How the world sees Greece
The AISI free seminar on Sept 8 in Athens, is a unique opportunity to learn about working and studying in Australia, work visa and immigration from the experts. With Greece’s unemployment rate being the highest in the European Union, Greeks are looking for opportunities outside the physical borders of their country to study and work.
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We're in the midst of summer internship season, when thousands of students on university breaks try out jobs and try to impress potential future employers. Glassdoor, the anonymous employer review website, has pulled together data on the top 10 companies for intern pay in the UK. The data is based on anonymous submissions from former and current interns, and covers placements in all parts of each company. That means the figure given will be an average of what's paid across departments. The figure is given as a lump sum for the entire internship, usually around 10 weeks for many programmes. As you'd expect, most are banks, but there's a big difference between the highest and lowest paying banks on the list and, surprisingly, the highest paying location for internships isn't at a bank.10. MORGAN STANLEY Average pay: £2,800 ($4,338) Intern view: "Pros — The summer analyst program in PWM [private wealth management] is well structured and you learn a lot about the firm in the process. "Cons — Summer work isn't that exciting because you need to have certifications to work on more high-level tasks. "Advice to management — assign mentors to guide incoming analysts in team selection." via Glassdoor. 9. JPMORGAN Average pay: £2,800 ($4,338) Intern view: "Pros — Very big company, big chances to find a suitable job. The salary is good. Very powerful company so you get to know a lot of interesting stuff. "Cons — Even though company has a lot of roles it is still hard to move from one role to another, but I guess it's possible if you give it enough effort. "Advice to management — They should encourage a better mobility, and also not try to outsource the tech office and ops to cheaper locations, they loose very smart people like that." via Glassdoor. 8. CITI Average pay: £2,800 ($4,338) Intern view: "Pros — Hands on experience from the first week. Additional training in presentation skills and leadership, as well as workplace ethics, volunteering day [and] diversity. Interns get to plan the department's sports day (anything goes). Great food in the canteen. Everyone is so helpful and caring, even senior management take time out to speak to you. It helps foster an amazing work environment. "Cons — No initially training was provided at start, so work can be a bit daunting at first but it's also exciting. "Advice to Management — Didn't get to interact with the interns from other divisions. It would have been nice to have a Citi-wide intern event." via Glassdoor. See the rest of the story at Business Insider NOW WATCH: 6 mind-blowing facts about Greece's economy
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Greeks are the hardest working people in Europe; however they are far from being the most productive, said a report by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The report is based on average hours of work per year and it seems that the Greeks work the most. The Russians come second in working hours,
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Part-time employment has skyrocketed by 90 percent in crisis-stricken Greece as full-time employment has decreased by almost half a million workers. According to new figures by the General Confederation of Greek Labor (GSEE), part-time work has become the employment norm for many people since 2010 and it seems to have replaced temporary employment. It has almost
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Fearing further pension cuts unless they retire now, Greek workers are rushing to file papers even though they won't get benefits for possibly years. The post Greeks Scramble for Early Retirement appeared first on The National Herald.
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Business Insider's markets team is looking for someone who is fascinated by financial news and wants to tell the world about it. The ideal intern will be someone who is following the price of oil and gold, the Nikkei in Japan, and the latest developments out of Greece. We're looking for someone who gets a thrill out of scouring earning reports, economic data, and futures markets for the next big story. And we need someone who reads The Financial Times, Les Echos, The Australian, or The Guardian like it's their local paper. This role will involve a large amount of reading, aggregation, summation, analysis, and some reporting. Our interns are an integral part of our team, and many of our current writers and editors started as interns. We seek out self-starters and people who are enthusiastic about collaborating with other reporters, video producers, social media editors, and other team members. This is a full-time internship position at our Flatiron headquarters in New York City. The internship will run for six months, and interns are expected to work 40 hours per week. Apply HERE with a resume and cover letter telling us why you're the right person for the internship.Join the conversation about this story »
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Among all the causes of the current unprecedented Greek crisis, one stands out -- strict labor regulations and employment guarantees, including job security, early retirement, and a generous minimum wage. Greece’s minimum wage rose from slightly below 600 euros in 2000 to close to 900 euros by 2011, according to [...]
