Friday, February 18, 2011
Job creation
Up in Llandudno First Minister, Carwyn Jones has promised to invest £25 million in creating 4,000 jobs, each of which he claims will be “a real job” available to the hardest-hit young people who are struggling to find work. In fact it is another job creation scheme that will take somebody off the dole for six months and then send them back again.
There is nothing wrong with getting somebody that sort of work experience of course, but what the Welsh Government needs to be doing is helping to create permanent jobs in the private sector, not more publicly subsidised opportunities. Carwyn's scheme will only be of value if those benefiting from it are able to go onto other employment.
Training schemes like PROACT and REACT and even the new one for public sector workers facing the chop are fine and I am happy to support them, but let's see the Welsh Government do more to create wealth as well. One way is the Welsh Liberal Democrats proposal of an innovation fund that would take good ideas and help support the process from research, to patent to manufacture. That has the potential to use our Higher Education Institutions to help create high quality, well-paid jobs in conjunction with the private sector. However, the Labour-Plaid Cymru Government do not seem interested.
What they do seem to want to specialise in is protecting highly paid but superfluous jobs in the public sector. We have already seen the scenario following the health service reorganisation where nearly a hundred top executives from the previous health boards are being kept on, many to do non-jobs on inflated salaries. Now we have the creation of another job in the Welsh Government that even a former Labour Minister questions as unnecessary.
The Western Mail reports that the Welsh Government is taking on a new human resources director at a salary of more than £80,000, despite cutting back on lower-paid staff:
An anonymous letter to the Western Mail said: “At a time when the Assembly Government is looking to reduce staff numbers by several hundred posts, there is significant concern that a new director level post attracting a salary in excess of £80,000 has just been advertised internally. The closing date is February 17, 2011.”
The letter goes on to express concern the post has not been advertised to external candidates from Whitehall who are being displaced, and suggests a named individual is likely to be appointed.
The letter adds: “The need for this post is questionable as it was always expected that with the creation of the Director General roles a few years ago, there would not be the need for a director post also.
“With a salary of £80k, it is hardly surprising that it is not being advertised openly, as in the current economic climate WAG should be showing more restraint, especially when large numbers of more junior staff are losing their jobs.”
This is not the sort of publicity we need when we are trying to persuade people to allow the Assembly to exercise all the powers granted to it by the Government of Wales Act 2006. The Government really need to get a grip.
There is nothing wrong with getting somebody that sort of work experience of course, but what the Welsh Government needs to be doing is helping to create permanent jobs in the private sector, not more publicly subsidised opportunities. Carwyn's scheme will only be of value if those benefiting from it are able to go onto other employment.
Training schemes like PROACT and REACT and even the new one for public sector workers facing the chop are fine and I am happy to support them, but let's see the Welsh Government do more to create wealth as well. One way is the Welsh Liberal Democrats proposal of an innovation fund that would take good ideas and help support the process from research, to patent to manufacture. That has the potential to use our Higher Education Institutions to help create high quality, well-paid jobs in conjunction with the private sector. However, the Labour-Plaid Cymru Government do not seem interested.
What they do seem to want to specialise in is protecting highly paid but superfluous jobs in the public sector. We have already seen the scenario following the health service reorganisation where nearly a hundred top executives from the previous health boards are being kept on, many to do non-jobs on inflated salaries. Now we have the creation of another job in the Welsh Government that even a former Labour Minister questions as unnecessary.
The Western Mail reports that the Welsh Government is taking on a new human resources director at a salary of more than £80,000, despite cutting back on lower-paid staff:
An anonymous letter to the Western Mail said: “At a time when the Assembly Government is looking to reduce staff numbers by several hundred posts, there is significant concern that a new director level post attracting a salary in excess of £80,000 has just been advertised internally. The closing date is February 17, 2011.”
The letter goes on to express concern the post has not been advertised to external candidates from Whitehall who are being displaced, and suggests a named individual is likely to be appointed.
The letter adds: “The need for this post is questionable as it was always expected that with the creation of the Director General roles a few years ago, there would not be the need for a director post also.
“With a salary of £80k, it is hardly surprising that it is not being advertised openly, as in the current economic climate WAG should be showing more restraint, especially when large numbers of more junior staff are losing their jobs.”
This is not the sort of publicity we need when we are trying to persuade people to allow the Assembly to exercise all the powers granted to it by the Government of Wales Act 2006. The Government really need to get a grip.
Comments:
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'There is nothing wrong with getting somebody that sort of work experience of course, but what the Welsh Government needs to be doing is helping to create permanent jobs in the private sector, not more publicly subsidised opportunities. Carwyn's scheme will only be of value if those benefiting from it are able to go onto other employment.'
Absolutely correct.
Absolutely correct.
# posted by 
: 1:15 PM
: 1:15 PM
"Minister, Carwyn Jones has promised to invest £25 million in creating 4,000 jobs..."
Again we see a First Minister out of touch with how the private sector creates jobs.
Jobs are created when businesses expand; put another way: expanding businesses hire people.
There is great potential for start-ups with good ideas to expand and hire people.
