A political example
Dermot Ahern, Minister for Justices is obviously suffering from the long hour’s syndrome as he called for higher fees for ATM transactions to discourage bank robberies, only to retract when saner voices protected. (Incidentally I ended up withdrawing €500 cash this week to make a payment because the electronic payment had not been processed by my bank within the standard 3 working days. In England a similar payment can be in the other person’s bank account within twenty minutes! Maybe addressing this issue will go towards solving the high cash levels in circulation)
Anyhow I know when I worked seventy to eight hour weeks my decision making ability became weaker and weaker.

A medical example
A really tragic example of the impact of long hours is this week’s medical council review of the Stewart/Conroy case where a consultant (Martin Corbally) noted incorrectly that the left kidney was to be removed on a then eight year old boy rather than the diseased right kidney. Despite the parents raising concerns on four different occasions, the operating doctor (Sri Paran) removed the healthy kidney, without reviewing the X-rays.
Both doctors worked very long hours of up to 80 hours a week. Both come across as caring and responsible professionals who immediately admitted the mistake and are now putting together a joint document to see what lessons can be learnt from this fiasco and to prevent it happening again. The Medical Council review does not appear to have addressed the issue of doctors working long hours though.

Impaired decision making
If you are working very long hours over an extended period of time, be aware your decision making ability is probably impaired not just in your working life but in your personal life. If you’re stuck in a rut and don’t feel able to take action to change the long hours seek professional help. If this is not an option do make sure to get some physical exercise at least 3 to 4 times a week as this is known to help. 

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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 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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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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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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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
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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.

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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
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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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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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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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