Katherine Wiid, Director of Recrion, is pleased to announce that an additional £2.8 million has been allocated to the project which has already supported over 10,000 people to learn new skills, find employment or become self employed.

“We have helped hundreds of employees in a wide variety of businesses to identify their transferable skills and adapt their job search in the current economy.  The R2R fund gives everyone the opportunity to have 1:1 careers advice and training resulting in over 67 per cent finding new employment within 13 weeks”.

For more information on how to access the support and funding, visit www.recrion.co.uk/free or telephone 01780 484910.

Encouraging individuals who have been made redundant and have a great business idea to take the plunge, is often difficult to do given the banks reluctance to lend to them.

I was heartened to discover that The Funding Circle lent £1m to small businesses in the UK in its first ten weeks.

The Funding Circle is the UK's first ever online marketplace – great to see innovation in times of economic uncertainty.

Co-founder of the social lending platform, James Meekings, said:

“The response to Funding Circle has been phenomenal. For consumers to lend £1 million to businesses via the site in just 10 weeks highlights the public’s appetite to support our small business community whilst also earning themselves a fantastic return".

So if you need a business loan at a cheaper rate than the banks are offering (average interest rate 8.2 per cent, substantially below the 12 per cent that banks typically charge businesses), visit www.fundingcircle.com.

Recrion is a specialist in career and talent management and is actively facilitating a Response to Redundancy scheme across the East of England and sign posting funding in the region. Click here to find out more about the R2R scheme or call an R2R Adviser on 01780 484910.

Qualifications are one thing, yet experience and getting your hands dirty by putting the theory into practice is everything.

A low risk strategy is to volunteer in your local community to gain the skills you need.  Or job shadow someone who already does the job and offer to work for free.

How does that help you if you are out of work and have bills to pay?

In several ways.  It gets you out and about and opens your mind to new ways of doing things.  It is also an essential part of your professional development to understand the needs of a wide spectrum of businesses and the types of problems they need solving.  Then you will know how your skills can be used to greater effect in the job market.

And the outcome is not just to have helped make a difference to your local community although this is rewarding in itself. Volunteering gives you something credible to talk about when you are networking or going for interviews.

If volunteering is something you might consider, we recommend you visit this volunteer website in the UK - it will help you refine your search for the kind of voluntary work you are interested in doing.

Another way of sharing your skills is to let your network of friends, families and professional contacts know what you have to offer and they will find opportunities for you.  At Recrion, we started a CSR / Voluntary scheme 3 years ago and have been able to share our skills in career and talent management with a wide range of local businesses.

The outcome?   Read for yourself what we were able to achieve …

Thank you so much for giving your time and expertise to help our members yesterday.  I know from speaking to them afterwards that you certainly gave all of them something to think about.

For those who are using sites such LinkedIn already it reinforced the message that they were moving in the right lines, and for those who were not it gave them the incentive to get on with it!  Even those that were old hands at social networking gained insights they were not aware of.

Everyone was agreeing that your talk was one of the most enjoyable they had heard – they are not used to audience participation, so the novelty was very welcome.  Thank you again for a most enjoyable and informative seminar yesterday.
Alan Boyer, Facilitator, Back to Business Club, Peterborough

Recrion is a specialist in career and talent management.  Visit our website or contact us on 01780 484910 for more information about our services.

This has never been more relevant.

Employee engagement is at an all time low as millions of employees emerge from the recession battle-scarred and de-motivated.

“Engaging for Growth” is a 1 day event on 14 April with the keynote address by David MacLeod, Chair of the MacLeod Review. I thought the topics and line up of interesting speakers will make this a worthwhile event to attend – I'll be there!

For more information visit http://www.engagingforgrowth.com/

Recrion is a Career and People Management Specialist who consults on employee engagement and retention. Visit www.recrion.co.uk or call 01780 484910 for more information.

The big freeze in terms of pay cuts, job losses and cutbacks are continuing however and not just in the public sector.  As a business owner or HR professional it is a challenging time in which to make employee related decisions.  I found the latest CIPD barometer predicting employment trends for 2010 extremely useful to plan for my own business needs in the next 6 months.

Click here for your FREE HR Trends and Prospects 2010 Report.

One of the points raised in the report was that many employers aren't taking advantage of government backed support when making redundancies.  There are some very helpful schemes available to help "at risk" employees access training and careers advice to prepare them for the job market – visit www.recrion.co.uk/free for more information or call 01780 484910 to speak to a Career's Advisor.

