Quo Vadis Opinions

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Been a while since I posted, … time just flies.. sorry

Hopefully these links will be useful
The “activation measures” to help the unemployed
45 new courses for the unemployed seeking to enter college
Listing on Learning Ireland website
Geographic listing on Aontas website
Free courses on DIT website.

Profile of volunteers is changing as recession hits
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Top mistakes made in job interviews
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Less excuses for being late, but they are more creative
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Retrain in science, IT and sales, say experts
According to a panel of recruitment and academic experts the areas the long-term unemployed should be considering re-training in are science, accountancy, sales, information technology, biotechnology and pharmaceutical services. Ed Walsh, founding president of the University of Limerick, has advised people to re-skill as much as they can and to leave the country if they still can’t find employment. (Irish Examiner, 07/08/10)
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The latest expert skills report is out.  Not a major amount of new change since the last one was issued. It reports a further reduction in the number of people employed with the biggest losses in construction, traditional and modern manufacturing, agricultural, retail and wholesale.

The report confirms the trends of employers having difficulties in recruiting only in a small number of certain high skills specialised areas.
These include
Engineering Specialists within an occupation
Pharmaceutical industry,
Medical devices,
Water purification,
Quality control,
Validation pharmaceutical and medical devices,
Wind energy
 High voltage electrical engineering.

Senior specialists
 Senior software developers, experienced marketing managers with specialised industry knowledge
Niche areas
 Nordic languages with telesales, scientists & science technicians with specific R&D experience

A specific skill mix
e.g. ICT with business

Financial
actuaries, risk managers etc with some difficulties  reported in recruiting multilingual accounting clerks.

Assuming the economy returns to growth and the various financial issues are resolved the authors believe 96,000 jobs made up of 44,000 replacements due to retirements and deaths with 52,000 through the expansion of industries will be created between 2011 and 2014.
The full report can be read here

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College fees to return?
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Taster of college life
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More adults looking to return to education
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A good free quiz to test your motivation to get work done
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I coached a client recently, who had been sacked from a job for poor performance, after reporting a fraud. Unfortunately because she was less than a year in the job, she had no rights under employment law.
Hopefully you will never be in this very stressful situation, but here are some pointers  just in case. 
What can you learn from the experience?
Generally there are usually some indications that all is not well, prior to the sacking. Did you notice these indications? If not does this indicate you are not tuning in well to communications between you and your boss or co-workers?

Good communications?
If there were no indications, that you could reasonably have seen, was there good communication between you and your boss? If not maybe this is an area you need to improve on in your next job.

Looking for the next job
In looking for your next job, you need to establish whether there is any chance new employers will find out you were sacked from a previous job. If they are likely to find out, then be upfront about it and immediately state what you have learnt from the experience.
If relevant, explain why you may not have been a good fit for the organisation and position it as strength. For example if applying for a position in a very control orientated employer you could state “well it was a go-ahead young entrepreneurial company, and I’ve learnt I prefer to work in a company where T’s are crossed and I’s dotted, so I understand why I was not a good fit, as they wanted to act fast, where I insisted on the paperwork first then act.

Never criticise
Never ever criticise your previous employer, as this just makes you look bitter and no employer wants to employ bitter people.

Fixed Term contract?
 If you were only with the company a short time, is it reasonable to say it was a fixed term contract?

If you feel you are in danger of being sacked, don’t wait till it happens, but start looking around.

What  did my client  learn?
My client has learnt a lot from the experience and has now been shortlisted for a new position, so hopefully they’ll be back working soon. In the meantime they are keeping busy, with exercise, socialising and also completing additional training courses. One thing they have learnt though is  it is not enough just to be good in your specialist area and follow the legal advice you’re given.  There’s also a need to build working friendships with other managers that you deal with in other departments, as this may have made a difference in their case.

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What graduates do next, once they leave college?
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How to sort out long winded meetings
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Students can apply for grants earlier this year
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Some students still waiting on this year’s grants!
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Low cost seminars on redundancy and your rights
Further details

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Lots of publicity around Minister Mary Coughlan’s request  to colleges to consider accepting an “E” grade on honours maths for college admission. On the surface this looks good as surely an “E” in honours maths is better than a “D” in pass maths.
However really this request as with so much of government  action  is addressing a symptom rather than the real issue which has been around a long ,long time.

The real issue is Irish students are not scoring high enough in maths compared to other countries. This is a problem because due to our high costs we need to attract high paying jobs many of which require good skills in maths and science.
Not enough students take honours maths, because it is a difficult course which requires substantial extra time compared to other subjects, plus failure in maths can prevent students from entering many college courses.

Maths Teachers  not fully qualified
Coupled with research which shows that nearly half  of secondary  maths teachers are not fully qualified to teach maths, you begin to see why students stay away from honours maths.

