Yell's Mum Magnates study found that 92 per cent of business mums attributed their commercial success to the skills they learnt as mothers. In particular, multi-tasking and forward planning skills honed during motherhood helped female entrepreneurs succeed when starting a business. The study also revealed that 40 per cent of mothers who run a business got the impetus to start-up while they were pregnant. "According to Erika Watson, executive director at women's business-support organisation Prowess, enterprise can provide the flexibility for women to earn a living, while caring for young children. Through being a mother, women often become experts in multi-tasking, managing budgets and negotiation - all essential skills for starting and growing an enterprise. Yell recently launched its Bizmums website, offering female entrepreneurs free access to business advice. Alongside information on topics such as access to finance and work-life balance, the website also contains dedicated advice from the 2007 finalists of Prowess' Business Mum of the Year awards. Bizmums website

Private sector suppliers are being forced to increase the diversity of their workforces and improve their green credentials to win contracts worth billions from London authorities. The Greater London Authority Group, which includes Transport for London, the Metropolitan Police and the London Development Agency and spends £3bn a year on goods and services, has written new “responsible procurement” clauses into dozens of new contracts. It is intended to use the same policy for procurement for the 2012 Games and the planned construction of Crossrail. In addition GLA Group contracts worth about £5.5m annually have had conditions inserted specifying that employees must earn at least “the London living wage”, which is set at £7.20 per hour. The idea, which originated in the US, is to ensure that social and environmental goals are implicit in the authorities’ buying decisions. The mayor’s advisers claim that the policy also gives more opportunities to smaller businesses, especially those run by people from diverse ethnic backgrounds.

A survey of 170 bioscience and pharmaceutical companies by Semta, the skills council for engineering and technology, finds that nearly 40% of the companies cannot fill key posts, particularly at higher levels. This was four times more than companies in other sectors. In addition 29% of firms had skill gaps in their workforce. The findings raise fresh concerns about Britain’s status as one of the world’s leading centres for research and development in bioscience. The industry generates £3.3bn a year in revenue and employs 55,000 people. According to the organisation, half of those who did graduate in science were not going into the relevant industries, with many using their analytical skills to enter the financial services sector because of the rewards.

According to John Denham, the Secretary of State for Universities, employers will increasingly provide funding for degree courses. More degrees will be tailored to employers’ needs, which will result in a rise in the number of scaled-down two-year honours degrees and vocational foundation degrees. In 2008-09, 5,000 degree places are likely to be funded by employers and this number could rise to 20,000 within three years.

Soaring endowments at the nation's top universities have exacerbated the divide between small groups of spectacularly wealthy universities and all of the others, creating tension as less-wealthy colleges try to compete, according to The New York Times. Under mounting pressure from Congress to use at least 3% of their endowments for financial aid, rich universities rolled out new financial-aid programs for their students. In 2007, Harvard, which has a $34.4-billion endowment, eight times more than the $4.4 billion the school boasted in 1990, announced it would scale back tuition significantly for students from households that earn less than $180,000 annually.

After two years with Miss East Africa UK campaigning for underprivileged children of East Africa, Pauline Long has now founded the first ever Mr East Africa UK to join in the awareness campaign and is currently searching for both female and male East African contestants from Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, Ethiopia, Sudan, Eritrea, and Somalia. . The star-studded grand Double crowning finale with celebrity judges and guests will be fundraising for children in Kenya on 26th July at The Bloomsbury Theatre, London; over 100,000 children in Kenya have been left homeless due to the post-election violence. This cultural evening celebrating diversity will bring together in one room guests from different parts of Africa, Europe and USA all in support for a good cause. The lucky winners will be crowned by Miss England and will fly out to Kenya to deliver goods. Potential contestants are invited to register their details on: www.misseastafrica.co.uk

Stockholm-based market research firm Potential Communinications surveyed MBA students and recent graduates in order to compile its third annual list of the best company career portals. The top company was Deutsche Bank, followed by ABN AMRO, UBS and Deloitte. McKinsey & Co were placed 7th while Microsoft secured 10th spot. Source: Hereisthecity.com

