HT Group

Home Training Initiative (HTi) and Home Training CIC (HTCIC) have had more than a makeover!

We’ve made a lot of changes to the business in the last year, many exciting things have happened; new opportunities seized and services developed. With new sectors and new members joining the team, we had outgrown our name and even we were getting confused! So it was time to say what it was we did with a new streamlined look; new logos, names and websites.

This makeover made us realise just how much we had grown and that the reality was the ‘HT Group.’

Skills

Learning

Community

Enterprise

Personnel

We have made a great start with our new websites;

www.ht-group.org

www.ht-enterprise.com and www.ht-learning.com.

Let us know what you think of our brand new image. We still have sites to build and develop so watch this space! To give us your feedback call Dasha on 0844 888 7640 or

e-mail d.jiwany@ht-group.org

Blue Monday

You’ve gone back to work, Christmas is over, the sales have been exhausted, you’re poor, you might’ve put on some weight and the weather is a bit rubbish. Does this sound like your January?

Blue Monday is ‘officially’ the most depressing day of the year on the Monday of the 3rd week of January devised by a tutor named Cliff Arnall at the centre of Lifelong Learning at Cardiff University. Although the idea has been a topic amongst academics for some time, it wasn’t until a journalist from The Guardian picked it up and made it press phenomena.

The concluded date was contributed by numerous factors such as weather conditions, debt level, the passing of the Christmas period, failing to achieve New Year’s resolutions and low motivation.

But is it all a PR stunt? Is determining the mood of the masses in January essentially modern folklore? Surely most people feel low after the Christmas high and the weather could be better, but what if January meant a new start for you? What if you got a promotion? Or maybe you are getting married?

It could be argued that Blue Monday is as reliable as a horoscope in the sense that how can one emotion of circumstance apply to many?
There have been so much confusion as to which day was Blue Monday this year, it could be possible that they isn’t a blue Monday this year…or considering the current events of 2011 maybe two Blue Monday’s!

It is likely that you will feel one of the contributors on Blue Monday but it is also likely that you will feel one of the contributors all year round! It is possible that everyone is feeling the blues simply because of the weather, Seasonal Affective Disorder (otherwise known as SAD and sometimes called Winter Blues) is a disorder in which a person’s mood can become depressive and change when the seasons change, particularly during winter. Due to the lack of light in the winter months SAD can affect many people so it could be argued that the proposed most depressing day of the year is simply because of the weather.

One thing is for sure no one enjoys going back to work in January and beating the work blues can be harder than trying to ignore ‘Blue Monday.’ So what is the best way to beat the work blues? Here are a few tips that might not make Blue Monday go away but could improve your work mood all year round!

Keep Active
If you work in an office it, can be a bit hard sitting down for 8 hours staring at a computer so why not move around, go for a walk and do stretches it will make you feel better physically and mentally!

Chill out
Try a bit of massage and meditation when you get a chance in your busy schedule it can reduce stress levels and improve circulation as well as eradicate toxins which will improve your sleep.

Take care of your Tummy
Eating well can vastly improve your mood and helps defend your body from illnesses. If you don’t take care of your tummy it can leave you feeling drained, exhausted and depressed.

Get Green
A good way to improve the air quality in your office is by adding plants. Not only will this improve the quality of oxygen you breathe but having a pretty bright coloured plant will instantly make you feel happier!

Colour in
You’d be surprised how a little bit of colour can improve your mood. Decorate your desk with some colours and it can break up the greys that tend to fill offices. It is not only important to improve your working space to help those blues but also to put your own personality into your work environment. Taking pride in your work environment is important so if you need it to look like a rainbow then so be it!

The last two winters, the UK has had to adjust to large quantities of snow which has affected schools, businesses and public transport. In the last few weeks there has been so much disruption to daily life we find ourselves asking, how do the Scandinavians do it?

For schools, the decision to have ‘snow days’ is a tough one, for kids it is sheer delight but for parents and businesses it is a general inconvenience. To deprive children of education is a decision that should be thought about at great length, education is important and if other countries can make it safe for children to go to school, why can’t we?

Image 1

For businesses it can cause lots of trouble such as, whether staff are able to get in and if they are will they have any consumers in these conditions?

There are also problems with job rights and whether staff will have pay losses and what are they entitled to if they are unable to get to work. There has been a constant struggle with confusion over this but there seems like not much can be resolved of it as it is at the discretion of the employer.

The struggle to get to work increased as there were severe disruptions to travel with services on train lines being delayed causing commuters to be stuck underground for hours. These disruptions have caused problems for commuters coming into London as some train lines have completely stopped.

The most severe disruption was caused in airports. Flight cancellations left nearly 100,000 passengers stranded having to camp out in airports in the cold waiting to find out if they will get home this Christmas.