Graduates who have been unemployed for 6 months have access through the Jobcentre, and useful websites such as Directgov and Graduate Talent Pool to apply for internships with employers.

A number of our clients do not have an internship scheme and are unsure of the legal ramifications of employing graduates in this way.  They have a number of questions around

• the business benefits of running a good internship scheme
• whether or not internships should always be paid positions
• how interns should be recruited
• employment contracts.

The CIPD has recently published a comprehensive guideline with practical suggestions on how to tackle these issues.

Click here for your FREE copy of "Internships that Work"

For more information on employment related government funding, please contact Recrion, People and Career Management Specialist who are actively facilitating Response to Redundancy schemes in the East of England.

Visit www.recrion.co.uk/free or call 01780 484910.

Recrion has partnered with Triangle Business Services who has been awarded a contract by the Department for Work and Pensions to provide Jobsearch Seminars and 1-on-1 mentoring and support for professional and managerial candidates becoming unemployed due to the current recession.

Our service is part of the government’s response to the economic downturn and is targeted principally at Professional or Executive jobseekers in receipt of Job Seekers Allowance (JSA) who have become recently unemployed.

Our Jobsearch Seminars are conducted by our qualified and experienced HR and Career Management advisors who will help you and provide support on the following areas:

• Provide constructive feedback on what your CV says about you
• Recognise your skills and unique selling point
• Develop the right CV and covering letter for appropriate jobs
• Understand what hiring managers are looking for in a new recruit
• How to master employer selection techniques and achieve results at interview
• Interview role-play to gain confidence
• How and where to research the right opportunity
• Lessons on how to market and sell yourself in the"hidden" jobs market
• Tips on setting up your own business

All delegates will receive a comprehensive range of job seeking tools to take away and use, and a personalised plan for how to approach your job search.

If you would like to access this service, please contact Katherine Wiid, Director of Recrion, People and Career Management Specialists, on 01780 484910 or email enquiries@recrion.co.uk.

However the status quo may no longer exist in today's job market.  Whole markets, industries and job definitions have changed.

The interesting point in the conversation comes when the individual weighs up permanent versus contract or interim work. The majority don't consider contracting or freelancing as a viable avenue to pursue.  Yet this is the very avenue that might lead them to longer term growth and opportunity as they will be learning and absorbing new skills more quickly.

I loved this article by Gino Trapani on "How to Benefit from a Freelancer's Mindset" and I hope this resource will benefit anyone who is currently going through major career change.

In my experience, you have to risk everything sometimes or you risk even more.

Recrion is a People and Career Management Specialist and has supported over 300 employees through redundancy in the last 6 months.

If you would like someone to talk to about the challenges you face, contact Katherine Wiid on 01780 484910.  You might be eligible for training and development funding through the European Social Fund – take a look at www.recrion.co.uk/free.

We agreed that whilst the downturn is not over, people are thinking more positively and starting to spend again albeit with caution.  This fact was borne out by the Office for National Statistics (ONC) who reported that GDP dropped by 0.4% in the third quarter of the year rather than increased as they had hoped.

The Institute of Directors (IoD) senior economist, Peter Patterson said “The figures are disappointing for businesses, which may have to make more redundancies due to the difficulties in obtaining bank credit. Many businesses have avoided laying off workers because they were hoping the downturn wouldn’t be too deep or too long, but they may soon be unable to afford to keep them on. Small firms are struggling to get finance because of the state of the banks, and the longer it goes on the more difficult it will be.”

Patterson said that although output is likely to improve soon, unemployment will not decrease for at least a year.

The positive news in the East of England is that there are 2 helpful Response to Redundancy schemes available to businesses and affected employees.

For more information visit www.recrion.co.uk/free or contact Recrion on 01780 484910.

US companies are already rehiring employees previously made redundant, and one of the world’s largest computer chip manufacturers, TSMC, recently announced plans to rehire hundreds of laid-off workers.

If you are considering re-hiring an employee or you are thinking about re-joining your old company, its worth knowing the legal position before you enter into negotiations.  This article in People Management summarises both parties options.

The other consideration is that whilst the job on offer is something you have done before, what has changed since you were made redundant?  Take some time to ensure that you look at the situation with fresh eyes and weigh up your longer term career prospects carefully.

Recrion is a People and Career Management Specialist and works with individuals to create clear sustainable career strategies.  Visit www.recrion.co.uk or call 01780 484910 for more information.