A survey by the New York-based Financial Women's Association of its 259 members indicates that women say they are paid less than men for comparable work. 96% of the Financial Women's Association (FWA)'s members said women are paid less than men and nearly two-thirds consider their gender a factor that holds them back in their careers, reports Workforce.com. Women surveyed faulted a lack of access to decision makers, mentors or types of assignments critical for career advancement for women earning less. Lack of access was also cited by women entrepreneurs, who reported they had limited access to the funding sources needed to start a business. "The FWA study indicates that women in finance-related careers continue to find themselves hindered in their treatment as equal partners in the workplace," Lily Klebanoff Blake, president of FWA, told Workforce.com. Read why Black women aren't getting promoted.

Microsoft’s Chairman, Bill Gates, has advised a US Congressional Committee on Science and Technology that America’s high-tech companies are in danger of losing their ability to develop innovative products if Congress does not allow more highly skilled foreign students to work in the country after they graduate from U.S. universities. Gates outlined immigration reforms that he said would help fill “a critical shortfall of skilled scientists and engineers” and advocated improving science and maths education and increasing federal funding for basic research. The Microsoft boss urged the lifting of the annual cap on H-1B visas for highly skilled immigrants. Last year, the 65,000-person ceiling was exceeded on April 2, the first day that companies could apply for visas for the next fiscal year. Among his recommendations were proposals for Congress to increase the number of employment-based visas, or green cards, extend the time that foreign students can stay in the U.S. after they complete their degree, eliminate visa limits for individual countries and make more highly skilled foreign employees permanent residents. According to Gates, without a targeted solution for highly skilled immigration, Microsoft and other firms will suffer as US higher education system doesn’t produce enough scientists and engineers to meet the needs of the economy. Last year, Microsoft was unable to hire one-third of the foreign-born candidates it sought because the company couldn’t obtain enough H-1B visas. Gates warned that companies will relocate operations to countries where they can find scientists and engineers, such as Canada, where Microsoft has opened a facility.

Almost four in 10 businesses worldwide do not employ a female in a senior management position, according to a survey by Grant Thornton International. The number of firms without a woman in a top role is unchanged from four years ago, with only 25% of Japanese companies employing a woman in one of its main positions. A separate study reported a 40% drop in women in senior management roles at UK FTSE 350 firms between 2002 and 2007. A new-found entrepreneurial streak and the surging cost of childcare may be responsible for women exiting corporate life, said Sarah Churchman, head of diversity at PricewaterhouseCoopers, which commissioned the report. The Grant Thornton study said that 64% of UK firms had at least one woman in a top-level role. This was less than Greece (73%), mainland China (91%) and the Philippines (97%). A report by the Equal Opportunities Commission earlier in 2008 said that only 10% of directors of the UK's FTSE 100 firms were women, while under 20% of people in parliament were female. Change had been "painfully slow" in recent decades and ethnic minority women are notably missing in top roles, it said. The commission calculated that, to begin redressing the imbalance, a further 6,000 women should be in top positions and more high-quality, well-paid flexible and part-time work is also needed. According to Diana Holland, the UK Transport and General Workers Union's organiser for women, race and equalities, in Britain, based on current trends, young women will be nearing the end of their working lives when the pay gap closes and their great granddaughters will be in their forties before the part-time pay gap closes. Source: BBC

The BBC Production Trainee Scheme is seeking 19 exceptional individuals with great ideas. The scheme is a career path for creative people, involving 18 months of face-to-face training, online learning, and placements on real programmes and projects in TV, radio and new media. With mentoring from a senior BBC Manager, the company is looking for the ‘brightest and the best’; the people who will inspire great ideas and become the star content-makers and commissioners of the future. E-mail careers@bbchrdirect.co.uk. Closing date for applications is 6th April 2008.

Birkbeck College has launched a Certificate in Community Leadership course for community practitioners and activists working in a paid or unpaid (volunteer) capacity. It will also be of relevance to people with a broad interest in regeneration, community and voluntary sector organisations, social enterprises and partnership working. Community Leadership provides an ideal opportunity to improve understanding of the context in which individuals, communities and organisations operate and to develop an understanding of government policies in the field community and voluntary sector studies. E-mail at h.patel@fce-sessional.bbk.ac.uk or can call on 07984 584042 for obtaining further information.

