Where the City’s movers and shakers have their say. Today, James Reed, chairman and CEO of Reed, takes the pen to talk about the world of work, his pre-office ritual, and some advice for the next generation
Training the next generation
Millions of youngsters – and a good number of older people too – are currently digesting this month’s exam results.
I remember receiving mine and feeling that my entire future rested on how I had done. Certainly, exam results can be an important stepping stone onto the next stage of your life or career, and I congratulate everyone who performed well.
However, if you didn’t get what you hoped for, as someone who has been working in recruitment for over 30 years, I want to reassure you that exams are not the be-all and end-all.
The merits of going on to university are very dependent on where you go and what you study.
We come across people in our employment programmes who are recent graduates and are disappointed that they haven’t been able to get decent, graduate-level jobs. That’s because they have studied courses that haven’t enabled them to progress. We all need to focus on skills that are needed in the labour market at the moment.
Those include technology and green skills, both areas of huge growth and opportunity.
T-levels, a two-year qualification designed to give 16- to 19-year-olds a head start towards the career they want, can be a good route, but I would suggest to the new education secretary Bridget Phillipson that they need to be simplified and improved.
Reed Environment is working with the Oxford Energy Academy on plans to develop a green workforce to help the UK meet its net zero targets. So far we have two academies, one in Oxford and one in Cambridge, which act as specialist training centres for the next generation of environmentally-aware tradespeople and construction sector workers. They offer courses and qualifications covering gas, electrical, plumbing, oil and renewable energy.
Green engineers working to retrofit older buildings can make serious money, earning over £70 an hour.
We also recently acquired Code Nation, one of the UK’s fastest-growing independent digital and technical training providers, offering routes into lucrative tech, coding and digital jobs.
So if you didn’t get the GCSE or A-level results you had been hoping for, be reassured that there is nothing to stop you from forging a career in tech, the green economy or other growth areas and enjoying a successful working life.
Solving our population problem
Our research shows that women still earn on average around £10,000 less than men. In many cases, this is because their careers are interrupted when they have children and take time to get back on track. Yet as a society, we need to be having more children. The birth rate in the UK has fallen to 1.49 per woman on average, but it needs to be 2.1 just for the population to be sustained (net of immigration). Ministers should consider an income tax break for women who have two or more children. If income tax was levied at 50 per cent of what they would otherwise pay, we would encourage families to have two or more children, help with childcare costs and create lots of new taxpayers.
A welcome reset with the EU
Getting on with your neighbours is generally a good idea, so I welcome Keir Starmer’s ‘reset’ of UK-EU relations. Doing more things in tandem with the EU rather than disagreeing or duplicating efforts for the sake of it can only make sense for our economies and societies. While it is a consequence of our decision to opt for ‘third country’ status, I hope something can be agreed on the issue of e-visas, due to come into force next year. Otherwise all prospective UK visitors to the Schengen Area will have to apply online for permission to enter, a serious nuisance.
The final straw
I have been trying to build a barn to store straw and hay at my home in Wiltshire for over a year. What should be a straightforward planning application has yet to receive a sensible response. So a project that would have supported jobs locally has been pointlessly held up. Planning reform, as is being promised by the new government, is long overdue.
A pre-work ritual
I have been going to the Love Supreme Projects yoga studio on Golborne Road early in the morning before work for the last two or three months. I’m a man in late middle age, shall we say, who wants to maintain maximum flexibility. I find yoga has been extremely helpful for my core strength. It’s also good for my mental health because so much of it is about breathing. I highly recommend taking it up.