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Employers need to train and performance manage older workers better or risk falling foul of the law when Default Retirement Age is phased out, according to a CIPD survey.
As the Pensions Bill makes its way through The Commons, the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) has released a new survey demonstrating that older workers are often neglected when it comes to training and performance management. It highlights the need for employers to ensure they are managing the performance of all employees effectively, particularly before the final phase out of the Default Retirement Age (DRA).
A survey of 2000 employees has found that older workers are also much less likely than younger workers to have received training, with 51 per cent of those aged over 65 saying they had received no training in the last three years, compared to 32% across all age groups.
From October, employers will no longer be able to require employees to retire at a certain age, except in certain limited circumstances, which will mean employers will need to ensure their performance management systems and practices focus as much on older workers as the rest of the workforce.
More from the CIPD
27 April 2014
Government figures show that the highest ever proportion of 16-18 year olds were participating in education or training at the end of 2010.
The provisional data showed:
- The proportion of 16-18 year olds in education and training was 84.4 per cent compared to 82.5 per cent at the end of 2009. The total number of 16-18 year olds in education and training increased by 1,600 to 1.64 million at the end of 2010.
- The proportion of 16-18 year olds not in education, employment or training (NEET) decreased from 9.4 per cent at the end of 2009 to 7.3 per cent at the end of 2010.
The data also show a record proportion of 16-17 year olds participating in education or work-based learning ? the age group that will be the focus of the Department?s policy to raise the participation age.
Source
27 April 2014
One in nine adults have no formal qualifications and there are huge local variations in levels of education within Britain?s adult population, reveals an analysis published by the University and College Union.
It shows a Britain divided by a wide educational gulf: in some areas, a third of 16 to 64 year-olds are without qualifications, while in others the proportion is as low as two per cent.
In the Glasgow North East constituency 35 per cent of adults have no qualifications, compared to only 1.9 per cent in Brent North.
The UCU analysis shows that in some southern constituencies it has become very unusual not to have qualifications - while in parts of the West Midlands it remains widespread.
There are more people without qualifications in Birmingham Hodge Hill than in Cambridge, Winchester, Wimbledon, Buckingham, Romsey, Leeds North West and four other constituencies put together.
Source
27 April 2014
A report by Carol Vorderman says that school pupils in England should study maths up to the age of 18.
It says radical change is needed to give children the mathematical skills needed to succeed in a workplace where numeracy is increasingly important.
Almost half of 16-year-olds fail to achieve grade C at GCSE, with just 15 per cent studying maths beyond that level.
In almost all other industrialised countries either all, or nearly all, students study maths to the age of 18.
More than 300 000 16-year-olds each year completed their education without enough understanding of maths to function properly in their work or private lives.
24 per cent of economically active adults were ?functionally innumerate?, and universities and employers complained that school-leavers did not have necessary maths skills.
The report concluded that the GCSE curriculum leans towards advanced topics needed by those who will study maths at A-level, which puts off less gifted pupils.
It recommends that the current maths GCSE should be split into two separate exams:
One would offer a higher standard of education in the core areas of the curriculum, such as basic numeracy and personal finance, while the other acted as a preparation for A-level.
Source
27 April 2014
Micro businesses want to grow, but struggle to find the right staff, reveals British Chambers of Commerce report:
In a survey of over 2000 micro businesses, over half (55%) are looking to increase the number of staff they employ. However, one in two (50%) find it difficult to recruit the right people.
Micro businesses are vital to the success of the UK economy. These firms generate a fifth of private sector turnover in the UK, and employ a fifth of all its employees.
Many micro firms are frustrated by being unable to find the right skills in the local labour market. When asked how confident they would be that a school-leaver with A-levels or the equivalent would have the necessary skills for their business, almost half (47%) said they would be fairly or very nervous; with only 22% saying there were very or fairly confident.
When asked the same question with regard to graduates, only a third (36%) of micro firms was very or fairly confident that university leavers would have the right skills for the job.
The report also found:
- Over half of micro firms (55%) are looking to increase the number of staff they employ before 2015. Only 2.5% are looking to decrease their staff numbers over the same period with one in five looking to double their staff numbers.
- Less than half of micro firms (40%) felt well informed about changes to employment legislation.
- 39% of micro businesses stated that rules around dismissal were extremely or fairly burdensome.
Source
27 April 2014
Although money is shown as ?available? in their accounts, many people don?t realise that the money can still be ?clawed back?.
PayPal, to be fair, tells you that money received into your account can be subject to ?charge backs?, but UK banks don?t advertise the ?loophole? in their system which is exploited by scammers.
When you pay a cheque into your account, the funds become available for you to use after three working days, but the cheque is not fully ?cleared? for another three working days. This means that if the cheque is stolen, fraudulent or fake, the bank can ?claw back? the money up to six business days after you have paid it in.
Scammers take advantage of this by writing you a cheque for something you are selling and ask you not to send the item until you have checked that the funds are in your account. You send the item, and shortly after that the bank ?claws back? the money from your account.
A variation of this scam is where the scammer writes a cheque for an amount which is more than required for, say, a holiday let. You are then asked to do a Western Union transfer or forward some of that extra money to someone else and to keep some of it ?for your trouble?.
27 April 2014
Significant, notable and interesting dates.
27 April 2014
One of the problems for Apple newbies is that some of Windows? keys seem to be missing. An example of this is the Delete or ?del? key.
The delete key on the Apple Mac is the Backspace (<- ) key, but the problem with this is that it is a ?backward? delete - not the ?forward? delete of Window?s Delete key.
?Forward? delete can be achieved on the Apple Mac by pressing the ?fn? key at the same time as the Backspace key.
27 April 2014
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