Is it time we stopped shaming the unemployed?

When you’re unemployed and a person asks you what you do for work, you may almost feel a sense of guilt in saying you don’t have a job right now. But why is this the case? We’ve all been June, played at some stage, and it can happen to anyone, no matter how talented or ‘special’ they may be. Unemployment is real. It can be the result of redundancy, business closures, or lack of thriving business in a particular area. It’s almost never about the individual.

It’s about the market

The job market moves fast. Opporuntities opens nd closein the link of an eye. Our thoght is why feel shame? There is nothing wrong, spiteful or careless about being unemployed. It’s not likely that you wished to lose your job. You didn’t control the business circumstances that created downsizing and a lack of opportunities. You don’t control the demand in the economy for your services or goods. Okay so you don’t have a job right now. Fine. That doesn’t take away from your many skills and talents.

How to Find The Best Conference Venue

The process of finding the right venue for a conference can take time and effort because there is a wide range of options to choose from. Many people have ended up regretting the choice they made when it was too late. There is no need to go through this. Investing time and effort in the process will help you choose the best option out there. Below are some tips that will go a long way in helping you make the right choice.

Location
This is one of the most important things when it comes to choosing the best conference venue. You should choose a place where it will be convenient for people attending the conference, with free parking and easy transport links. Outdoor space is something people underestimate until the day of the conference. Getting a venue with outdoor space gives you a little more options and space.

Budget
Before you start the process of searching conference venues London, you need to know your budget. When you have a budget, you will be able to filter the number of options you have, and you don’t have to be tempted with venues that are much more than what you can afford. You should not choose venues that are cheaper because they tend to compromise on services or you might have to deal with hidden costs that add up. When looking for a conference venue, always look at the value. Go through reviews to know what past clients think about the venue.

Facilities and Services
A good venue will offer you great facilities and services that come as a standard. You will have an easier time planning for the conference because most of the things are provided by the venue. If the delegates are going to travel from far, then you should look at venues that provide accommodation. There is no need to have them looking for accommodation in a new place they don’t know much about.

Space
Know the number of delegates you are expecting so you can know the type and size of space you are going to need. If it is a small meeting, then a more intimate venue might be the best option. It the event is large, you need to choose a venue providing meeting spaces with breakout rooms, accommodation, restaurants, and outside space.

The tips above will go a long way in helping you choose the best conference venue.

Effective Strategies To Recruit The Best Teachers

Hiring a teacher can be a difficult task, especially if you are looking for the best teacher. There are obviously plenty of education recruitment specialists but if you’re looking to complete the task of hunting for your perfect employee, here are some tips for recruiting a new teacher for your school:

Know who you are

What are the core values of your school? What is your mission? What is your vision? Knowing what you stand for will be easy to identify and recruit candidates who will be a good fit for your school. Keep in mind that the core values of your school influence decision making. Also, Consider using teacher hiring tools that identify candidates whose principles match the values of your school.

Involve others in the process
Having the school committee and some staff to scrutinize, interview and hire new teachers will ensure that the best teachers are hired. In addition to making staff feel involved in the process, they will feel motivated because the work is being done with them, and not to them.

Take inclusive Notes
Taking notes when interviewing candidates is vital in ensuring that you hire the right person, especially if you have many candidates to interview . Take notes on every candidate as you go through their resumes then if possible have those notes during the interview itself. write down anything that important before beginning the process. Have in mind that it will be hard to recall everything about the first candidates when making the final decision.

Let candidates interview you, as well
Allowing candidates to question you will give you the opportunity to see what is important to them (learn more about them). Furthermore, it will allow you to confirm if they will need to continue seeking after a vocation at your school. Try not to be the only one making inquiries. Doing this will help you to find out if your forthcoming teacher has the right personality for that specific occupation. Furthermore, it will help that individual comprehend the school’s workplace.

It is not possible to have everything that attracts the best teachers in a short blog post. To sort out this problem, there are tools that can help your school to identify the competencies of the most effective teachers and help hire the best teachers. Hopefully, the information provided above will point you in the right direction and give you more confidence as you look for the best teachers for your school. Make sure that at the end of the process you have qualified applicants that are affordable for your school.

So there you have it, these are just a few of the top tips to secure the best possible teacher for your school. We hope they come in handy, but if not, or you need further details, feel free to drop us a message.

