Category: Opinion

I was fascinated to learn that claims to Employment Tribunals were up 36% for the first three months of 2013 when compared with the same period in 2012 – a whopping 57,737 apparently.

So what does the concept of ready meals conquer for you? Homicidal hummus? Gruesome grub? Powerful posh nosh or deadly dinners? None of the above? Oh dear no wonder Endeavour’s idea didn’t fly in the face of this weeks challenge.

With a nest of vipers and blood on their lips this weeks Romeo and Juliet inspired task was beautifully narrated by these, Jason’s words, as he entered the boardroom. Their aim was to come up with an online dating concept that they then had to create a full marketing campaign for to present to a group of industry experts and marketing gurus.

Intelligence isn’t simply a fixed quantity, a learning expert explained in a talk recently. How smart we are is powerfully affected by our situation, and that’s something we can control.

New data published recently around bank lending has confirmed suspicions long suspected, but have hitherto been unable to prove this year. And that is that bank lending is still in decline – or it certainly was up until the end of March.

So what were the Apprentices up to this week? Well it was choosing and selling two accessory products and one ‘high ticket’ product in the camping world at a one day event in Birmingham NEC.

Mark Garnier, Member of Parliament for Wyre Forest, has joined others in writing the book: Banking 2020 – A Vision for the Future. Here in an extract he looks at the relationship banks have with SMEs

Between 5 and 15 new banks will be created in the next 3 to 5 years, predicts Metro Bank founder and former Chairman Anthony Thomson

The move by the German Government to attract UK young people onto attractive apprenticeship packages is a stark warning to British business.

Are you a small business and feeling in the money? If so, you are in surprisingly good company. Anthony Browne, chief executive of the British Bankers’ Association, joins us and says that there is an astonishing – but almost unnoticed – thing happening among SMEs.

Gary Cattermole is the co-founder and director of The Survey Initiative, a leading staff survey provider specialising in employee engagement. Here he explains how technology can create stress for employees and undermine years of employee engagement…

Youth unemployment is a hot topic at present, and rightly so given that the costs on the national economy are enormous: lost income tax revenues, higher welfare payments, lower consumer spending power and increased healthcare costs for stress and mental illness are costing the UK billions of pounds.

Government backed schemes that provide much needed finance for SME’s should favour proven or potential exporters according to William Chase – the founder of the multinational Tyrrells crisp empire and owner of the single estate Chase Distillery in Herefordshire.