AfricaNews.com is an interactive news website with the focus on Africa. The publisher of AfricaNews.com is Africa Interactive, a company based in Haarlem, The Netherlands. One of the main objectives of Africa Interactive is to support media talent in Africa by promoting African media talent on their website and by paid assignments for our clients like KLM, Nike, FMO and CordAid. The company would like to get in contact with African journalists, photographers, video and film makers, television and radio makers from all over Africa, both English and French speaking, both newcomers and experienced professionals. www.africanews.com Contact Bas Vlugt, Africa Interactive bas@africanews.com

There is a shortage of Blacks, Latinos, Asians and Native Americans in the media and some are saying the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)'s latest efforts to push for more diversity on television are outdated in a world of the Internet and niche communications, reports NPR. Blacks, Latinos, Asians and Native Americans made up 13.62 percent of America's daily newsrooms, according to the American Society of Newspaper Editors (ASNE). However, these groups represent 33 percent of the nation's population. Source: DiversityInc.

According to a Eurostat report, inner London is the richest region in the EU’s 27 member states, surpassing Luxembourg, Brussels, Hamburg, and Ile-de-France. GDP in inner London in 2005 was more than three times the EU average or 303 per cent- compared with the lowest of 24% in north-eastern Romania. The EU defines inner London as the usual boroughs of Camden, the City, Hackney, Hammersmith & Fulham, Islington, Kensington & Chelsea, Lambeth, Lewisham, Southwark, Tower Hamlets and Westminster with the addition of Newham and Haringey. Traditionally inner London ranks behind Frankfurt and Paris as Europe’s richest city as defined in purchasing power, but Eurostat’s figures show Luxembourg at 264 per cent, Brussels at 241 per cent, Hamburg at 201 per cent, Vienna at 178 per cent and the Ile-de-France (including Paris) at 173 per cent.

A group of major companies including Pfizer, Accenture, Bank of America and Microsoft are supporting a new UK government initiative aimed at reducing the barriers to female entrepreneurs winning large corporate contracts. Women in Enterprise Connecting to Contracts (WEConnect), is based on an American scheme that started 16 years ago, and involves a certification scheme for businesses that are 51 per cent female-owned. Large companies will be able to use WEConnect’s database to find businesses that could bid for contracts and help meet diversity targets. The Women’s Enterprise Task Force, the government body that has created WEConnect, says that although 16 per cent of UK businesses are female owned they only win three to five per cent of corporate and public sector contracts. www.weconnect.org.uk

The average British manager works the equivalent of 40 days a year in unpaid overtime according to research by the Chartered Management Institute. A survey of more than 1,500 managers found 89% regularly worked more than their contracted hours. In spite of prolonged soul-searching in boardrooms about helping executives achieve better work-life balance, this proportion remains almost the same as eight years ago. The unpaid overtime was equivalent to every manager putting in an extra 40 working days a year. After weekends, bank holidays, and annual leave, this amounted to an extra two months of labour every year. The sectors with the most severe long-hours culture were transport and IT. Long hours were least prevalent in central and local government, where only 27 per cent of management reported working two hours or more overtime.

Financial services groups are expected to recruit 15% less graduates this year in the wake of the credit crunch according to a survey by Income Data Services (IDS). The survey of almost 100 private and public sector employers reported that graduate recruitment was generally “holding up” but “could easily tip downwards if a wider slowdown takes place”. IDS said: “As the 2008 graduate recruitment season unfolds it appears that caution is the watchword guiding employers’ decisions both about how much to pay and how many to take on”.

The UK Home Secretary Jacqui Smith says that companies should provide language lessons for workers with a poor grasp of English and give them study time. After publication of the green paper on citizenship the minister stressed the importance of English in helping foreigners integrate into communities. Under the points-based system for migration being introduced this week, new immigrants will be expected to show some grasp of spoken English before being granted a visa. The UK Prime Minister has also announced that there will be compulsory language tests for foreigners who want to marry British citizens and settle in the UK. EU students already receive free lessons under reciprocal arrangements with other EU countries, but the government cannot stipulate they learn the language before settling in the UK. An 18-week college course costs about £600. Susan Anderson, the Confederation of British Industry’s director of human resources policy, said that many companies were already helping to fund language training.

