British PhD graduates are more employable than those with first or masters degrees, but there is a danger the supply of doctoral students may dry up, a new study has warned.The report, ‘What do PhDs do? - Trends, from the UK Grad programme’ covers British PhD graduates from UK institutions who responded to surveys in 2004, 2005 and 2006.It found unemployment rates for PhD graduates remained between 3% and 4% over the three years, but warned that tuition fees and increased competition for postgraduates among course providers in Europe might lead to a drop in the number of students studying PhDs in the UK.Among those graduates working in the UK, the education sector is the most popular destination for all disciplines (on average 50%), except for biomedical scientists. More than 45% of biomedical scientists said the health and social work sector was their top destination.Social sciences and arts and humanities PhD graduates were most likely to become lecturers in higher education.But the report sounded warnings over the future supply of PhD graduates from UK universities as the flow of British graduates has recently plateaued. Source: The Guardian

Women from the black community (particularly African Caribbean) are among the most entrepreneurial of all groups according to new research from UK enterprise support body, Prowess.The report shows that women are increasingly moving from permanent to self-employment.Since 1990, the proportion of women moving from employment to self-employment has increased from 22.2% to 32.6% of all those moving. The new report - 'State of Women's Enterprise in the UK', provides a comprehensive view of the rate and growth of business start-ups, the sectors from which women are leaving employment, and policy recommendations on how national and local government can further support women’s enterprise.The research revealed that women are more likely than men to think that social, ethical and environmental considerations in business are important (59% compared with 48%), women are moving from employment to self-employment predominantly from the education, healthcare and community work sectors.

The UK will be one of the world's talent hotspots within the next five years thanks to the quality of its education system and an open labour market.The results of the Global Talent Index compiled by the Economist Intelligence Unit and headhunter firm Heidrick & Struggles puts only the US ahead of the UK. The study measured the demographics, quality of compulsory education, universities and business schools, mobility, labour market conditions and trends in foreign direct investment of 30 countries, to identify the best locations for attracting talent.The UK will replace the Netherlands as Europe's top country for attracting talent by 2012 but will remain behind the US. But both countries face increasing competition from China and India in the top 10 talent hotspots, while Asia performs strongly overall with Japan, Malaysia and South Korea all in the top 15. The other Bric countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China) - Brazil and Russia - will fare less well. Brazil will fall one place to nineteenth, while Russia will fall out of the top 10 and be overtaken by Ukraine. David Peters, regional managing partner, Europe/Middle East/Africa (AMEA), at Heidrick & Struggles, said in the report: "The openness of our labour market, combined with our excellent schools and universities, proves that the UK is one of the best business locations in the world - and is becoming even better."Source: Silicon

Britain is embracing a more flexible working week and turning into a nation of homeworkers, according to a survey by home insurance company, Zurich.
The research found that 30% of full-time employees surveyed spend time during the month working from home, clocking up an average of 15hrs 44 minutes or nearly 10% of the working month in the home office. It found that 10% of the ad hoc homeworkers surveyed spend more than 40 hours each month working from home and 4% clock up more than 80 hours. The study found that avoiding the commute to and from work is the most popular reason for homeworking, with 66% of respondents citing it as an advantage. Peace and quiet from colleagues (55%), freedom to choose working hours (50%), flexibility (48%) and lack of distractions (46%) complete the top five reasons for home working. Those surveyed also appreciate a few home comforts; 22% welcome the chance for a lie-in, while 8% tune into daytime television during their working day. It found that the trend looks to become more popular in the coming year, with a third of ad hoc homeworkers expecting to spend more time working from home than they have in the past twelve months.Source: Recruitment Matters

