these were the same experts who said that the 'credit crunch' would never happen!

Royal Mail strikes again?

Well it's been all over the news today and the question is, is anyone going to have any sympathy with Royal Mail Postal workers, especially in these difficult economic times, if they decide to go on strike?

 
 

We are now approaching a time that I have no doubt many retailers have been waiting for with much anticipation and in some cases desperation, I am of course talking about Christmas.  With online sales growing year on year and getting particularly strong around the Xmas period, Royal Mail workers now have online retailers fate in their hands.

 
 

I have a couple of colleagues that run relatively small but successful shops on eBay and they were grumbling the other day to each other about the time it was taking for packages to get through and with some not even turning up at all and the additional costs they were incurring.  There are a suspected 20 million letters/parcels stuck in a back log as result of the local strikes that have been taking place recently,  although Royal Mail claim it is closer to the 6 million mark and this figure is only the result of regional strikes.

 
 

If Royal Mail delivers approximately 95 million items a day what is the potential damage that can be caused to our economy should a national strike take place this side of Christmas? Will it put people off shopping online?

 
 

For full details on this story, visit this link.

Facebook – now has 300 million users!

So facebook now has over 300 million users worldwide, with an increase of 75 million since July (around 5 million a week) and has just announced that have they have started to make a profit, just under four months early than forecasted.

 

They are also working on a new facebook lite in response to the fact that not everyone in the world has access to high speed broadband and the desire to make Facebook more accessible. It has been reported that this lite version is very 'twitter like' and is quite possibly facebooks answer to the competition has Twitter has brought with its unique and simple interface and a growing membership exceeding 50 million.

 

Social Networking has demonstrated a powerful tool when promoting your business and the number of brands and organisations that have their own profile/s is ever increasing and why not? Firstly its free, it opens up an audience that would cost untold amounts to reach using the more conventional ways and secondly there are now so many registered users and steadily increasing, its only going to get bigger, so now is the time to get started (if you haven't already) and register with some of the leading sites, the two I have mentioned would be a good start and see how things progress from there. Good Luck!

 

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Support for Small Business

In the news today an update on the new maternity laws that have been discussed, the government's initial plan to implement a 12 month statutory maternity is due to be scrapped as it has been deemed too expensive and does not fall in line the cuts planned on public spending. However what has also been announced are plans to allow both parents to split the leave; http://uk.news.yahoo.com/4/20090915/tuk-extra-pay-for-new-mums-to-be-scrappe-dba1618.html. This would be a vast improvement on the current two weeks paternity pay.

I recently same across this website and found it particularly informative on support not only for small business (granted in the North East) but for people that have recently been made redundant in the North East and is partnered closely with Business Link, Job Centre Plus and One North East and has a number of contact information for people or organisations that might be able to help you. For more information click on the link; http://www.realhelpnortheast.co.uk/.

On another note we have just added some Health and Safety Downloads click the link to check them out. If you haven't already you can sign up to our newsletter and we will inform you when we add any new content.

Robert Peston interviews Gordon Brown

Here is an interesting post of when Robert Peston (BBC Business Editor) interviews Gordon Brown.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/robertpeston/2009/09/pm_well_cut_with_germany_franc.html