Business secretary Peter Mandelson has outlined the responsibilities of his ministerial team at the new Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS). BIS was created last week, merging the Department for Business, Enterprise & Regulato  More...
11 June 2009 12:17

Leading retail bosses have called on HR functions to embrace diplomas and apprenticeships as a means of developing long-lasting talent within the sector. Justin King, chief executive of Sainsbury's, and John King, chief executive of House of Fras  More...
02 June 2009 12:00

May saw the publication of two reports highlighting the plight of graduates and school leavers trying to find jobs this summer. But unless employers act now to keep emerging talent engaged with the labour market, they may face long-term recruitment prob  More...
28 May 2009 15:00

A sector skills council for financial services has been threatened with closure after failing to reach the required standards during a licensing review. In July last year the UK Commission for Employment and Skills (UKCES) announced that all 25 sect  More...
12 May 2009 13:41

HR news and analysis including: angry CIPD staff have attacked CEO Jackie Orme's handling of redundancies employer representative bodies announce wish lists for next week’s Budget and research finds thousands of companies are failing to f  More...
17 April 2009 15:27

Train to Gain is in danger of running out of money this year following the recent surge in employer demand for the service, it has emerged. After a slow start to the government's flagship skills brokerage service, the Learning and Skills Council (LSC  More...
09 April 2009 10:19

HR news and analysis including: HR directors slam government plans to force employers to advertise skilled jobs locally first; experts recommend diverting high-potential staff via HR departments on their way to becoming CEOs and senior mana  More...
27 February 2009 16:36

Skills minister Lord Tony Young, Simon Waugh of the National Apprenticeship Service and Dave Walsh, BT’s head of apprenticeships join us live online to discuss apprenticeships.  More...
23 February 2009 15:46

Apprenticeship Week 2009 starts this week in an attempt to draw attention to the government scheme. Following a series of television commercials featuring Amstrad founder Sir Alan Sugar, a week of events has been organised by the Learning and Skills  More...
23 February 2009 00:01

Huge government resources are dedicated to training, but the schemes on offer often baffle those trying to access them. Guy Sheppard finds out how HR can best unravel the mess.   More...
17 February 2009 15:37

HR news and analysis including: Pilots union BALPA criticises BMI after pay was taken back from employees' account and then returned minus a pay rise Benefits under threat as employers cope with recession And Twitter. What is it and h  More...
06 February 2009 18:51

The government has set-up guideline training contracts for a range skills in the public sector. The Office of Government Commerce (OGC) announced on Friday that best-practice procurement arrangements for buying training contracts are due to rep  More...
02 February 2009 11:54

HR news and analysis including: HR directors fight back against the recession by focusing on training and development; and a legal ruling by the Information Commissioner that may pave the way for job candidates to see other applicant’s inte  More...
23 January 2009 16:13

HR news and analysis including: MPs condemn the Leitch Review skills targets, labelling them "unrealistic and unachievable", and Leading HR practitioners reject the results of a survey of line managers that claims HR is neither particularly t  More...
16 January 2009 15:02

An influential group of MPs has branded the Leitch Review skills targets that consume hundreds of millions of pounds of government training funding as "unrealistic and unachievable". The House of Commons Innovation, Universities, Science and Skills  More...
16 January 2009 01:27

Employers in the housing, facilities management, fashion and textiles sectors are to benefit from a £93m government investment in training. New skills minister Lord Young said the money would be earmarked to tackle current and future skills shorta  More...
17 October 2008 08:19

Home improvement retailer B&Q became the 100,000th company to sign up to Train to Gain, but employer groups say more should join. The service, which launched in 2006 to improve skills, has helped more than 570,000 employees in England to find tr  More...
08 October 2008 09:52

The Constructing Better Health initiative was set to provide an effective conduit between construction firms and OH providers. Wendy Stimson explains what has been achieved so far.   More...
01 October 2008 09:00

Two senior HR directors from the hospitality industry have been appointed trustees of People 1st, the sector's skills council. Robin Mills, HR director at Compass Group UK and Ireland, and Natalie Bickford, HR director at Sodexo UK and Ireland, will   More...
11 September 2008 11:10

The UK government has failed to tackle 'chronic underfunding' in the social care sector despite a growing demand for services, research has found. A report by the Social Care Employers Consortium (SCEC) claims that local authorities must cover the  More...
03 September 2008 08:00