National Careers Service - South East

#InspireMe Labour Market E-Bulletin
Issue 1 - 2016

 

Welcome to the latest edition of #InspireMe - the National Careers Service E-Bulletin for the South East of England. 
East Sussex
Focus on the Construction Sector

Skills East Sussex (SES), the East Sussex Employment and Skills Board, has been created to help broker stronger relationships between employers, education and training providers, and other key skills stakeholders to ensure that local training provision reflects local and regional business needs. 

The Bexhill to Hastings Link Road
Named Combe Valley Waythe new road opened to traffic just before Christmas will boost the economy of East Sussex and cut congestion. The new road will host a new bus route, operated by Stagecoach, which will link Hastings and Bexhill with the new business park via the Link Road.

The route and design were chosen to minimise the impact on the environment, while new habitats for badgers, newts, dormice, bats and owls were created.
Careers in the Construction Sector
East Sussex County Council (ESCC) are working with partners to promote careers in the construction industry and ensure that representatives from across the wide range of professions related to the construction industry are engaging with our schools to promote the work that they do.

John Lewis distribution centre at the Ashdown Business Park
Work began in January on a 3.9 acre serviced site and it is hoped the John Lewis warehouse will be ready for occupation in the autumn 2016, thus creating 60 jobs. The delivery hub will service John Lewis department stores in Bluewater and Kingston and 'at home' stores in Croydon, Chichester, Tunbridge Wells and Horsham.

Essex
Focus on Digital and IT

The Digital and IT sector is one of the fastest growing industries in Essex; nearly 90% of businesses rely on computers to assist with daily productivity. The Digital and IT sector concerns the development, implementation and progress of the technology that we use on a daily basis

Campaign To Solve Teacher Shortage Launched in Essex
Essex County Council has launched the drive to meet the demand for teachers as a result of demand for new school places in the next five years. The Teach In Essex campaign  aims to promote the county as an excellent place to teach and live.
Essex Network 4 Careers
Essex Network 4 Careers, which has been equally funded by the National Careers Service and the Essex Employment and Skills Board, for one year, is designed to support Careers staff with their Continuous Professional Development.  It is open to all schools and colleges in Essex, Southend and Thurrock.

Read the full article here.
Thurrock of the Future
Thurrock has ambitions to deliver significant numbers of high-quality housing, major infrastructure and regeneration schemes...

Read the full article here
Job opportunities at the Port of Tilbury
Find out about job opportunities at Port of Tilbury, the second biggest port in UK. Career opportunities range from Port Director to Port Operative. Use the Career Map for more information.
Kent
Focus on Life Sciences

Whilst not large in sector size, life sciences is of strategic importance to Kent.  In total, it accounts for around 2,500 jobs across a range of medium to large firms but this has declined in recent years due to the departure of Pfizer from Sandwich

Lower Thames Crossing
Linking Gravesend in Kent, on the M2 and Tilbury Essex, on the M25 ( between junctions 29 and 30) provides a more direct route for traffic travelling from the ports through to the Midlands and beyond.

It offers an alternative for port traffic without having to burden the M20, thus creating a new strategic corridor from Dover to the Midlands and the North, supporting the government's aspirations for a northern powerhouse. If the project goes ahead, hundreds of jobs from Newt counters to project managers will be needed to meet demand.
Potential of 200 Jobs Created at Lydd Airport
Pre-building work is the first phase of construction which is expected to go ahead this year. The second phase will be in early 2017 so at the end of 2017 the runway will be completed. If plans go well Lydd Airport will expect to have 200 extra employees to reach their target of 500,000 passengers.

Kent B2B Events
B2B events and conferences in Kent are the place to go for everything you need to know about business. Free to attend, the events are an opportunity to meet fellow businesses and make local links for your school or college.

Ashford International Station Investment
The European Commission will co-fund the state-of-the-art signalling equipment at Ashford International Station. As well as securing up to 1,000 jobs, the investment will create a further 1,000 jobs through the continued growth of Ashford and the new access to international services.

IN THIS ISSUE
Events Diary

March

2nd & 3rd: Skills East England

7th: Eastbourne Job Centre Plus Apprenticeships Fair

11th: Careers Enterprise Network Breakfast

7th - 11th:  National Careers Week


16th: Apprenticeships Fair, Woodlands School, Basildon

16th: Apprenticeship Event, Southend Job Centre Plus

16th: Apprenticeships Fair

16th-17th:  KentChoices4U


23rd:  Apprenticeship and Jobs Fair, The Forum, Southend

May
11th:  Kent 2020

June
National News
The National Enterprise Campaign
StartUp Britain  is a campaign for entrepreneurs and by entrepreneurs offering inspiration, resources and guidance to help people start and grow their own businesses
Across the South-East
South-East Employers Attitude to Skills & Training
A study of employers conducted on behalf of the Federation of Small Business, concluded that, for 96% of them, qualifications were not the primary focus.  Instead, it found, employers looked for an attitude and willingness to learn, solid English and maths skills and were prepared to train for the competencies they needed.

Growing Skills Gap of Significant Concern
The  recent UKCES Employer Skills Survey , which canvassed the opinions of 91,200 employers nationwide, shows that there is a buoyant labour market with a growing challenge for employers in filling their vacancies.

South-East Jobs Projected to Rise
For those living and working in the South-East, the good news is that  a UKCES survey  has confirmed that over the next decade jobs are projected to rise by around 11,000, at an average of 0.6 per cent a year.  This is the same as the UK average.

Student Options
Skills for Life
It has long been recognised that education sh ould be wider than purely academic subjects. W hilst these are important, there are some less ons which are equally vital that cannot be learnt in the classroom.  These lessons boost a young person's long-term prospects, including their eventual career prospects, by enabling them to stand out from the crowd.

Focus on UCAS Extra
UCAS Extra allows applicants to apply to one course at a time between 25 February and early July, and if available, it will show as a button when  signing in to Track.
 
Read the full article here
Student Finance
We enter a period of flux with arrangements for student finance.  The scrapping of maintenance grants for 2016 went through a legislation committee of Parliament early in January, without a vote and debate in the House of Commons.

From the CXK Blog
Cabinet of Curiosity
In the Victorian era Curiosity Cabinets were all the rage. This principle can be used in careers conversations and offer an engaging way of helping pupils understand the different options available.

Mismatch?
The use of Labour Market Intelligence (LMI) in careers guidance should focus on the regional area, as well as transferable skills. However, to get this careers advisers need to work closer with LMI providers and LMI needs to be embedded in the curriculum.

Hope, TV and the Labour Market
As children grow they begin to learn about the world around them, by osmosis they pick up on the work of their parents or carers, their friends' parents and wider relatives.

General Recruitment Tips
Whether you are applying for a volunteering opportunity, part-time job or an apprenticeship courtesy of Recruitment South East, here are some tips to help boost your chances of being hired:

Top CV Tips - Candidates know their CV is important, but are too often tempted to write every detail. Your CV is simply there to get you an interview. It needs to be memorable and grab the reader's attention.

Top Interview Tips - Interviews are often regarded with a mix of awe and fear. That fear is driven by the fact it's unusual territory, and the candidate feeling they have no control of the outcome. Recruitment South East lets you into 2 secrets

Top LinkedIn Tips
- Many people consider LinkedIn just for managers and more senior roles, but with over 15 million UK members, it's now in general use and a useful tool for almost every job seeker. It acts exactly like your personal website and is highly rated by the major search engines.
If you would like to submit information for the next edition please email seinspiration@cxk.org