Edinburgh College is inspiring the next generation of care workers by giving school pupils the chance to experience real work looking after younger children, several years before they’d usually do work experience. Continue reading Inspiring the next generation of care workers
Recommendations of Learner Journey Review published
Every pupil in Scotland will have access to an online account with personalised support in choosing courses and planning a career, Deputy First Minister John Swinney has announced. It is one of seventeen recommendations in a review, of the journey through the education system for 15-24 year olds.
From 2019, pupils will have their own learner account where they can record their skills and qualifications and receive help in planning next steps into further learning or work.
Other recommendations to be taken forward by the Scottish Government, its agencies and the wider sector include:
Deputy First Minister John Swinney said: “Our school leavers now have a widening range of opportunities available – from industry-led technical professional options to long standing well-established academic routes. But what is clear is there is no single route to success in life.
“With a record proportion of school leavers going on to a positive destination, there is much to celebrate already. This review will build on firm foundations and challenges all of us within the education and skills sector to go further.
“Ensuring the right advice, support and guidance fits seamlessly around a pupil is vital. Schools, colleges, universities and employers must work together to help young people navigate what is, rightly, a wide and varied range of post-school opportunities.
“Taking forward these recommendations will require strong leadership across the sector but will ensure all young people are supported to take the learner journey that is right for them.”
Rebecca Slater, 19, from Aberdeen is an enquiry officer at Student Awards Agency Scotland who joined in 2017 as a modern apprentice. She said: “I began my learner journey when I moved from Aberdeen to Edinburgh, to start studying veterinary medicine at Edinburgh University. I chose to study this as, being someone who puts animal care at the centre of their life, I thought I would very much enjoy this career path.
“However, by the end of the academic session, I discovered the course was not actually for me and I would rather be in employment, so I left after first year and started to look for Modern Apprenticeships, where I could gain a qualification through my employment. This was very attractive to me as it was great to be able to get a qualification whilst I worked.
“I was lucky enough to find a job at SAAS through the modern apprentice scheme and recently gained my qualification for my SVQ in customer service. I really recommend the modern apprentice route and think more could be done to promote apprenticeship opportunities at school as university is not for everyone.”
Key facts:
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“The time has come to take a good look at why there are still people living in Edinburgh who are not sharing in this prosperity” – Councillor Gavin Barrie, Housing & Economy convener
An Economy Strategy to tackle inequality and poverty in the Capital has been published by the city council. The draft strategy which will be considered by councillors at the Housing and Economy Committee on Thursday, recognises that although Edinburgh remains the second most prosperous UK city outside London, jobs growth alone has not been sufficient to tackle poverty and deliver sustained improvements in living standards for everyone.
Consultation carried out with all political parties and businesses, as well as local communities and the third sector, revealed a consensus of opinion that Edinburgh’s economy should aim to create jobs and inspire innovation but that it should also do much more to ensure that the benefits of that prosperity are accessible to all residents across the city.
It has been created around three themes – innovation, inclusion and collaboration and includes ten steps to achieve this goal. The council alone cannot achieve this and needs ownership and leadership from other city partners such as the Edinburgh Partnership and Edinburgh Business Forum.
Cllr Gavin Barrie, Housing and Economy Convener, said: “Our Economy Strategy sees an important shift in the focus of our work to help Edinburgh’s economy to grow. It is going from strength to strength and has shown great resilience during tough economic times. The time has come, however, to take a good look at why there are still people living in Edinburgh who are not sharing in this prosperity.
“We need to grow our economy so that it is fair in terms of wages, opportunity, access to housing, education and good careers. Much of that work has already started through our commitment to build 20,000 new affordable homes in the city and the £1.1b Edinburgh and South-East Scotland City Region deal, which will provide £300m for world leading data innovation centres, £25m for regional skills programme to support improved career opportunities for disadvantaged groups and £65m of new funding for housing to unlock strategic development sites.
“The strategy also fits in well with the most recent Scottish Government Economic Strategy and UK Industrial Strategy, both of which have placed increasing emphasis on the need for inclusive growth for our economy.
“Locally, the strategy also represents one of the first major practical steps towards achieving the City Vision for 2050 that we have been developing with contributions from people across the city since September 2016.”
Hugh Rutherford, Chair of the Edinburgh Business Forum, said: “To stay ahead of our global competitors, Edinburgh needs a laser focus on our world leading sectors – financial services, tech, life sciences, creative industries and tourism.