The new National Skills Academy for Financial Services has opened its doors in East India Dock Road in Tower Hamlets. The first of four, the new academy, which is being marketed as “just a stone’s throw from Canary Wharf”, is being hosted by Tower Hamlets College. A purpose-built centre to provide 600 people aged 16 and upwards with a range of courses teaching them financial skills and equipping them for the highly paid jobs on their doorstep.

More than 42,000 jobs were created in the UK’s key industries in January 2008, according to the Mandis/Adecco Job Creation Index. This figure, however, is down 7% compared with the same period in 2007.

A lack of high-calibre compliance staff is hampering firms’ ability to meet their regulatory requirements, according to 70% of senior compliance professionals. The results emerged from a Joslin Rowe survey that also described a bumper year for compliance practitioners with 80% of firms hiring in this sector in 2007.

One North West is the regional network for the black and minority ethnic voluntary and community sector in the North West of England. Supported by a strategic grant from the Home Office Active Community Unit and by the European Social Fund, One North West is working for the benefit of the black and minority ethnic voluntary and community sector across the five sub-regions of Greater Manchester, Cheshire, Lancashire, Cumbria and Merseyside. http://www.onenorthwest.org.uk

Projects which prepare international students living in Scotland for the workplace and support migrant workers to integrate into Scottish life have received a further £300,000 boost. The funding was announced by Europe, External Affairs and Culture Minister Linda Fabiani and aims to help schemes which attract fresh talent by encouraging international students and graduates to stay on in Scotland. The ‘Fresh Talent Initiative’ aims to attract and retain bright, motivated and hard working people to live, work and study in Scotland; the ‘Fresh Talent: Working in Scotland Scheme’ allows successful applicants to stay and work in Scotland for up to two years following graduation without the need for a work permit; and the ‘Fresh Talent: Supporting International Students Challenge Fund’ supports activities aimed to help international students settle into life in Scotland and learn about the opportunities available to them at the end of their studies. The closing date for applications for projects focusing on employability of students and graduates is May 2, 2008 with successful projects being announced by July 2008. For further information visit the Scottish Government Website.

Dentistry graduates are to be given training places in the areas of greatest patient need under new government plans announced today. The initial 40 extra training places in 2009 will be located in Yorkshire, the north-west, south-west and the south-central. After that the 170 dentists graduating every year from 2010 will be allocated places according to oral health need or where demand is greatest. The one-year vocational training is being backed by funding of £32 million. The government is also considering whether to extend the training to two years to include a broader base of experience. It claims this would help to tackle poor access to dentists. The announcement follows statistics released by the NHS Information Centre (IC) last week which showed that a total of 27.6 million patients were seen by an NHS dentist from September 2005 to September 2007. This is a fall of 0.5 million compared with the 24 months leading up to the end of the old dental contract on 31 March 2006, where 28.1 million patients were seen by an NHS dentist.

Immigrants and their U.S.-born relatives will drive a stunning 82 percent of U.S. population growth from 2005 to 2050, according to the latest findings from the Pew Research Center. The U.S. population will jump to 438 million by 2050, a 48 percent increase from 2005, which is a slower rate of growth than the country experienced from 1960 to 2005. About one in five Americans will be an immigrant in 2050, up from one in eight in 2005, thanks to a foreign-born population that is growing at nearly three times the rate of the overall U.S. population. By 2050, the foreign-born share of the U.S. will top its peak from the immigration wave in the late 1800s. This group accounted for 51% of all U.S. population growth from 1960 to 2005, and one in three children will be an immigrant or have immigrant parents by 2050. Latinos will account for nearly 30% of the U.S. population by 2050, tripling the size of their population from 2005. Blacks will be the second-largest population of color but remain stagnant at their 13 percent representation, and Asians, mostly native-born, a switch from previous decades, will be 9 percent of the total U.S. population. White people, who were 67 percent of the U.S. population in 2005, will drop to a minority (47 percent), growing only 4 percent from 2005 to 2050 compared to Latinos' 205 percent. More than one in five working-age people will be foreign-born by 2050, with nearly a third of these individuals from Latino backgrounds. Immigrants and their descendants are the future work force, according to the portrait of the United States at 2050 from Pew. They will add 76 million people to the working-age population, which would be desperately shrinking without their representation by 2050. While foreign-born women, especially Latinas, are less likely to participate in the work force than their native and white counterparts, increasing education rates in these communities will likely boost their employment levels and the national economy, provided access to education and opportunity remains high in the next four decades.