The European Union (EU) should adhere to the codes of conduct if they want to recruit health professionals from developing countries, says South Africa’s Health Minister Dr Manto Tshabalala-Msimang.Speaking at the first meeting of Health Ministers from 79 African, Caribbean and Pacific region countries (ACP), she noted that many developing countries are already struggling with the challenge of migration of health workers and cannot afford schemes that seek to cream the very limited health skills available in developing countries.She pointed out that South Africa has taken a principled position not to recruit from its sister countries, which are facing the same challenges and that South Africa has reserved a percentage of places at its Medical Schools for students from other Southern African Development Community (SADC) member states. Minister Tshabalala-Msimang’s statement followed the unveiling of a Blue Card scheme aimed at assisting the EU to recruit about 20 million skilled workers over the next two decades. Health was one the sectors identified for the Blue Card recruitment initiative, and will enable holders and their families to live, work and travel within the EU. To be eligible for the card, new immigrants would need to show a recognised diploma and have at least three years professional working experience.She urged ACP Health Ministers to adopt a declaration that enjoins all countries to develop national health plans that entail acceleration of the production of human resources in the health sector.

The UK has introduced a long-term, multiple entry, premium visit visa for those who visit the country regularly. It allows the holder unlimited entries to the UK, for up to six months at any one time, for the validity of the visa. It helps the holder save time since he/she only has to provide his/her biometric data once during the whole validity of the visa. The visa helps to protect customers from identity theft. It also prevents mistaken identity (i.e. preventing confusing an individual with another person bearing the same or similar name) and protects the holder against any future visa fee increases for the validity of the long-term visa. Frequent travellers to the UK can also apply to enrol in the automatic iris recognition system at UK ports, which facilitates ’fast track’ admission by the use of automatic booths, avoiding queues. Further information on long-term premium visas, can be obtained from the nearest British mission overseas where there is a visa section or a visa application centre.Source: Africa News

The export value of UK education and training is £28bn, more than that of financial services, a report says. The Sheffield University research includes the fees and living expenses of international students. It also considered consultancy and training services and sales of educational materials including books, journals and software. The British Council said the UK needed to take education more seriously as a global business to avoid losing out. The council published a report based on the research, Global Value: The Value of UK Education and Training Exports, as part of its role in promoting worldwide appreciation of the UK. In 2003-2004, the direct value of overseas students was said to be £8.5bn, 39% higher than two years earlier. The estimated total compared with £19bn for financial services and £20bn for the automotive industry, £14bn for healthcare service exports £7bn for construction exports and £9.4bn for food and drink. Source:BBC

As many as two-thirds of today's workers are either actively looking for new jobs or merely going through the motions at their current jobs. While they still show up for work each day, in the ways that count, many have quit. That's one of the sobering findings revealed in an urgent new book, ONE FOOT OUT THE DOOR: How to Combat the Psychological Recession That's Alienating Employees and Hurting American Business (AMACOM Books). The author, Judith M. Bardwick, Ph.D., has uncovered a widespread state of worker resentment, vulnerability, and fear afflicting companies across the country. She calls it the "Psychological Recession."One reason for this psychological recession is bad management practices - treating people like expendable costs rather than valuable resources and assets. Inspired by what works for innovative, caring, and profitable companies, Dr. Bardwick shares her ideas and specific strategies for fostering employee commitment and restoring people's trust and confidence-in their company and their future.

A Home Office report on the economic impact of immigration has found that immigrants from the Middle East, Africa and the Indian sub-continent earn more than the average UK-born resident. But immigrants from European states outside the original 15 EU members earn “noticeably” less than native Britons. The employment rate for foreign-born workers was 68 per cent in 2006 compared to 75 per cent for UK-born workers. The report also reveals that one in eight UK residents of working age is foreign-born - up from one in 13 ten years ago. It also concludes that inward migration has not had a negative effect on wage levels. It also rejects claims that eastern European migrants have led to an increase in unemployed people claiming benefits. Liam Byrne, the immigration minister, said that the findings would help ministers to “strike a new balance in Britain’s migration policy: weighing the economic benefits against the wider impacts”. He also reiterated the government’s plans to introduce a points-based immigration system. Source: Regeneration