Why are your Facebook and Instagram likes flatlining?

Social media is without a doubt one of the best ways in which you can market your business for free, or at least that used to be the case. With organic reach decreasing on both Facebook and Instagram, there has been a gradual shift towards paid advertising. Both Facebook and Instagram (which is owned by Facebook) make it incredibly easy to create advertisements to reach more people with your posts and acquire more likes, however, you can waste money very quickly on the wrong individuals, so targeting is key. So what we’re saying is that it’s no longer just enough to put a Facebook post out there for your followers to see, some may not even see the content because their feed is so oversaturated with adverts and a friend’s picture of their cat. But it’s not even enough to start an advert to draw in more likes, you have to be very clear on your audience and only then can you begin to target the right people and grow your social accounts whilst acquiring more likes. You could also consider investing in a web outsourcing company to handle some of your digital marketing work, which can include the likes of SEO, Social Media, Design and Email Marketing among others. If you had a team of social media experts to call on, you’d be able to optimise your adverts for the right audience and track the results, which may not be something you’re able to do right now. Facebook and Instagram may be social platforms in their own right, but they do also require skill and a good understanding on the targeting options. Once you have this in your locker, you’ll create more effective ads and improve likes from the right types of individuals.

How to create the perfect CV

Contrary to popular belief that a CV is supposed to get you the job, it is only supposed to convince an employer to grant you an interview. So, how do you write a great CV? Consider the following guidelines:

  1. Personal attributes.

Indicate your full name, your contacts (email addresses and phone numbers) and address.

  1. Career objective.

Provide a quick overview of your skills and a clear indication of the position you are looking to fill.

  1. Education and professional background.

Incorporate the most recent and highest qualification down to the lowest. Include the institution, years of study and grade.

  1. Work Experience.

Begin with the most recent and continue in reverse sequence of dates. Include the organisations, job titles, responsibilities, job duration and the job achievements.

  1. Training.

Include a special set of skills you possess such as foreign languages or computer skills.

  1. Referees.

Incorporate at least two referees, their contacts and their relation to you. Make sure to inform them about the inclusion.

  1. Hobbies.

Although optional, it is recommended to include off-work activities you enjoy doing. This helps enhance your individual aspects.

A new job or a switch to self-employment?

If you find that you’re moving from one job to another quite quickly and no role is enough to ‘hold you down’ and really give you everything you could possibly want in a job, perhaps it’s not an issue with the employer.

It may just be a shift in your mentality and you may feel as though working for yourself is a better option. Whether you’re a copywriter, photographer or a designer, you may feel as though you can make more money, fulfill bigger dreams and progress more if you’re self employed, so before you hand in your CV to another company why not weigh up your options first. Usually, to make the switch to self employment, you either need to have a lot of savings in the bank to tie you over until your business picks up, or you may need to have some form of income outside of employment and it could just be a case of cutting back on some expensive and living as cheap as possible until your business or freelance service really kicks off.

Office work parties: The importance of celebrating Christmas with your colleagues

Okay so maybe it’s not quite that time of year yet, and some of you will be thinking, “but we’ve just had Christmas, why are you writing a blog post about it!” Well, we believe in good planning, and sometimes it does make sense to start early. Let us explain. A Christmas party is widely regarded as the biggest social event in the calendar. Even if Christmas is a time obviously intended for celebration, some firms may question the value of holding a party to mark the event. Therefore, it is very important that you celebrate with your colleagues during Christmas so as to appreciate your employee’s strengths and make them feel important and loved.

The following are some of the benefits gained when celebrating an office Christmas party with your colleagues

  • It adds more joy to your employees hence increasing your importance in their life.
  • Allows the whole team to get together and have a bit of fun while getting to know each other better.
  • Enhances colleague’s confidence and sense of belonging at the company.
  • Creates a sense of closure amongst your staff come the end of the year, so they can properly prepare for the twelve months ahead.
  • A Christmas party is a great way to formally mark the end of the year, take a breather and start looking ahead to what the New Year will bring.
  • A cheer from management to the staff of all their hard work throughout the year
  • Entertains your staff at Christmas thus returning the favor in loyalty, hard work and motivation.
  • Offers a tremendous chance to retell and convey key company messages, recognition awards and strategies for the year ahead
  • Brings fun into your event with colleagues and teambuilding activities thus strengthening team dynamic and bond the staff.
  • Encourages management and staff to associate outside of a work setting, hence promoting morale.
  • Upholds staff retention through giving them an event to recall memories
  • It will be spoken about for years to come.