Over ten million Brits would love to leave their jobs and start up their own businesses, according to new research from Business Link. 35% of workers polled have given starting up some thought, and 20% reckon they'll make the leap in 2008. While 15% think of self employment as an option because they're not happy with their current employment, 37% admit that the main reason for taking the leap would be to earn more money. The research shows that 40% want to start a venture in order to gain more freedom, and 25% want to turn a current hobby into a real, paying business. But the poll of 2,000 Brits revealed that a third of people dreaming of setting up their own business might not get round to doing it because they are unsure how to go about it. Money is another concern with 30% of aspiring bosses saying they are worried about getting into debt or adding to existing money problems. Almost half would worry about getting the money together to fund the business in the first place. Surprisingly, 45% of those polled said they would fund a new company with a bank loan, overdraft or even a credit card.The poll also revealed that retail, art and culture and health are the most popular sectors Brits would consider entering when starting up a new business.

After two years with Miss East Africa UK campaigning for underprivileged children of East Africa, Pauline Long has now founded the first ever Mr East Africa UK to join in the awareness campaign and is currently searching for both female and male East African contestants from Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, Ethiopia, Sudan, Eritrea, and Somalia. . The star-studded grand Double crowning finale with celebrity judges and guests will be fundraising for children in Kenya on 26th July at The Bloomsbury Theatre, London; over 100,000 children in Kenya have been left homeless due to the post-election violence. This cultural evening celebrating diversity will bring together in one room guests from different parts of Africa, Europe and USA all in support for a good cause. The lucky winners will fly out to Kenya immediately to deliver goods. Potential contestants are invited to register their details on: www.misseastafrica.co.uk

imagine art after is a multi-stage project for internet, gallery & broadcast curated by Breda Beban that brings together artists and filmmakers who made a home in London with those who stayed in their country of origin. For its second edition, imagine art after is looking for artists and filmmakers from the following places, who either live there, or in London: Afghanistan | Albania | Algeria | Angola | Bangladesh | Cameroon | China | Colombia | Democratic Republic of the Congo | Eritrea | Ethiopia | Former USSR | Gambia | Ghana | India | Iran | Iraq | Ivory Coast | Jamaica | Kenya | Libya | Nigeria | Pakistan | Palestinian Authority | Romania | Serbia | Sierra Leone | Somalia | Sri Lanka | Sudan | Syria | Turkey | Uganda | Vietnam | Zimbabwe. For more information and an application pack, go to www.imagineartafter.net, or email info@imagineartafter.net Deadline: 1 June 2008.

AfricaRecruit is please to announce that is has been awarded a grant by the International Council for Science Regional Office for Africa (ICSU ROA) and National Research Foundation (NRF) South Africa. The grant will enable AfricaRecruit to undertake a project, titled The African Diaspora Brain Gain project, over the period of February to May, 2008. The aim of the project is to develop a sustainable work plan to effectively mobilise and engage the African Diaspora in Science, Engineering, Technology and related sectors for projects in Africa. Mobilizing Diaspora skills has been pointed as one of the greatest investments that could occur on the Africa continent; hence this has been an area of concentration by various stakeholders. Research points to the fact that the Diaspora are already actively involved in various projects, though these need to be scaled up to have maximum impact. Activities will include information and data gathering target to develop a robust database of 2,500 Diaspora, 30 case studies of successful Diaspora engagement in other continents, such as Asia and stakeholder engagement using various approaches online and offline to gain an in-depth understanding of the challenges, incentives and recommendations to effective Diaspora engagement. ICSU mobilizes the knowledge and resources of the international science community to in order to strengthen international science for the benefit of society. www.africarecruit.com/diasporainscienceandtechnology.