I've lost count of the number of times that I have offered to run workshops for start-ups with ideas to make new products who want to get the maximum they can spending as little as they can (in view of the big banks now historical reluctance to lend to small businesses).
How to turn an idea into a valuable patent in the largest market in the world.
I'm still waiting for the Welsh Assembly Government to take up my offer - I just need budget/economy travel and budget hotel expenses covered.
When the WAG is hiring new directors on huge salaries...
Again we see a First Minister out of touch with how the private sector creates jobs.
Jobs are created when businesses expand; put another way: expanding businesses hire people.
There is great potential for start-ups with good ideas to expand and hire people.
I've lost count of the number of times that I have offered to run workshops for start-ups with ideas to make new products who want to get the maximum they can spending as little as they can (in view of the big banks now historical reluctance to lend to small businesses).
How to turn an idea into a valuable patent in the largest market in the world.
I'm still waiting for the Welsh Assembly Government to take up my offer - I just need budget/economy travel and budget hotel expenses covered.
When the WAG is hiring new directors on huge salaries...
# posted by : 6:23 PM
: 6:23 PM
I had very good experience of taking on "work experience" young people back in the 1970s. I had two for each 6 month period working in the sales and contracts department of a hi tech company.Most of them were subsequently offered full time employment with us.One girl came with two GCSEs and subsequently obtained a BSc. Another now works as a programme director for Fox News in the USA. All made a good contribution to our organisation and most importantly gained valuable workplace experience and self confidence.
The greatest social sin is not to offer young people the opportunity to work.
The greatest social sin is not to offer young people the opportunity to work.
# posted by : 9:21 PM
: 9:21 PM
The person who has been earmarked for the HR Director job, is already on a significant cash allowance above his base salary. He's insisting that all junior staff lose their allowances even though he's keeping his. This promotion for him is because staff are angry about the hypocrisy and this is a way of "regularising" the position!
# posted by : 10:41 PM
: 10:41 PM
C.Wood that's being positive and the right direction about new innovations.
Jogger has contributed to an assembly committee report (basically almost wrote the thing) and they give me an invitation to the assembly for the pomp , but would they pay my coachfare, would they feck
Jogger has contributed to an assembly committee report (basically almost wrote the thing) and they give me an invitation to the assembly for the pomp , but would they pay my coachfare, would they feck
# posted by : 11:54 PM
: 11:54 PM
Some years ago I took on two summer interns; both were mechanical engineering undergraduates at a well known university in Washington, DC. One turned out to be very good at preparing patent drawings using AutoCAD 3D software (we actually purchased a license for this s/w so that he could do drawings for us, it cost us around $3,000 or so and that was a few years ago now). The other turned out to be fantastic at absorbing technical admin tasks, he became invaluable to me. I would show him a technical task and he took to it so easily. So brilliant was he that I responded to a request for a reference letter by giving him a well deserved (i.e., on the merits) glowing reference to help him with his ultimate goal to work as an engineer/admin at NASA.
So I think the job placement scheme idea is sound, the need to give young people work experience. In fact, job experience is so valuable that employers look for it in new hires. It’s also useful for landing a job at your placement/internship location.
What I don’t like is the ridiculous claim about creating jobs – even if a placement is given a job, this has not created a ‘net job’; meaning, taking on a placement means a person that would otherwise have been hired is now taken by the placement so there is no net creation of jobs. The exception being if a job was created around the placement – specifically for the placement; this could happen, but not to the extent that 4,000 net jobs would be created.
So I think the job placement scheme idea is sound, the need to give young people work experience. In fact, job experience is so valuable that employers look for it in new hires. It’s also useful for landing a job at your placement/internship location.
What I don’t like is the ridiculous claim about creating jobs – even if a placement is given a job, this has not created a ‘net job’; meaning, taking on a placement means a person that would otherwise have been hired is now taken by the placement so there is no net creation of jobs. The exception being if a job was created around the placement – specifically for the placement; this could happen, but not to the extent that 4,000 net jobs would be created.
# posted by : 11:32 AM
: 11:32 AM
Re C Wood post Strictly speaking you are correct no new jobs are created, however this assumes that there is an absolute number of jobs at any one time. In practice there is a little bit of flexibility. I often employed work experience people not because I had a vacancy but as an investment in "staff assets". By employing a person one already had experience of, reduced the investment risk.
# posted by : 8:27 PM
: 8:27 PM
"By employing a person one already had experience of, reduced the investment risk."
Understandable ... but when practiced by large employers this can lead to situations where jobs are first open to internal staff, and other situations with regard to large publicly funded employers who hold interviews but if you are an outsider you can be wasting your time because the decision on who (inside) will be hired is already a 'done deal' so outsiders both waste their time and if they find out that the job is already taken can feel upset.
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Understandable ... but when practiced by large employers this can lead to situations where jobs are first open to internal staff, and other situations with regard to large publicly funded employers who hold interviews but if you are an outsider you can be wasting your time because the decision on who (inside) will be hired is already a 'done deal' so outsiders both waste their time and if they find out that the job is already taken can feel upset.
# posted by : 11:36 PM
: 11:36 PM<< Home