Conclusively, Christmas parties present the perfect opportunity to break away from the desk and relish the chance to enjoy festivities among your colleagues. With a Christmas party, you’re also able to get your colleagues talking to each other and making friends that they wouldn’t otherwise make at work. It can be such a big reward to have employees getting along with each other because it will rub off in their work. It’s also a great opportunity for new employees to make friends and learn more about each and every individual, helping them feel more at home, even if the surroundings are a little unfamiliar and nerve wrecking at this moment in time.

Make sure you at least think about your next Christmas work do now, because as much as we hate to say it, the year will roll round very quickly, and the longer you leave it, the more disappointing your party will likely be!

Changing your current job to a career in teaching

What if you do not have a burning desire to do anything in particular and teaching seems like the easiest way to go? Well, there are so many reason for becoming a teacher but if you think you’re in for an easy ride then you’ll be in for a rude awakening when you start training to become a teacher.

We feel hat to be a successful teacher who impresses schools and parents alike, you need to be rooted in an unbridled enthusiasm for being allowed to participate in the emotional and intellectual maturing of others. If you know you have that unbridled enthusiasm, there are some suggestions that will get you started on your way:

Just in case your unbridled enthusiasm is more a product of you imagination than your real-world experience, start taking every opportunity you can to work with children. Join a summer camp; be the neighborhood babysitter; be a public pool lifeguard; help with the local Brownie or Campfire Girl troop. Try to spend time with kids of different ages, so you’ll find the group for which you have the best affinity.

After you know the age group with which your style is most effective, you’ll have a better idea of whether you should concentrate on primary or secondary education. To teach any age group through middle school, you would get a degree in primary education; for high school you should get a degree in the subject that you most enjoy teaching.

Do some research on the teacher certification requirements for the town our county in which you’ll be teaching. While all towns and cities now require that their public school teachers have bachelor’s degrees, not all of the local governments have the same teacher certification standards, and some of them will even let you qualify for a teaching credential after you have begun your teaching career.

While you are an undergraduate studying for your bachelor’s degree, work as a teacher’s assistant or, if you can swing it, a substitute teacher. There is nothing like classroom experience to give you a very clear understanding of what teaching entails and whether or not it is the career you’ve been imagining it to be. And the experience will look great on your resume. There are always brilliant opportunities for teaching roles in towns and cities throughout the UK, so if you wanted a job in the capital or are perhaps looking for Cambridge teaching jobs, you may be surprised what you can find online. Some TA jobs can be undertaken at the same time as you’re studying and some schools will help you put your training into practice so it can be really beneficial to find a role whilst you’re studying to become a teacher.

Teaching jobs can, in spite of what you may have heard, be hard to come by, especially in some well-funded school districts. You will find your university’s campus career counseling service invaluable in helping you do job searches for teaching positions and hooking you up with school districts conducting interviews.

 

Signs you’re better off self-employed

There are many people who enjoy careers as self-employed individuals. That can be through any means of work, including construction, marketing, photography, writing, design, hairdressing, consulting or reporting to name a few. If you’re contemplating spending a year or more self-employed, then here are a few signs to let you know you’re ready:

  • You want flexibility in your job role.
  • You want to be in control of complete projects.
  • You love working individually.
  • You’re motivated to work in different environments.
  • You want to run your own business.

If this is sounding like you, you may be ready to pursue a career as self employed, but just know that you will have some good months, and some bad months, and income can vary depending on seasonality at times. There’s no salary set in stone, so you really have to put the work in, but when you do, the rewards can be unbelievable.

Who to use as your job references?

When it comes to applying for a new job, there are a few checks that your new employer will need before giving you a contract to sign.

Your CV should not only provide an in-depth statement regarding why you are right for the role, it should include relevant qualifications, extra courses and any volunteer work too. At the bottom of every CV there should be a section for references, this could be written ‘references available on request’ or you could list two to three references.

When it comes to selecting who to have as your references, it is always recommended to use your most recent manager as your professional reference and a professional work colleague or long term friend as a character reference. Giving a professional and character reference is the vest way for your future employers to get the best insight into your personality and you as a professional.