As the Company aligns its operating model to capitalise on opportunities in the Personal Development and Career Management sectors, here are some of the latest news headlines to keep us all up-to-date.
LIDL TO PIONEER RECOMMENDED LIVING WAGE
BBC; 18 September 2015
Lidl has said it will become the first UK supermarket to implement the minimum wage as recommended by the Living Wage Foundation. From October, Lidl UK employees will earn a minimum of £8.20 an hour across England, Scotland and Wales, and £9.35 an hour in London, the supermarket said. The Foundation will announce a change in its recommended rates in November. The rate is different from the National Living Wage as set out in the Budget. Lidl said that if the Living Wage Foundation raised its recommended rate in its annual announcement in November, Lidl would adjust its minimum wage accordingly. Currently, Lidl pays its staff a minimum of £7.30 an hour and £8.03 an hour inside London. The Living Wage Foundation’s current recommended minimal hourly rate is £7.85, and £9.15 inside London. The National Living Wage as required by the UK government, which was set out in George Osborne’s July Budget, is set to be £7.20 an hour from April 2016 for people aged over 25.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-34281559
FORGET A* A-LEVELS, WHAT BUSINESS NEEDS IS PEOPLE SKILLS
Anthony Seldon;Times Published at 12:01AM, September 21 2015
Schools are robbing our young of the opportunity to blossom into the unique individuals that they are, and develop their own innate capacities, because too many teachers think that cramming pupils’ heads full of GCSE-think is education. Year on year, the idea of exams as the sole validator of schools has grown. But this warped view is being assaulted from a new direction, providing further evidence that the Gradgrinders (or grade-grinders) behind our education system are getting things wrong. David Deming, of the Harvard Graduate School of Education, argues in a paper published last month that since 1980, the jobs with the biggest growth and increases in salary have been those that require a high degree of social skills — patronisingly called “soft skills” by this country’s education establishment, or “the Blob”. Women, he finds, have disproportionately benefited from the economy’s shift towards interpersonal, collaborative skills. Employment has fallen for statisticians, actuaries and chemical technicians, jobs that major on the cognitive skills on which exams focus.
WOMEN WITH DEGREES EARN THREE TIMES AS MUCH AS THOSE WITHOUT
The Guardian; Larry Elliott Economics editor Thursday 24 September 201500.06 BST
Women with degrees earn at least three times as much as a non-graduates within a decade of leaving university, according to the first large-scale report into the impact of higher education on wages and salaries in the UK. A study conducted by the Institute for Fiscal Studies, Cambridge and Harvard universities found that the graduate premium for women was greater than for men, even though male graduates on average earned more.
Researchers found that median earnings of men 10 years after graduation were about twice those of a non-graduate while female graduates earned more than three times as much as their non-graduate counterparts. The study used tax records and student loan data for 260,000 people who were at university between 1998 and 2011 and whose earnings were looked at for the tax year 2011-12. It found that 10 years after graduation, 10% of male graduates were earning more than £55,000 a year, 5% were earning more than £73,000, and 1% were earning more than £148,000. Ten years after graduation, 10% of female graduates were earning more than £43,000 a year, 5% were earning more than £54,000 and 1% were earning more than £89,000.
http://www.theguardian.com/money/2015/sep/24/women-with-degrees-earn-three-times-as-much-as-those-without
PROPOSED STUDENT LOAN CHANGES WOULD AFFECT WOMEN AND POOR MOST – STUDY
Research finds George Osborne’s proposals to freeze the repayment minimum salary at £21,000 and replace grants with loans could significantly increase costs
The Guardian; Thursday 24 September 2015 04.58 BST
Graduates could end up paying back thousands of pounds extra on their tuition fee loans under government proposals to alter the system, according to research.
It suggests that women are more likely to be affected than men, while those from poor backgrounds could be hit the hardest. The new study, published by the Sutton Trust, looks at plans laid out by the chancellor, George Osborne, in the summer budget to change the student loan repayment system. Under the proposals, which are open for consultation, ministers are considering freezing the level at which graduates start to repay their loans at £21,000 for five years from 2016. This move, the government’s preferred option, would affect those who took out loans from 2012 onwards. It was expected that from next year, students would pay back loans when earning £21,000 – a system introduced when tuition fees were trebled to a maximum of £9,000 three years ago, with this salary updated annually in line with average earnings. The new research report, by higher education consultant John Thompson, argues that freezing the repayment threshold, as well as other proposed changes such as replacing maintenance grants designed to help poorer students living costs with loans, could significantly increase the cost of going to university.
http://www.theguardian.com/education/2015/sep/24/proposed-student-loan-changes-would-affect-women-and-poor-most-study
DEGREES CAN BOOST SALARY BY £14,000
The Times; Greg Hurst Education Editor at 12:01AM, September 24 2015
Graduates earned between £10,000 and £14,000 more in their early careers than people of a similar age who did not go to university, a study has shown.
The research is the largest carried out to quantify the “graduate premium” and demonstrates that women in particular earn significantly more if they have been to university. Male graduates earned on average £29,500 a year after working for 14 years compared with £17,000 for men who did not go to university. For women, average salaries were £21,600 for graduates and £11,000 for non-graduates.
The study, by researchers from Cambridge and Harvard universities and the Institute for Fiscal Studies, combined earnings from tax records, student loan repayments and labour force survey returns for 260,000 people across a ten-year period from 1998. The authors, who were given permission from the government to access the data, used median rather than mean salaries to calculate the graduate premium, which gave lower average salaries as these included large numbers of adults on very low pay.
ARE GRADUATES BETTER OFF UP NORTH?
The Guardian; Stephanie Thomson Monday 21 September 2015 14.01 BST
For decades UK graduates have sought their fortune in the capital. “After I finished my degree, I felt like all roads led to London,” recalls Claire Austin, a language graduate who studied in Manchester and worked for the Marks & Spencer graduate scheme.It’s such a well-trodden path – 60% of those living in inner city London are graduates – that many university leavers don’t even consider other options. “Moving to London after university was something you just did – my friends were doing it, my sister had done it – so it was more of an automatic decision than a thoroughly thought out one,” says Tim Duong, a recent graduate from Bristol University who works for Google as head of a recruitment team.But could that path be leading graduates towards a life of long commutes, shoebox flats and hand-to-mouth living? Would they be better off looking beyond the M25 to cities such as Manchester, Newcastle, Liverpool and Sheffield?
http://www.theguardian.com/careers/2015/sep/21/are-graduates-better-off-up-north
THE TOP 10 DEGREES SUBJECTS TO STUDY FOR THE HIGHEST PAYING JOBS
The Independent; SAMUEL OSBORNE Sunday 20 September 2015
Deciding which degree to study at university can be a difficult decision for many students.
While it’s always better to choose a degree based on how much you enjoy a subject, if you’re struggling to decide between two courses it can be good to consider future career prospects.Job search engine Adzuna has looked through the listings on its website to calculate the average salaries for graduates of every degree. Here are the 10 degrees that can get you the highest paying jobs in the UK:
10) Maths
Average pay: £39,015
Codebreaker Alan Turing Codebreaker Alan Turing Maths graduates are currently in high demand in the UK, so they can command higher salaries. Many choose to work as finance workers, accountants, bankers or statisticians. The degree can also be useful for those looking to work in technology.
http://www.independent.co.uk/student/the-top-10-degrees-subjects-to-study-for-the-highest-paying-jobs-10509024.html