In fairness the Department has started to address this with the new project mathscurriculum, but many teachers seem to be very unhappy with this course, which aims to be much more practical ,realistic and actually develop thinking skills.  Not sure why this is so. The national roll out will see the first of the five  new strands  changing the exam in 2011 with full implementation in 2014. The target is to nearly double the percentage  of leaving certificate students sitting honours maths to 30%.

DCU has already taken the initiative and dropped the honours maths requirement for their manufacturing engineering with business studies (dc196)course . The curriculum has been revised to teach additional maths in the course.
So this could be a good option for people with an engineering interest, but do be aware that this route means you may not be able to transfer directly to one of the Engineers Ireland accredited B.eng programmes. (The DC196 course is not accredited). It’s still worth looking at for those with an interest in engineering but without honours maths.

PS
If you are considering leaving certificate  subject choices in general, remember taking one additional language, e.g. French, Spanish etc and one science subject is the best way to keep as many college options  open as possible.

Fancy a career as a doll fashion designer?
Only in America, where they can earn $68,000 per year.
Full story here

Career builder app for iphone.
Currently only in Canada but depending on uptake they will make it more widely available.
Full story here

UCD to attract more mature students
Full story here

Programme for Graduates with Disabilities/Specific Learning Difficulties:
“WAM (Willing Able Mentoring) is a FÁS funded programme which aims to promote a more inclusive labour market for graduates with disabilities. It is led by AHEAD, the Association for Higher Education Access and Disability, which seeks to promote full access to and full participation of students with disabilities in higher education and to assist with their transition from education into employment. Participating employers in WAM offer paid and mentored placements to graduates with disabilities and specific learning difficulties for up to six months duration. Work Opportunities Now Available!
Deadline: Friday, 14th May at 5.00pm.”
More details here

 National College of Ireland Change Your Life Education Fund
“National College of Ireland has teamed up with Metro Herald and Ireland AM to offer a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to change your life, upgrade your skills and acquire the qualifications and confidence to succeed.  The winner will earn an amazing prize package including an educational fund worth €20,000 and €15,000 in other supports, like personal mentoring, computer equipment and even a style package worth €1,000. Contestants just need to answer one simple question: Why do you want to change your life, and how could education help?
Deadline: Friday July 23rd.”
More details here

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career guidance Ireland

How to safely quit the day job- retiring early in economically tough times

I enjoyed reading this book as the author Ian Mitchell has a funny light hearted approach to the complex area of financing your retirement in Ireland.
The book is divided into three parts. The first is about defining what you want. While it talks about portfolio careers it does not go into a lot of detail on this. It uses a nice simple example to show how to look at your life, what money you’re spending and how to make savings. It does not go into much detail though on looking for alternative careers with a better work life balance. Ghazi and Jones “Downshifting, the guide to happier and simpler living” is probably a better guide to choosing how to get to a better work life balance.
Where Mitchell really does well though is making the very boring and complex area of pension planning clearer using plain language which is easy to understand. In part two he shows how to work out the numbers, in part three he gets in to the really complex stuff, but again tries to keep it simple.

He makes it crystal clear why because of tax relief that it really is a no brainer to invest in a pension.  Even though my pension funds value are way down on their previous values, because of tax relief my pension fund is still worth more than I originally invested.
Even if you’re not thinking of retiring now, would it not be nice to reduce the tax you pay by saving some money?
In the next edition, he could usefully cover the impact of expenses within pension funds as this has a huge effect on investment returns and also how to choose a qualified financial adviser. (QFA;s) Although QFA’s are regulated, I’ve noticed a huge difference in the quality of the advice they give, so you do need to be careful about who you take advice from.
April’s consumer choice has a good article on choosing the right QFA.

There has been lots of noise about the Government reducing the tax relief on pensions, so now is a good time to think about planning your future finances, even if you’re broke at the moment. So unless you are a TD with multiple pensions, this book is a must read for the non expert. Any one from their late 20’s onwards should read it.

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Students who are just finishing 5th year (year 12 A-Level), and want to find out more about what discipline they want to pursue at university, may  find the UCD Summer School very useful in confirming their third-level study decisions. 

The following programme areas/subjects are participating:

Architecture,

Agricultural Science,

Food Science and Nutrition,

Business,

Computer Science,

Engineering,

History,

Law and Science.

Cost is reasonable too at €25 per day.

Further details here

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Apparently workers are getting better at not being late for work
Click here for full story

Job trends from America. Some useful advice
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New social networking website specifically aimed at career building.
Click here to go to website

Scam jobs again
“Roughly one-fourth of recruiting advertisements on such giant job sites as Monster.com, Jobing.com and CareerBuilder.com are fraudulent.” Also some useful tips on what to watch out for
Click here for full article

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