How to foolproof and future proof a Job?

How to foolproof and future proof a Job?

Is a job any more secure or do you have to plan to future proof your Job? There is no such thing as a secure job. Your job is to find out how secure your employer is, if you really want a job.If your employer is struggling to get finance or is not paying his suppliers in time, then it is time for you to move on. But moving on, just to move elsewhere is like moving from the frying pan into the fire.

We are all frightened by the prospect of automation, with Artificial Intelligence (AI) and robotics to replace jobs. 

But with jobs disappearing, new jobs are springing up to fill in.Learn what it takes to get a job. To know where you want to be in the next five years, you need a map to direct you in the direction you wish to go.To hold yourself accountable to accomplish your goal and its timeline, you need to monitor daily, weekly, monthly your progress to see if you are on track.   

Although we do not know the jobs of the future,the time is right to search for the jobs of the future. 

You need to first identify the transferable skills that are in demand in the job's market. Occupations which require a higher level of skills such as active listening, complex problem solving, and to exercise judgment,with little or no background support,is becoming important milestones for employment. 

Communication skills is the most valued asset in seeking a job. These include persuasion,active listening, expressing yourself clearly and concisely and being able to easily facilitate in written communication.Those working in information and communication, for example, are at very low risk of automation.This is because one to one personal interaction and problem solving is not yet automated. 

Strategic skills include negotiation,judgment and decision making.

Analytical skills are in very high demand, They include time management, critical path analysis, critical thinking, deductive reasoning and complex problem solving.  

Learning while earning is the trick of tomorrow's job.With most jobs of the future, one thing is becoming certain, you have to create your job and train yourself to excell.

If however, you are choosing to switch careers or sectors, you will need to give the recruiting agency or state in you CV  a good reason why you wish to move into a new field. 

There are no more jobs for life, so shorter career spans need you to identify your transferable skills. This literally means,"being adaptable and flexible". It is important not to think of yourself doing a particular job,particularly as that job may not exist in its current form in future. Continuous and continuing acquiring skills is critical. So ask yourself: "what have I learned today?" or "what new skills I have acquired this month?" 

As change is happening without our knowing and quicker,foreseeing future trends in the jobs market is becoming much harder. The key is to keep being on the look out and also being adaptable, whilst identifying the new skills, transferable to the new role you seek. 

Employers are hiring people with one aim in mind to solve a problem for them. It has thus become necessary to identify by research the problems they are saddled with and fit yourself into that niche.This means you have to demonstrate that you are the best they can get to solve their problem. You need to use your past experience to project yourself forward to that new job. 

If you cannot sell yourself as a candidate for a job, get someone else to sell you. As everything is done on the computer today, selling yourself and your CV is harder than usual.One of the biggest hurdles job changers face is getting past the online application barrier. The computer is programmed and the algorithms only recognise a binary response, a yes or no in digital framework. Besides, job adverts,if they do appear,require "three years relevant experience", but do not let this deter you. You need to find a way of overcoming this hurdle.Use an Agent to sell you, like selling a house or a car.

If you cannot get anywhere, try a new role out first. Work first in a voluntary capacity and learn the trade and the environment of the trade. This is called getting your foot in the door. Try a temporary role to learn more about the job and view it as an extended interview.

You can foolproof your prospects in Teaching by first attending a free "Train to Teach Road show" in London on Saturday February 3,2018. Register at: "getintoteaching.education.gov.uk". You can research more prospects in other employment fields on the Internet. Make yourself available to attend any research project that interests you to move on.

  

    

Carillion - The Fault of Public Sector Outsourcing

Construction - The Fall of a Giant

Carillion, Britain's second largest construction firm together with several of its subsidiaries went bust on Monday 15 January 2018. It going to the wall is a clarion call for all builders in U.K. and for that matter for all firms who contract out and subcontract work out - construction or other services.

Outsourcing has been the name of the game in the early 21st century, that was the end game.

Failure in outsourcing public sector work has enormous implications. It is the small firms which are the backbone of British business and industry which suffer the most.

Carillion's insolvency will no doubt "cripple a substantial number of extensive network of local suppliers and contractors, some 25 to 30,000 small businesses, who are owned money by it."

Labour Party is preparing to force a vote in the Commons over the risk assessments for Carillion before the Company went bust.

The history of the construction business is strewn with big names going to the wall or disappearing out of sight overnight. Where are "Tarmac," "Mowlem",and some others. Nobody talks of them now.

Of the Top 100 Construction Companies in UK in 2017, many have foreign nationals as Finance Directors and strangely many have red ink over their balance sheets. 

Besides,in the case of Carillion some 43,000 staff worldwide and 20,000 in Britain are now on the dole heap, all because of what Carillion "was what it was" -" when it was a builder" or, when it was called Tarmac in 1993. It moved out of mainly building work into support services work. 

Among the outsourced service work was to provide school dinners as well as cleaning and catering services at NHS hospitals.According to sources in the BBC it's failure was due to cost overruns on big projects and problems with projects in the Middle East. 

The HS2 High Speed Rail (North-South) project was a mega-project that the public will remember when they connect with Carillion, in the U.K.