The problems with travel caused by snow affected a lot of Europe but it seemed Britain truly fell apart and now there are warnings of more snow to come, we should be starting to think how we can prepare for this. If this is the future of our winters then it is clear something needs to be done, especially if other countries seem to be dealing with it normally under the same conditions… or worse!
It is a joy and a hindrance, but one thing is for sure if you are bored and stuck in doors, especially if you are in education, you could try e-learning, and learn from the comfort of your own home and be productive with your time as it can be very frustrating being snowed in!

Image 1 http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/gallery/2010/nov/06/readers-pictures-cold#/?picture=368189421&index=7

They say behind every good man there is an amazing woman, but nowadays women are standing alone and becoming leaders in their own right.

But what makes an inspirational woman? Does she have to be successful, pretty, determined, a survivor or is it her charity work that makes her inspiring?

It seems there are numerous characteristics that women need to possess to be a worthy role model for young girls. But is that possible in the competitive work place?

Women in the workplace is not a taboo subject anymore, instead it is encouraged and sometimes compulsory. It seems political correctness is still not as widely accepted as people seem to think. Our Scandinavian neighbours are leading in polls for the highest women in employment rate, Iceland are ranked as the leading country in gender equality. *

The Sex Discrimination Act was established 35 years ago to ensure that discrimination is eradicated and encourage the equality between men and women. The question is why are women still failing to get top jobs which they are fully qualified for?

Women not only face competition from men but when women are in a position of power they take advantage of their colleagues. A good example would be in The Devil Wears Prada where the editor in chief Meryl Streep expects her bizarre and ridiculous demands to be met by her junior personal assistant played by Anne Hathaway.

At present women not only face competition with sex and age but now there is a new hurdle called ‘lookism’. This is where women are judged solely on their appearance, and is becoming more common. For example Anna Kournikova is ranked 37th best tennis player in the world, but she has numerous lucrative contracts, more than her successful competitors. There is also the controversy of Strictly Come Dancing in which accomplished dancer and judge Arlene Phillips was replaced by a younger ex-winner of the show Alesha Dixon, whereas her three male colleagues were overlooked. *

Women are still viewed as the homemakers and not as high powered successful business women, which a very few get to become. It seems that women are still being left behind because of employers fearing maternity pay and cover will be costly and disruptive to them as well as problems women may encounter with childcare which will disrupt their future business plans. *

So what are women to do? A lot of women are putting off having children and are choosing to have them later on in life,; but surely this is not a solution that women are happy with. We could move to Iceland, but that’s not realistic.

When Labour was in power they were implementing plans to instruct companies to disclose the pay of men and women workers. However the new coalition government has now overturned this decision and declared that it will be voluntary. *

2010 has seen a surge in women’s salaries, the Office for National Statistics reported a 10.2% decrease in the gap between the median of men and women’s salaries. Although in April the UK workforce consisted of 12.7 million men and 12.3 million women, but of that men made up 88% of full time employment whereas women only made up 58%. *

Until the government and businesses take a stand and ensure women are given the same opportunities and salaries as their male counterparts – we’ll just have to keep battling along!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-11517459

http://www.personneltoday.com/articles/2007/05/07/40457/personnel-today-teasing-survey-finds-uk-workplace-is-becoming-increasingly-lookist.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/dec/16/bskyb-loses-sex-discrimination-unfair-dismissal

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-11900104

http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=167

Based on the enthralling novel ‘The Accidental Billionaires’ by Ben Mezrich, The Social Network tells the story of Mark Zuckerberg and his journey to creating the social network phenomenon that is Facebook.

Created whilst attending Harvard University Zuckerberg initially sets out to seek revenge on a girl and creates a website where girls from Harvard are voted against each other based on appearance. Having hacked into the university database to obtain photographs and information on the girls, Zuckerberg causes an outrage whilst also creating such a buzz that the entire university servers go down.

Despite the backlash of the website having been disciplined by the university and being loathed by all the girls at his university, he is then approach by the wealthy and popular Winklevoss twins who offer him a chance to redeem himself by helping them create a dating website just for Harvard students. Intrigued by its exclusive nature Zuckerberg agrees to help them with their website whilst also secretly creating his own social network – The Facebook. A site where only Harvard students could live their social lives online. An easy way to connect with their friends but also connect with people they’ve just met. Zuckerberg claimed there was a flaw in how we socialise and that the site would mend this.

“The thing that we are trying to do at Facebook, is just help people connect and communicate more efficiently.”

Enlisting the help of his business savvy and somewhat wealthy friend Eduardo Saverin the site goes underway and when released is an overnight success.

Zuckerberg and Saverin soon became celebrities on campus but eventually run into trouble in the form of the Winklevoss twins.