In spite of the turmoil in the financial markets Oxford Economics is forecasting that London is set to create 500,000 new jobs in the next decade. They also calculate that the capital makes a £12.7bn net contribution to public finances and spend £123bn on goods and services imported from other parts of the UK. It creates far more wealth relative to public expenditure than any other region. The City of London said that the Oxford Economics’ study underlined the “ever increasing requirement for more investment in infrastructure and public services”. Source: Financial Times

Africa and the rest of the developing world has become the training ground for developed nations in areas such as engineering, teaching, health services and the financial sector, said South African Finance Minister Trevor Manuel, speaking at the25th anniversary of the Institute of International Finance in Washington DC.Developing countries have emerged in recent years as the biggest suppliers of qualified professionals to the advanced countries as a whole. The Minister believes globalisation and growth have accentuated shortages of skills for engineers, doctors, nurses, plumbers and other skilled artisans as Western countries, who in their quest to save and minimise costs and maximise returns, produce too few engineers, doctors and nurses to even meet their own demands.This ‘plunder’ of developing countries for skills, he says, makes it more difficult or impossible for developing countries to reduce poverty and attain their development goals.During the mid-1990’s, there were more than a million and a half skilled expatriates from the developing countries in Western Europe, the United States, Japan and Canada.   Africa with its shortages of manpower, was the biggest loser, having lost 60 000 professionals between 1985 and 1990 at an average of 20 000 annually until the mid-1990s. “On average 10.4 percent of skilled migration is from Africa,” said the minister.In terms of the migration of African health-care workers to advanced economies, there is an estimated shortage of 820,000 doctors, nurses and other health workers on the continent. “In South Africa we have 393 nurses and 74 doctors per 100 000 people, compared with 901 nurses and 247 doctors per 10 000 people in the US,” explained the minister. Mr. Manuel believes that Africa and South Africa have become a training ground for developed countries, meeting all the costs of doing so without receiving any contribution from developed countries.

A comprehensive new report on home businesses shows that over 60% of new businesses are now started from home. In addition, out of the 4.5m small and medium sized businesses in the UK, 2.1m are based at home. The report, compiled by Enterprise Nation, provides a thorough insight to the make up of Britain's home-based businesses - from an industry and regional point of view.The striking increase in the number of people working from home can probably be explained by a number of factors, particularly the availability of new technology. The exponential growth of the internet, in particular, has changed the way businesses work. Home-based businesses account for around 28% of UK employment, with a combined turnover of £364bn. Over 60% of new businesses are now started from home, with the fastest growing home working sectors in the business/professional areas, online trading, personal services, food and domestic energy.

The number of people employed by the voluntary sector has risen by 26% over the last decade compared to 14% in the public sector and 11% in the private sectors in the same period. The rise to 611,000 has been driven by the government and local authorities becoming purchasers rather than providers of public services. According to the National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO) much of the growth has come in social care activity. If charities providing social housing were also included the size of the “third sector” labour force rises to 1.5m and 6m unpaid volunteers- bigger than the National Health Service. Source: Financial Times

ASCENT is a bold new initiative to increase the number of multicultural women in the USA into management positions.The initiative is headed by Dr. Ella L.J. Edmondson Bell, professor of business administration at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth University, who for more than 20 years has studied the impact of race and gender in the workplace.The program is totally developed to the advancement and the retention of multicultural women according to Dr. Bell. Non-white women now are 17.6% of all managers in corporate America, according to the latest Equal Employment Opportunity Commission data.  ASCENT is focused on "leading multicultural women to the top," and comprises high-power women executives across industry lines banding together to level the playing field for women of colour and add diversity to boardrooms. Managed by a partnership between the Tuck School of Business and the Anderson School of Management at UCLA, ASCENT provides mentoring, networking and retention career training for women of colour at entry, mid- and executive levels.

