Managers “Hopelessly Underskilled”

It will come as no surprise to staff working in schools and colleges, nor to their union representatives, that resolving conflicts between individuals can be time consuming and difficult. It can be particularly troublesome where there is no single issue in dispute. Personality clashes, egos, and jealousy can interfere with professional relationships, drawing in those not directly affected whether they like it or not.

Now a report for the CIPD has attemtped to quantify the problem, saying that it costs employers £24 billion a year in lost working days. Significantly, the report also says that although dealing with conflict is usually the responsibility of managers, 68% have had no formal training leaving them “hopelessly underskilled” at addressing the problem.

David Green, AMiE’s Director of Employment Services, says the report highlights a serious gap in the professional development of managers, “This report just confirms our own experience. Managers are asked to manage without any training in people skills. Our members in schools and colleges are expected to meet tough targets, but learning the skills needed to communicate, motivate, inspire, and lead is frequently overlooked.”

Student Grant Cut “Contradictory”

Commenting on the news that the Government is cutting grants for new higher education students from September 2009, Martin Freedman, head of pay, conditions and pensions at AMiE partner the Association of Teachers Lecturers (ATL), said:

“The Government’s higher education policy is contradictory and confusing.  First it says it wants 50% of young people to go on to higher education, now it announces a limit on the number of new students.  The Government had also said it wanted to widen participation in higher education, but it has cut the amount a student’s family can earn and be eligible for a grant.  Although this is supposed to affect so-called middle income families, the reduced family income threshold means students will be hit if they have two parents who earn no more than an average salary.  The Government’s funding errors should not be allowed to affect the life chances of young people.”

TUC Welcomes Call For More Apprentices

Responding to the call this week from the Government to further increase the number of apprentices in the public sector, TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said: “These apprenticeships will provide a welcome new route into work for the thousands of people looking to cut their teeth in the public sector.

“Boosting skills and employment are just the sorts of measures needed to steer us through this economic downturn.

“We hope that the leadership the public sector has shown towards equality will mean that this new generation of public sector apprentices are well trained, decently paid and reflect the diversity of the people they serve.’

HSE Stress Workshop For Union Reps

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is running a free workshop for union representatives to help them better understand their role in managing the causes of work-related stress and protecting employee well-being. The event will be at the Victoria Plaza hotel, London, 25 November 2008.

Experienced HSE psychologists will host this free event, but places are limited. To apply for a place please see the HSE’s online booking form.

Stress and Overwork Top List of Concerns

Stress or overwork, injuries and illnesses caused by the poor use of display screen equipment and repetitive strain injuries (RSI) top the list of workers’ safety concerns, according to the TUC’s biennial survey of safety reps published today (Monday).

Three in five (60 per cent) safety reps reported stress or overwork as a concern in their workplace. Concerns about stress are most common in the public sector and in large workplaces, with the highest instances in central government (81 per cent), education (74 per cent) and health services (69 per cent).

Stress was cited as the biggest concern in ten of the 14 sectors covered by the survey. Manufacturing (noise), construction, distribution and hotels (back strains) and voluntary organisations (display screen equipment) reported other top hazards at work.

Injuries and illnesses resulting from the poor use of display screen equipment has risen from fourth in 2006 to become the second-most common concern, reported by two in five (41 per cent) safety reps. Repetitive strain injuries (40 per cent) are another commonly reported hazard.

Other concerns on the increase since the 2006 survey include slips, trips and falls (up six per cent), working alone (up three per cent) and violence and threats at work (up four per cent).

Workers in London are most concerned about stress (68 per cent), while workers in Yorkshire and East Anglia are most worried about working alone (38 per cent). Workers in the South East (33 per cent) and London (32 per cent) are significantly more concerned about violence and threats at work than the rest of the UK (26 per cent).

TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said: “Stress casts a gloomy shadow over far too many UK workplaces. And as the current economic crisis creates more anxiety about job security, stress is likely to increase.

“Unions and employers must work together to combat this as it can have a huge personal cost to workers and a damaging cost to businesses.