The Winklevoss twins claimed Zuckerberg stole their idea and tried to sue on the basis of their intellectual property rights. They saw it as they created the idea and Zuckerberg stole it and although there were no written contracts, they still seemed to have a case and were going to pursue it.

Zuckerberg saw no cause for concern and went on ahead expanding and developing his Facebook website only to incur the Winklevoss twins rage.

At the interest of expanding the company and trying to make some money Saverin sets out to get advertisers but when Zuckerberg arranges to meet the Napster creater Sean Parker relationships start to crack. Zuckerberg in awe of Sean Parker, a fellow geek who done good, disregards Saverins better judgement and enlist Sean Parker to team as a consultant. Known for a reputation of being reckless and unpredictable, Saverin begins to worry and under the guidance of Parker, Zuckerberg eventually fazes Saverin out of the company causing him to sue Zuckerberg. Zuckerberg is then also let down by Sean Parker, whom Saverin warned Zuckerberg of his reputation and was also cut out of the business. Eventually after many court cases Saverin was brought back to the business and was rewarded his title as CFO.

Overall the film is gripping and interesting and truly shines a light on the young man who changes the face of social media. What seemed to come from a simple idea that most young men try to achieve (an easier, faster way to meet girls) has changed the face of not only young people but young modern society. Its changed how businesses approach strategies and how organisations spread their message. Facebook’s appeal was its exclusivity, it was primarily made for Harvard, then expanded to all the other Ivy League universities but in a short amount of time expanded to the entire world.

What is fascinating about how the film is their portrayal of Zuckerberg, a distant socially challenged young man who sometimes appears to have no feelings or sense of consequence at all, he is a perfect example of an anti hero, despite his faults and treatment of people, the audience still support him and still want him to succeed.

Although seemingly bleak we are all aware this film would have somewhat of a happy ending, Facebook is a massive success and Mark Zuckerberg despite his questionable methods of dealing peers, is a bit of a genius and highly respected amongst many. It just shows it takes someone as disconnected as Mark Zuckerberg to connect millions.

Business, Design and the 2012 Games: Maximising 2012 opportunities through design.

A few weeks ago I attended the London Business Network lecture ‘Business, Design and the 2012 Games: Maximising 2012 opportunities through design’ held at Imperial College London.

At first I was apprehensive as to what I was going to gain from the lecture but was keen to learn about design and branding and also the different opportunities that CompeteFor have for SME’s, but I was wary that it would be mainly based around the Olympics 2012 logo. But I soon found it was largely based around the actual site itself exploring the ideas around the industrial design.

The first lecturer was Kay Hughes, Principle Design Advisor, and Olympic Delivery Authority.
Hughes spoke largely of the location, what it was and what it soon will be. How the areas surrounding Lee Valley have been neglected and desolate making it a perfect location for the 2012 Games.

Hughes showed how it started when we won the bid and what they have achieved so far and how the opportunity to change a neglected area of London is a positive and how they can make that area heritage and a legacy.

Some people are sceptical about the area living up to the hype particularly about it being a legacy area, but we are reassured as Hughes explained that a lot of buildings and bridges made purely for the Olympics will be removable and reduced so that the landscape is still a part of London.

The most inspiring part of Hughes work is that all that had been destroyed before has been recycled in all the new parts that have been built. Not only have they managed to make us feel better about redeveloping a part of London but also they have managed to be good to the environment!

‘The Velodrome’
Hughes explores how the design team thought about every little thing from the circles that are reminiscent to the rings of the Olympics’ symbol to the clouds on the ‘Angel’ Bridge.

Although the designs are fantastical and vast some of the audience were concerned as to how this would fit in with the London landscape and how they were planning to implement the idea of making this a legacy area. Hughes reassured us that their intentions are to consider the landscape of not only the games but post games as well but it seemed some audience members needed more convincing.

Next to talk was Kevin Owens, Design Principal, London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Kevin Owens engaged the crowd with his passion and dedication towards the design of the 2012 Games.

Owens who is the main architect on the project, described the work that needs to be done as ‘gargantuan’ and is very realistic about the scale that they are working in. He seemed intimidated but inspired by the vast amount of work that has been set and said it ‘scares the bejesus out of me!’ but through talking about his work and what is to be done it was clear that it is in safe hands with Owens.

As majority of designs are holistic conceptual designs (all the designs a apart of something larger and taking into account the environment) there needed to be some inspiration for such a large project. The main inspiration for this was The Festival of Britain.

A post war Britain was destroyed and in need of redevelopment and The Festival of Britain provided new architectural development and much needed morale for the country.