Chris Humphries, the director-general of City & Guilds, has been appointed chief Executive of the new UK Commission for Employment and Skills. The Commission, which will commence operations in April 2008, was a key recommendation in Lord Leitch’s review of UK skills. It will be responsible for advising government on skills-related strategy and policy with the aim of increasing employment, productivity and competitiveness.  According to Humphries, the Commission’s purpose is to examine the way the systems are operating and advise on how to make them more effective. It will provide regular reports to the government on progress towards the targets set by Leitch as well as deliver a verdict in 2010 on whether there should be a statutory entitlement for learning if an insufficient number of employers voluntarily sign up to the skills pledge.Humphries was previously director-general of the British Chambers of Commerce.

Women continue to break through the City of London’s glass ceiling with record numbers becoming top company directors.A recent survey shows one in five new appointments to FTSE 100 boards were women.That increases the total to 123 – but it sill means just one in 9 board members is female.The survey also revealed a 40% rise in the number of women on executive committees responsible for the day-to-day running of companies.The report, by Cranfield University management school, says the increase is due to prominent chairmen, chief executives and women directors who have promoted gender diversity. Supermarket giant Sainsbury topped the Cranfield league with 3 female directors on a board of 10.Women also make up a fifth of its Executive Committee.

The number of people leaving the UK to live abroad reached a record 400,000 in 2006- an increase of 41,000 on 2005. The Office for National Statistics say that 207,000 were British citizens, with most going to Australia, New Zealand, France, Spain or the USA. The rest of the 400,000 were non-British and had been in the UK for more than a year. The annual international migration figures confirm that an estimated 591,000 people arrived to live in the UK for at least a year, giving a net inward flow of 191,000. The largest group of new immigrants was from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, outnumbering those from Poland and the other new EU states. Work remains the most important factor but the number of students arriving to study for at least a year totalled 157,000. The Home Office estimated that international students boost the economy by almost £8.5bn a year. Source: The Guardian

The UK Secretary of State for Universities and Skills, John Denham, has announced plans to make skills training places available to 7.5m people. The plan includes 3.5m basic literacy and numeracy courses. Under the plan there will also be 120,000 new apprenticeships for under-25s and 30,000 places for older workers; there will be an extra 95,000 places for people without five good GCSEs. It is estimated that nearly a third of people of traditional working age in the UK are poorly qualified and 7m have problems with literacy and numeracy. The Secretary of State said the government recognised that something had to be done to raise the employability of unskilled British workers. Source: The Independent

Sir Cyril Taylor, chairman of the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust, has urged leading City companies to support the creation of England’s first “financial skills academy to produce skilled workers for the financial service and insurance industries”. Sir Cyril told a conference of insurance companies that such an academy “could make a significant contribution to solving … the low skills base of many native Londoners which prevents them from competing in London’s skilled labour market.” He said that discussions about raising the £2m needed for an academy in central London were going well and that many more such academies could follow. Currently UBS and KPMG sponsor academies in Hackney and the City Corporation sponsors two academies in Bermondsey and Islington. The FT says that the new proposal may have two selling points for City institutions: it is designed to produce workers for their sector and, unlike other proposals it will not replace a failing school, attended by poor-performing pupils. The new academy will have a strong vocational emphasis, in line with the retail academy, sponsored by Sir Philip Green and the construction skills academy sponsored by JCB. Source: Financial Times

Womenkind is a new company created to address the shortage of women creative executives working on Madison Avenue by harnessing the power of female ad and marketing executives, including stay-at-home moms, reports The Wall Street Journal. Womenkind will employ about 60 female creative types, from copywriters to art directors, many of whom will be women who have left the work force. Most will be freelancers tapped on a project basis rather than hired as full-time employees of the agency.

