Weekly Blog by Philip King, CEO of the ICM - 'Testament of Youth'

There was an interesting article in the Financial Times about youth unemployment on Monday. Hot on the heels of the recent revision by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) that has cast doubt on last year's UK double-dip recession, it served as a timely reminder of how dangerous it can be to rely on statistics or to accept them at face value.

 

Both the OECD and the United Nations have recently warned that the spiralling rates of youth unemployment across many advanced economies will have severe consequences following the latest reported figures showing that nearly a quarter of European under-25s are now unemployed. A truly terrifying statistic, particularly in Greece and Spain where the figure is over 50%, and Italy and Portugal where it is 40%, until we get beneath the headline, and let me quote the FT's Kate Allen in explaining.

 

"Youth unemployment figures are meaningless without understanding what proportion of a country's young people are economically active."  "Unemployment figures only reflect the proportion of the population who are economically active ­ i.e. looking for a job, but unable to find one."

 

'Youth' in this context is defined as young people aged 15-24 and inactivity rates can be expected to be very high with many in education or training.  Taking this into account the FT calculates the true youth unemployment rate in Spain to be marginally over 20%, Greece about 17%, Portugal 15%, and Italy 11%.  Indeed, on this basis the unemployment figure for European young people is fewer than 10% rather than the reported almost 25%.

 

There are conflicting opinions about who originally said "lies, damned lies and statistics" but, whoever it was, we should bear their words in mind when we read or hear numbers being quoted in support of a view or argument. Context can be all-important!

 

 

 

Guest blog by Debbie Tuckwood, Director of Operational Strategy, Institute of Credit Management – ‘Education that sticks’

In my view many miss opportunities because they overlook people.  It’s easy to focus on process improvement and new technology for dramatic savings.  After all people development takes time and investment - both in short supply.  It’s tempting to run token training though hardly surprising when there’s limited long-term benefits.  Deep down most know that without effective people change is difficult, however is people development really achievable given cut backs in training teams and budgets?

I believe it is, given the right strategy and support.  Look at the Institute’s corporate membership scheme for large teams which involves all.  It’s set up to help secure budgets and regular support from an education specialist (20 – 30% discounts help too).  If you focus then on moving 10% through qualification programmes, whether linked to own training or an external provider, you build skills and the appetite for learning.  After all, isn’t people development more about longer cultural change and ‘education that sticks’?

Weekly Blog by Philip King, CEO of the ICM - 'Leading by example'

There's been much talk in recent months about mentoring as a tool to increase the survival and growth rate for businesses, and I make no apology if this week's blog reads a bit like a commercial!

In July 2011, the mentorsme web portal http://www.mentorsme.co.uk/ was launched as an online gateway to mentoring services for SMEs. It was one of the 17 initiatives coming out of the British Bankers' Association's Business Finance Taskforce, and this was followed in November 2011 by an announcement by BIS that new grant funding of £1.2m was being made available to recruit and train 10,000 volunteer business mentors through the Get Mentoring project run by the Small Firms Enterprise Development Initiative (SFEDI).

Over 3,000 volunteers have already signed up for training and, as the BIS funding is only available until the end of March, the ICM was asked last week to promote SFEDI's new online training which is now available at http://www.getmentoring.org/. This online platform will make it easier for business people to get involved and benefit from training that will help them develop the skills to become effective business mentors.

In the recent press release, Mark Prisk said: "Get mentoring is about businesses helping each other to succeed." The release went on to say that mentoring has been shown to increase the survival and growth rate for businesses, and can be a great way of boosting capability and capacity within a sector or supply chain. It can aid the professional development of both parties, enhancing leadership and management skills and improving soft skills (eg business confidence and aspiration) and business performance (eg turnover and profit). Mentors must be willing to offer at least one hour per month free to their mentee(s).

As credit professionals, many of us deal regularly with SMEs, and getting involved in this way could enhance our outlook and understanding of business generally, and especially the challenges faced by smaller businesses.

If you think you might have the necessary skills and experience to become a mentor, why not sign up today at http://www.getmentoring.org/ and start making a difference. I have.