“But we need more than sectoral growth – we need responsible and sustainable ‘good growth’, making sure everyone benefits in a way that’s not happened before. Crucial to the success of this will be the private sector, all levels of education, and the third and public sectors working together to achieve this common goal.”
Ella Simpson, Chief Executive, Edinburgh Voluntary Organisations’ Council, said: “I am pleased the Strategy explicitly acknowledges poverty and inequality in the City and highlights actions which aim to reduce the impact on people’s lives. The strategy needs to recognise the existing communities and people as the bedrock for fair growth in the city and it is important that we provide support to business, from all sectors, to be the best employers they can be.”
The Strategy’s ten steps, which all have their own actions plans.
Establish Edinburgh as the data capital of Europe.
Develop Edinburgh as a city of resilient businesses with the space to grow.
Create a step change in the growth of green and socially responsible business in Edinburgh.
Deliver new approaches to tackling the barriers that reinforce worklessness, poverty and inequality.
Reform Edinburgh’s education and skills landscape to meet the needs of our changing economy.
Deepen our relationships with employers to unlock good career opportunities.
Create a transformational city centre fit to power Scotland’s economy.
Build a world class Waterfront, and deliver business and residential growth in West Edinburgh.
Build affordable places for people to live and work.
Deliver sustainable and inclusive growth in our world leading culture and tourism sectors.
Electrical & Electronics Engineering students are best placed to secure a job related to their course after graduating, while almost all Travel & Tourism grads will have to look outside of their subject for a career, according to new research by job search-engine Adzuna. Continue reading Engineering students best placed to avoid graduate job struggle
We have more dates in place for our Childcare Academy Information Sessions:
Wednesday 12th July @1pm
Thursday 20th July @ 10am
Wednesday 9th August @ 1.30pm Continue reading Childcare Academy Information Sessions coming up
A surprising number of job ads still use gender-biased language in the quest for perfect candidates, but some industries are bucking the trend. The technology industry was amongst the least biased of all UK sectors, new research by job search engine Adzuna has found.
The finance and travel sectors also proved themselves more immune to sexist language than many others.
The research was conducted last month and analysed a selection of traditionally masculine and feminine words* across more than one million live job ads on Adzuna, observing the number of adverts in which each word appeared. The search covered 28 sectors and all 12 regions of the UK, to identify the industries most likely to appeal to applicants of each gender.
The research found a high proportion of ‘male-dominated’ words* in adverts for sales and consultancy positions, with words identified as masculine by the study, like ‘superior’ and ‘challenge’ appearing more often than the likes of ‘considerate’ and ‘understanding’.
Adverts for roles in teaching, social work and nursing, on the other hand, were found to be worded in a way that may appeal more to female candidates, with an emphasis on ‘compassion’, ‘warmth’ and soft skills.
Traits that pay
Ironically, greedy candidates are indeed first in line to make top dollar, with average salaries citing this trait topping the salary charts with average pay of over £60,000. Employees with principles, on the other had, command far less, with advertised salaries of £38,000.
The most popular of the ‘masculine’ words included ‘lead’ (410,748), ‘active’ (219,468) and ‘competitive’ (202,188); but ‘outspoken’ (42) and ‘stubborn’ (37) employees were less in demand.
Of the feminine words, ‘support’ (519,187 mentions), ‘responsive’ (483,428) and ‘understand’(241,741) occurred most frequently in job descriptions on the Adzuna website. Conversely, 241 employers sought gentle staff, 132 felt being affectionate would boost chances of job success and just 6 prized modesty in applicants.
Female candidates should cast their eyes East
Northern Ireland and London saw the largest concentration of job adverts geared towards male candidates.
Recruiters in the east of the country, on the other hand (including the North East, East and South Eastern regions) were more likely to appeal to female candidates, based on the language used in job ads in these areas.
Gender divide reopens at the top
Even for the sectors that appeal equally to both men and women, the research highlighted a growing gender divide as the roles became more senior and the salaries rise. In the tech industry, senior data scientists and data architect roles both proved exceptions to the neutral language used elsewhere in the sector.
Doug Monro, co-founder of Adzuna, commented: “While the tech industry once again seems to be making great strides and disrupting traditional recruitment methods, some exceptions still exist. In the emerging world of data science. Our research showed both data scientist and data architect roles remain more appealing for the male of the species.
”Unconscious bias may lead to accidental discrimination, but there is no excuse in 2017. It’s time for employers to head back to the drawing board and redesign their recruitment basics in order to keep up with the times!
”Recent data from the ONS showed a 19% pay gap persists between male employees and their female counterparts. Despite improvements, it is predicted this gap will not close for at least another 70 years. We need to do better.”