Although African women and female migrants assume responsibility and leadership in various areas, they remain neglected in knowledge about the African Diaspora. In particular, the absence of gender-specific data impairs the understanding and the appropriate assessment of women's unique role in development. In an effort to identify and support African women who wish to engage in the development of their countries of origin, the IOM is creating a Database for African Women in the diaspora, which will serve as a special component to their general database. As a crucial part of IOM's Database initiative, the African Women Diaspora Database strives to promote the mainstreaming of the African women as leaders in the social and economic development of their country of origin.You are a female member of the African diaspora, and you would like to contribute to the development of your country of origin in key sectors such as Agriculture, Arts and Humanities, Business and Commerce, Education, Health, Law, Public Administration and Services and Science and Technology, the organization would like you to visit their website and register. http://www.iom.int/jahia/Jahia/pid/1904

A publication from the German Foundation for World Population (DSW) provides tips and tricks on how to apply successfully for development grants from donor governments and organisations.

http://www.eurongos.org/Files/HTML/EuroNGOs/TipsTricks/tips.pdf

LOVA invites social science scholars to participate in an international conference in July by presenting their research in an individual paper or panel. They particularly encourage participants to submit audio-visuals and other alternative ways of presenting their research. Participants may register through sending individual paper or panel proposals to  LOVAnetwork@hotmail.com before February 1, 2008. http://www.lovanetwerk.nl

A London-based social enterprise, Women Like Us, has won the Best New Social Enterprise Award at the 2007 Enterprising Solutions Awards run by the Social Enterprise Coalition. Women Like Us, which has so far got 265 women back into part-time work, was set up by Karen Mattinson in partnership with Emma Stewart and with a pilot scheme grant of £25,000 from the Department of Trade and Industry. It began as a website but through leafleting schools they have recruited 3,000 candidates and work in 60 schools. Each school has a WLU representative to explain the entirely free service. Women who sign up are offered coaching and support to find the right job, create a strong CV or start their own business. WLU, which now has 28 salaried staff, has two income streams: grants from local government and recruitment fees from employers. The first WLU office opened in South London in November 2007 followed by a pilot scheme will open in the West Midlands before the end of the year.

Harvard University is now free for students whose parents make $60,000 per year or less. Known for its elite status among the nation's Ivy League school, Harvard University has opened its doors to low-income students who are accepted. "Parents with incomes of less than $60,000 will no longer be expected to contribute to the cost of their children attending Harvard. In addition, Harvard will reduce the contributions of families with incomes between $60,000 and $80,000," reports Harvard's  financial-aid web site.  Harvard's Financial Aid Initiative (HFAI) for low-income families started in 2004 when the university announced that families earning $40,000 annually or less would not pay tuition. In March 2006, Harvard announced it increased the low-income threshold to $60,000 annually.As a result of HFAI, the class of 2011, which starts school in September, will be the most economically diverse in Harvard's history. An estimated 26 percent of students entering Harvard in September are eligible for HFAI. Since the inception of the program, there has been a 34 percent increase in aid for students from families with incomes under $60,000. Of the students admitted, 50.5 percent were women, 10.7 percent were black, 19.6 percent were Asian American, 10.1 percent were Latino, and 1.5 percent were Native American, according Harvard records. Source: Diversity Inc.

A special issue of Chatham House journal International Affairs was launched in Nairobi in November focusing on Africa and Security. The issue distils current thinking on the major security issues in Africa and covers several emerging areas of work, including transnational organized crime in West Africa, the threat of climate change, and security issues relating to Africans outside Africa.Also covering Africa this month is The World Today, the monthly current affairs magazine produced by Chatham House.  Five articles on African issues cover such varied topics as sapphire mining in Madagascar, Ethiopia’s intervention in Somalia, South Africa’s leadership contest, and food production in Malawi. Both publications are available from: www.chathamhouse.org.uk.