It's  former Finance Director was Zafar Khan until September 2017. According to reliable sources "he will get away with £425,000 in base salary for 12 months, while Interim Chief Executive Keith Cochrane will receive £750,000 salary until July 2017,despite leaving the Company in February 2017". Its auditors were KPMG reporting losses of £1.5 billion when it signed off its 2016 accounts. 

In Parliament today 24 January 2018, the Government has assured the public that it will pursue its Directors. Business Secretary,Greg Clark has been quoted to say that "the Government will urge HMRC to use leniency when  collecting taxes from Carillion suppliers owed money.What this means, remains to be seen."

The High Court has appointed the Official Receiver as Liquidator.We are told employees should receive early notification from the Liquidator whether he intends to employ them."This is realistically only likely if they are engaged on government connected contracts."

Disclaimer: This feature blog has been compiled with the best sources available at time of writing. It should be considered as informative only and is not complete in all respects.

Bojo's  Latest - Money for the NHS

Boris Johnson is right that the NHS needs more money? 

The calling for money to be spent after Britain leaves the EU , Johnson has spotted an opportunity to blur the lines,portraying this as a Government delivering for "leavers," according to Gabby Hinsliff of The Guardian.

We all know that Theresa May will not want Boris to take credit,or even gather momentum to oust her as Prime Minister by remaining in the wings. The word is that he was reprimanded for publicly demanding an extra £100 million a week for the NHS, off the "Brexit dividend."

Is it real that a campaign by Tories is building up for a leadership challenge?

Theresa May is under a strain not only with Brexit, but with some of her own party guru's. A leading Tory MP, Sir Nicholas Soames, has followed ex Minister Nick Boles, warning the party to  be much bolder in policy, process and delivery, if it is to defeat Jeremy Corbyn at the next election. The Prime Minister has been branded as "timid and dull".  

This chorus of discontent that "its time to raise the game" has always been there since the last election debacle, but Boris Johnson, has felt it opportune to raise the stakes well in advance of a leadership challenge.Boris' opponents claim he is a "snake oil salesman."

Boris is no lame duck politician. He has a following and is no fool, although he pretends to act like one. 

 Victor Cherubim

Bojo's Bridge over Troubled Water

Bojo's Bridge over Troubled Water

Boris Johnson, Britain Foreign Secretary, reportedly wants to build a bridge, "a submarine highway" across the English Channel between UK and France.

The idea was floated during the Anglo-French summit at Sandhurst, with President Macron and Prime Minister Theresa May on 18 January 2018.

It echoes previous reports by Journalist Tim Shipman of Boris Johnson's earlier call for a similar structure. 

Boris is not new to innovative ideas which he thinks as solutions to existing problems. As Mayor of London in March 2016, he refloated the idea of an island airport and planned to create a hub in the Thames Estuary, as an alternative to a third runway at Heathrow.It was not considered a viable solution by the Airports Commission.

Constructing a third runway at Heathrow was estimated to cost £18.6 billion. It has since escalated.

In the light of his new idea of a Bridge to France,everyone knows both countries are currently

 linked across by a single railway tunnel -the Channel Tunnel. 

 It is 50.45 km (30.35 m) linking Folkstone,Kent,U.K. with Coquelles,Pas de Calais, near Calais,,northern France. It runs beneath the English Channel at the Straits of Dover and opened on 6 May 1994. It takes 35 minutes for the crossover with up to 4 shuttles per hour.It took more than 5 years to complete with more than 13,000 workers from England and France collaborating to realise the vision.

On June 23,2016 the British people resolved to leave the European Union and take back control of its laws, borders and money. It was a political watershed.

In March 2017 Britain began the process for the UK's formal withdrawal from the EU by triggering Article 50. 

The European Union (Withdrawal Bill) 2017-19 was passed in the House of Commons and sent to the Lords where it had it First reading on 18 January 2018,with the Second reading taking place on 30/31 January 2018.

Boris Johnson's Bridge to France is envisaged as a huge  concrete construction in the middle of the world's busiest shipping lanes, might well come with some challenges.  President Macron of France was on board with Johnson's idea,the Telegraph reported saying:

 "I agree,Let's do it."

Was it diplomacy or not is the question?

It isn't the first time or will we expect it to be the last time Boris has floated a symbolic infrastructure project that has met ridicule. It has triggered much thought and criticism. Downing Street has lacked much enthusiasm for the proposed project of a 22 mile long bridge,pouring cold water on the plans shortly after the suggestion. The loose proposal was also dismissed by the European Commission.

In 1802,a French mining Engineer,Albert Mathieu put forward an idea plan to "tunnel under the channel" with illumination from oil lamps,horse drawn coaches and an artificial island mid-channel for changing horses.

According to Wanda Lewis ,Professor of Structural Engineering,University of Warwick,UK,:

"A bridge over the English Channel that wouldn't disrupt shipping would require a span of 22 miles or 38 km in total,which is an order of magnitude larger than anything else built to date. It presents a considerable civil engineering challenge............... The Channel is between 40 m .and 60 deep and some passenger ships are more than 70m.tall.So to let ships pass underneath,the pylons supporting the bridge would have to be around 150m, tall. To support the cables,you would have to add pylons above the deck which would mean a total pylon height overall above 500 m. Again nothing this tall has ever been built."

What would this proposed bridge look like?

I leave it to your conceptual visualisation?

Victor Cherubim