Data tables:
|
Table 1: Top 5 most masculine job ad sectors |
|||
|
Sector |
Average UK Salary |
Currently available roles |
% of masculine words |
|
1. Sales |
£29,687 |
54,018 |
58.8% |
|
2. Consultancy |
£37,596 |
19.825 |
56.9% |
|
3. PR, Advertising, and Marketing |
£34,230 |
25,525 |
56.5% |
|
4. Property |
£33,465 |
11,135 |
55.3% |
|
5. Retail |
£25,361 |
38,643 |
53.8% |
|
Table 2: Top 5 most feminine job ad sectors |
|||
|
Sector |
Average UK Salary |
Currently available roles |
% of feminine words |
|
1. Teaching |
£26,594 |
51,055 |
64.7% |
|
2. Social Work |
£27,741 |
18,750 |
61.9% |
|
3. Charity and Voluntary |
£27,197 |
9,302 |
61.2% |
|
4. Healthcare and Nursing |
£33,623 |
107,423 |
59.3% |
|
5. Admin |
£21,513 |
46,936 |
57.8% |
Table 3: Masculine words – average salaries and frequency
|
Masculine word |
Average Advertised Salary |
Current Vacancies |
|
Greedy |
£62,814 |
12 |
|
Heirachy |
£42,060 |
368 |
|
Intellect |
£46.266 |
581 |
|
Analyse |
£47,002 |
4,865 |
|
Hostile |
£46,381 |
151 |
|
Dominant |
£42,500 |
1 |
|
Analysis |
£41,339 |
74,320 |
|
Headstrong |
£41,283 |
15 |
|
Principle |
£38,430 |
30,537 |
|
Objective |
£37,829 |
67,433 |
|
Self-sufficient/sufficiency |
£37,533 |
1,711 |
|
Decision |
£36,588 |
65,090 |
|
Superior |
£36,494 |
6,570 |
|
Lead |
£36,491 |
410,748 |
|
Impulsive |
£36,098 |
155 |
|
Self-reliance |
£35,736 |
200 |
|
Opinion |
£34,395 |
7,049 |
|
Logic |
£34,807 |
12,157 |
|
Athlete |
£34,395 |
429 |
|
Challenge/Challenging |
£34,072 |
146,138 |
|
Independent/Independence |
£33,768 |
14 |
|
Persist |
£33,756 |
2,400 |
|
Active |
£33,506 |
219,468 |
|
Boast |
£33,487 |
11,606 |
|
Force |
£33,350 |
13,458 |
|
Decide |
£33,294 |
5,832 |
|
Ambitious |
£33,292 |
70,039 |
|
Compete |
£32,592 |
61,419 |
|
Determine |
£32,186 |
38,229 |
|
Reckless |
£32,123 |
75 |
|
Assert |
£32,105 |
4,395 |
|
Ambition |
£31,721 |
28,302 |
|
Competitiv |
£31,534 |
202,188 |
|
Individual |
£30,749 |
226,917 |
|
Masculine |
£30,270 |
32 |
|
Confident |
£30,233 |
150,185 |
|
Courage |
£30,240 |
1,497 |
|
Self-confiden |
£29,864 |
6,642 |
|
Outspoken |
£29,660 |
37 |
|
Stubborn |
£28,147 |
42 |
|
Adventurous |
£27,142 |
3,152 |
Table 4: Feminine words – average salaries and frequency
|
Feminine word |
Average Advertised Salary |
Current Vacancies |
|
Tender |
£44,013 |
18,938 |
|
Submissive |
£40,506 |
14,041 |
|
Flatterable |
£38,715 |
108 |
|
Connect |
£36,822 |
33,393 |
|
Understand |
£35,673 |
241,741 |
|
Considerate |
£35,664 |
35,258 |
|
Cooperate |
£35,310 |
6.699 |
|
Trust |
£35,151 |
49,600 |
|
Yield |
£34,564 |
1,949 |
|
Responsive |
£33,833 |
483,428 |
|
Interpersonal |
£33,648 |
58,938 |
|
Together |
£32,897 |
50,295 |
|
Affectionate |
£32,733 |
132 |
|
Support |
£32,130 |
519,187 |
|
Dependable |
£31,350 |
5.051 |
|
Sensitive |
£31,254 |
181,228 |
|
Nuture/nuturing |
£30,578 |
20,417 |
|
Commit |
£30,286 |
5,727 |
Continue reading Tech Industry ‘least sexist’ in UK employment market
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