An online Diagnostic Tool has been designed to enable small businesses to assess progress in achieving workplace and supplier diversity. By taking participating businesses through an online step-by-step self-assessment, the Tool gives businesses a better understanding of which diversity practices are working well within their organisation, identifies key areas where they may need to improve and gives them access to guidance to help them achieve this. This tool can be accessed at www.diversityworksforlondon.com

Many migrant workers in the UK are trapped in low skilled, low-pay jobs with poor conditions that do not use their skills and experience gained back home, a report reveals. The research "Migrant workers in the labour market" by the Trades Union Congress (TUC) shows that too often, migrant workers find themselves working well below their capabilities on the bottom of the jobs ladder, while British workers with similar skills and qualifications are much more senior. The report reveals that some highly qualified migrant workers find it difficult to get even unskilled jobs because of a poor grasp of English. Free English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) classes used to help these workers, but the Government has recently changed the rules so there is no more universal access to ESOL, further limiting the labour mobility of higher skilled migrant workers. According to the research, there is a disturbing lack of awareness among employers about the skills and qualifications migrant workers can offer them, and a systematic failure to employ migrants in jobs that allow them both to use their existing skills and learn new ones to enable their careers to progress. Apart from the construction industry, the report shows that employers are failing to seek advice from the National Recognition Information Centre (NARIC) on the comparability of international qualifications. The agency provides information on qualifications from 183 countries and can help employers recruit migrant workers into jobs that reflect their skills.

Britain’s new points based immigration system (PBS) came into force from 29th February, requiring any highly skilled foreign nationals currently working in Britain who want to extend their stay to apply under the new system. In April, anyone from India who wants to work in the UK as a highly skilled migrant will need to apply under PBS. The new system will operate worldwide by the summer. The points system means only those migrants Britain needs can come to the UK. In 2006, migrants contributed around £6 billion to the UK GDP. Under the new system applicants will need sufficient points to qualify for entry to the UK to train, study and work. Points are awarded according to criteria such as qualifications, previous earnings, age and UK experience. It also introduces a formal link between applicants and their sponsors who will have a better idea of the likelihood of success of the application. Tier 1 is the first of five tiers of the PBS due to be rolled out over the next 12 months. Tier 2, targeting skilled workers with a job offer and Tier 5, for temporary workers such as musicians, actors and sportsmen will both come online in the third quarter of 2008. Tier 4, for students, will follow at the beginning of 2009. There are no plans to introduce tier 3, which covers low skilled routes. The Home Office holds that the Highly Skilled tier 1 will build upon the success of the Highly Skilled Migrant Programme by continuing to attract the most talented people with the skills the UK needs to remain a global leader in the fields of finance, business, and technological innovation. In January the Border and Immigration Agency’s global rollout of fingerprinting for all visas was completed three months early. Now all visa applicants world wide have their fingerprints taken and their details checked against watch-lists. If they’re on the list for the wrong reason they can’t be allowed to enter the UK and could be banned from applying to come again for up to 10 years.

A unique initiative to raise awareness of the important and wide-ranging work of London’s more than 400 African community groups, ’Visions of African Communities’, will be a touring exhibition of posters and short statements designed by London’s African organisations to express their vision and work. All London-based African not-for-profit groups are eligible to participate for free, and the exhibition will be displayed at high profile venues across London, offering participating organizations free London-wide publicity and the chance to catch the eye of donors and policy-makers. The initiative is one of a series of special events planned by the Holborn based charity Africa Educational Trust (AET) to mark its 50th anniversary in 2008. An independent panel will judge the entries and the organisations which contribute the best three posters will be offered free fundraising training by AET to build the capacity of their organisations. The deadline for entries is 11th April 2008. Further information on how to participate can be found on AET’s website  www.africaeducationaltrust.org or by contacting Fiona Roberts at  f.roberts@africaeducationaltrust.org, Tel 020 7831 3283.