Drawing from the festival of Britain’s futuristic inspired style, the majority of buildings designed for the Olympics have another worldly feel but yet a sense of familiarity as it resembles some of the work from the festival of Britain.
Owen’s went on to describe how he felt that the designs shouldn’t just be a visual experience from those outside looking in but also for those inside the venues looking out. As some of them are indoor/outdoor arenas with open rooftops, Owens describes how he and the team wanted to make by giving the audiences a stunning view of the city of London.

It seems that the team are very dedicated to making this experience the best for everyone, for the Londoners and the visitors and they seem to have the confidence that suggests they might just pull it off.

‘It will be the best Olympic games yet’ Kevin Owens.

Last to speak was Gus Desbarats National Chairman, British Design Innovation.
His main goal was to talk to us about how to maximise opportunities through branding. How through design we can achieve excellence and sell products.

‘Design is about service excellence, not pictures.’

He goes on to tell us how to ‘meet the grade’ and that our benchmarks should such companies as Virgin and BT. He talks about design not being art but business and that we are not the audience what we like is not what the audience likes and that design helps organisations plan and deliver better experiences and that we should tap into these ‘experiences’.

Although his talk was cut short he was aggressive in his approach to design and very informative giving us just enough information without it feeling rushed or that we missed out on anything.

Overall the lecture was reassuring that the Olympic Games are in safe hands and that every aesthetic and experience has been thought out. It was enlightening, comforting and at points fascinating as I was sceptical about how successful the completion of the design and layout would be.

The lecture firmly won me over and I think it will be a great experience I am thoroughly looking forward to the finished product and the games!

In this current climate it’s trying times for everyone. But there’s been a lot of concern in the amount of unemployed graduates, struggling to find any work.

It is said that graduate unemployment is at its highest in more than 15 years.

At school we are led to believe that completing a degree will guarantee you a career or at least a sustainable job. More and more young people are feeling that this is a lie.

“I was willing to try anything instead of sitting around doing nothing – well, I felt like I was doing nothing, signing on, so I was willing to try anything. I felt like I’d been lied to through University, because they said, ‘If you get a degree in anything you’ll get any job you want, because you’ve got a degree. It just wasn’t like that at all, so I entered the real world with a bit of a thud. “ -Kirsty Parkinson, 23, BBC interview, 6 Oct 2010

The number of unemployed graduates is increasing and it is said that this will stay the same for the next four years.

So what does that mean for the future of graduates?

Most graduates, who have found work, haven’t found a job with any relevance to their degree.
It seems that most graduates have felt unprepared for work and that their universities did not advise them of their career choices.

There is also the rising problem of internships. Many graduates have resorted to working for free, sometimes up to a year, just to gain work experience and in most cases their not even sustainable jobs and are left unemployed and having to sign on to job seekers allowance.

But have job centres and recruitment agencies been of that much help?
The problem that graduates seem to be facing is that they have spent time and money for 3 years doing a course that seems to have no real involvement of their future career. Most graduates are settling for what they can get instead of chasing the dream.

“Being unemployed for so long makes me wonder if my degree will even benefit me in the long run and as I have no previous experience in the sector in which I am to pursue a career in.” – Nahida Akther 25/10/2010

There also seems to be an increase in graduates looking into careers as teachers, nurses etc. As this may seem productive it’s not always the best option as these types of jobs require passion and stamina and should be thought about at great length instead of a guaranteed career fix as it is being sold to young people today.

So what can be done to improve the state of unemployment for young people? Such programmes as the Future Jobs Fund programme has helped more than 54,920 unemployed people and having been scrapped, there are few apprenticeships and programmes that can provide the same results. Do recruitment agencies cater enough to graduates? With Graduate roles being scrapped there isn’t much help for graduates to build careers.

We can only hope that more companies see this as cause for concern and try their best to train and help graduates build careers and hopefully be able to use their degrees and find a career that is truly suitable for them.

Hi There!

Big thank you to everyone who has been supporting our blog!

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So we recently released our first edition of our newsletter and were wondering what you think makes a good newsletter?
I’ve personally received lots of newsletters from different organisations and companies, from councils and universities to clothing stores and art communities. All varied sectors but all want to achieve the same thing. Whether they are selling or informing or both, through style, imagery and content, the newsletter is trying to get you to read it.

I know that when I receive newsletters for me to read them they have to be.

1. Aesthetically pleasing – A good layout can go a long way, if it looks pretty the magpies will come a-flocking.
2. Something to give – Whether it’s a last minute sale or the latest product, if they got something for me, I want to know.
3. New information – If it can teach me something I didn’t know then that is the ultimate newsletter, any tips or advice on, well, anything is useful!

There have been many times where I have opened up a newsletter and thought it was just spam and people are just trying to sell me something so what we want to find out is what makes you stop and read a newsletter? What makes a particularly bad newsletter in your opinion?
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