No Slowdown in Management Restructures

College management restructures show no signs of decline. So far this year over a third of all ACM-AMiE members’ enquiries made to  the union’s Regional Officers or the national helpline have been about restructuring. Indeed, since the beginning of 2004, restructuring issues saw a steady rise from one in four of all new enquiries, to almost one in two in 2006, before falling back to the current level of one in three.

But any hopes of a slowdown in restructuring appear short lived as this year the percentage of restructuring enquiries is up by 2% on 2007.

Commenting on the figures, AMiE’s Director of Employment Services, David Green said, “The constant round of college restructures is seriously undermining job security, destroying confidence and costing thousands in redundancy payments. If this instability continues for much longer then more and more college managers will turn their backs on the sector altogether.”

NIACE Victim of Credit Crunch

NIACE, the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education has become one of the latest victims of the credit crunch.

NIACE had invested £1.9m on a six-month fixed term deposit with the investment bank Kaupthing Singer & Friedlander which went into administration earlier this month. This is about a quarter of NIACE’s net assets and was held as a medium term reserve. Although NIACE say it will not give any immediate solvency issues, it will have consequences for NIACE’s future work.

Alan Tuckett, Director of NIACE, said, “Adult learning in England is under enough pressure from the loss of 1.5 million places in the last 2 years, without the banks making life even more difficult. Whilst NIACE will continue the full range of its activities the loss of £1.9 million from its modest reserves will inhibit the kind of dynamic development work to which NIACE is committed.”

He continued, “We are currently committed to £1 million for sponsoring the independent Inquiry into the Future for Lifelong Learning. Last year we sponsored a similar exercise examining the future of English for Speakers of Other Languages provision. Future initiatives of this sort will not be possible unless Government recognises that charities that operate in the public interest, like NIACE, have no freedom to recover resources through taxation.”

He ended, “Through no fault of our own our ability to serve the public interest has been damaged.”

Colleges Week 10-16 November

The first ever Colleges Week takes place on 10 to 16th November 2008. The aim is to provide an opportunity for staff and students to celebrate their achievements.  The week’s events will focus on five themes to demonstrate the effects colleges have on developing skills, delivering excellence, building strong communities, helping businesses to succeed and transforming lives.

More information can be found on the Colleges Week website.

Suspension of Extension to Family Rights Will Not Save Jobs

Responding to reports today (Monday) that the Government plans to suspend the extension of the right to request flexible working to parents of older children and paid maternity leave, TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said:

“We find these reports hard to believe. Postponing a simple right to request flexible working would not save a single job in the small business sector. If such a request harms the business, the owner can say no.

“This would be an astonishingly irrelevant response to the severe economic downturn that we face and, in addition, would run the risk of sending a message to working parents that the Government is not on their side.”

Key Stage 3 SATs Scrapping Welcomed

The decision to scrap SATs for 14 year olds has been welcomed by teaching unions including AMiE and ATL. Commenting on the Government’s announcement that there will not be any further key stage 3 tests, Dr Mary Bousted, general secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL), said:

“We are delighted the Government has had the sense to scrap key stage 3 tests in their current form and move towards greater use of teacher assessment.  ATL has led the debate on testing, and has long called for a system that recognises teachers’ expertise.  The challenge now will be to get teacher assessments right so they allow teachers to teach a wide curriculum, rather than merely become test administrators.

“We continue to hope the Government will eventually recognise the damaging impact of key stage 2 tests and consign them to the education bin alongside key stage 3 tests.

“We believe it is right to hold teachers and schools accountable for the education they provide, and these proposals should help achieve both high standards and a broader curriculum.

“The jury is out on how the Government will integrate pupil attainment, progression and well-being indicators into a single grade to replace the key stage 3 tests, and whether it will work.  ATL will work with the Government, through the social partnership, to make sure the new measures benefit pupils and teachers and do not lead to excessive workloads.

“We want to see the Government learn from the mistakes of SATs to ensure data is both accurate and useful for parents and schools.

“It will be a much better use of public money for the Government to spend it helping pupils who are struggling at key stage 3 rather than testing them.”