Immigration over the past seven years was the highest for any seven-year period in American history, bringing 10.3 million new immigrants, more than half of them without legal status, according to an analysis of census data released today by the Center for Immigration Studies in Washington. One in eight people living in the United States is an immigrant, the survey found, for a total of 37.9 million people — the highest level since the 1920s. The survey was conducted by Steven A. Camarota, director of research at the Center, which advocates reduced immigration. Since 2000, 10.3 million new immigrants have entered the country. That is the highest rate of immigration for any seven-year period in the country's history and more than half of the new immigrants were undocumented workers, according to research conducted by the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS). Source: The New York Times

The Academic Technology Approval Scheme (ATAS) has become a mandatory requirement within the immigration rules for students intending to enter or remain in the United Kingdom for more than six months to undertake postgraduate studies or research in certain designated subjects. The new rule that went into force on 30th November 2007 will also apply to those who are enrolled on an overseas course which is similar in subject matter to those covered by the ATAS and intend to come to the UK for more than six months in order to undertake a period of study/research, which forms part of their postgraduate overseas course. Those who wish to come to, or extend their stay in the United Kingdom for such a purpose, are now required to provide a valid ATAS clearance certificate with their application for an entry clearance or an extension of stay. Failure to provide a valid clearance certificate will result in their application being refused.Applications for an ATAS clearance certificate can be submitted online to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office's Counter Proliferation Department where applicants will also find a list of the designated subjects and further details of the scheme. The application should not take one any longer than 30 minutes to complete. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) said it aims to respond to applications within three weeks from the date of receipt. Most will be resolved within 5-10 working days.

Black pupils achieved better than average improvements in their GCSEs in 2007.The UK Government has published data showing that Black African and Caribbean girls in particular made bigger strides compared with other ethnic groups in the country. Schools Minister Andrew Adonis welcomed the figures, saying that the long and short term trend shows that the gap between minority and ethnic groups and the national average is closing. The biggest improvers are Black African and Black Caribbean pupils with the proportion getting five good GCSEs jumping by 4.6 percentage points from 51.0% to 55.6% and 4.2 percentage points from 44.9% to 49.1% respectively. Black African pupils have also being making steady progress with 55.6% achieving five good GCSEs compared to 40.7% in 2003.

The LSE Centre for Civil Society is calling for participants for a conference on
European Aid and NGOs which will take place in London on 13-14 March 2008 and is organised by the LSE Centre for Civil Society and the CINEFOGO network of Excellence. They are also calling for international visiting fellowships and practitioner fellowships with the ESRC Non-Governmental Public Action Programme. Further information can be found on the CCS and NGPA websites or by contacting the LSE Centre for Civil Society Administrator, ESRC Non Governmental Public Action Programme Tel 0044 (0) 207 955 7205 Fax 0044 (0) 207 955 6039.   www.lse.ac.uk

The gap between white and non-white senior managers has inspired the creation of The PhD Project, which is elevating the number of black, Latino and Native American professionals with advanced degrees getting good jobs in corporate America. The program has captured the attention of industry giants, including Wal-Mart, which was a sponsor of The PhD Project's annual invitation-only conference last month in Chicago. Established in 1994, The PhD Project seeks to increase the number of executives who are black, Latino and Native American by increasing the number of business professors from those groups. The idea is that talented students need mentors and guides who understand them and their backgrounds. "The PhD Project was really an effort that grew out of frustration," says Bernie Milano, president of The PhD Project and the KPMG Foundation, who in 1994 was a recruiter for accounting firm KPMG. "We were trying to make sure at KPMG that we had a diverse work force, but there was a shortage of blacks, Latinos and Native Americans." Forecasting that an increase in the number of faculty members who were people of colour would ultimately create a more racially/ethnically diverse work force, Milano led the effort to create a program that specifically targeted students of colour. The organization has tripled the number of people of colour teaching in business school and will graduate another 411 over the next two years. Providing a support network for blacks, Latinos and Native Americans pursuing business doctoral programs, The PhD Project puts them in front of the classroom at some of the nation's top B-schools, ranging from Harvard Business School to the Goizueta Business School at Emory University. It has slashed the average dropout rate for doctoral students from these groups from 35% to 7%.