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We've been inundated with stories about how advances in technology will change employment -- from the rise of the "on-demand economy" to the effect of artificial intelligence and automation on jobs. A June report from the McKinsey Global Institute, however, makes a strong case that one particular application of technology is not only having a healthy effect on jobs and productivity, but could also add $2.7 trillion to global gross domestic product in the next decade. The report, entitled "Connecting talent with opportunity," looks at so-called "online talent platforms" such as LinkedIn, Monster.com, Uber and TaskRabbit. These platforms, McKinsey argues, can combat the problem of stagnant wage growth by "connect[ing] individuals to the right work opportunities." Put simply, these sites, services and apps match the labor supply with demand more efficiently than current mechanisms do. McKinsey's research suggests that the long-term effects of digital talent marketplaces could shorten the length of time that people are unemployed and provide more opportunities for freelance workers. The report places online talent platforms into three categories: Platforms that enable people to find jobs or employees, like LinkedIn, Monster.com, Vault, Indeed, Careerbuilder, Xing and Glassdoor; Platforms that match services or workers to demand, like Uber, TaskRabbit, Angie's List, Upwork and Amazon Home Services; Platforms for talent discovery and management, like Good.co, Payscale and ReviewSnap. "These platforms make a big improvement," said James Manyika, a director of the McKinsey Global Institute and co-author of the report. "People can express preferences for work and employers can find the workers they need." Most digital labor platforms are for knowledge workers, according to the report, but large-scale labor market platforms for blue-collar workers are growing as well. "Along with platforms for knowledge workers steadily growing, e.g. LinkedIn,"Manyika added, "there are other fast-growing on-demand platforms like Uber, TaskRabbit and others. These provide labor market matching in local services, like for a house cleaner or somebody who will do a specific task." Manyika says digital labor platforms will increase global GDP by enhancing productivity and providing job seekers with added fluidity, or the ability to move easily between jobs. Fluidity, he noted, has been declining "for the last 25 years." "When people change jobs through hiring, wages typically go up," Manyika said. "There is a strong correlation between labor market fluidity and increase in wages." The countries that could benefit the most from these marketplaces, the report found, are those with endemic unemployment and low workforce participation rates, like Greece, Spain and South Africa, as well as those where informal, or unregulated, employment is common. "These platforms have the effect of reducing informality in employment," said Mankiya. "That's less of a factor for the U.S., which is at most 10%, but it's a big deal for Brazil and India." Reputation, Reputation, Reputation Historically, workers have used credentials, licenses and/or a brand-name degree to show their potential worth. Now, a much richer set of signals, from social media profiles to online reviews to portfolios, will be availabe to workers and employers. LinkedIn is probably the most familiar talent platform for most people. Like Monster.com, profiles on early versions of the site were essentially online resumes. Today, a professional profile not only includes a history of employment and education, but also recommendations, endorsements and connections -- all of which provide social validation beyond what you claim about yourself. On-demand platforms, however, provide marketplaces for people to perform tasks that are more limited in scope, as opposed to longer-term employment, for which the hiring process is longer. To facilitate that transaction, on-demand startups have taken reputation scoring to a new level: People staying in spare rooms or accepting rides from strangers depend on the platforms and other customers to vet hosts and drivers for them. Manyika predicts the next generation of on-demand startups and industry players will rely on reputation-based matching for both workers and employers. As technology giants like Google and Amazon enter the market for home services, they'll have significant power to direct business toward providers with the best reputations. Word-of-mouth recommendations and references have been a part of the employment process for centuries, but coding them into digital platforms opens up what were previously more tacit signals to a much broader audience. "A reliable nanny or cleaner may not have a certificate, but they may have hundreds of positive reviews," said Manyika. "These things are creating all sorts of ways to show your work and show your reputation." When labor matching is taking place on a large scale, the thinking goes, employers are more likely to get the people they really want. This can be a positive, empowering trend for workers who have desirable skills and track records, as well as for employers with a well-earned reputation for healthy work environments and good benefits. "It's unequivocally good news for small companies," said Manyika. "It makes it so much easier to discover talent, it is all goodness. For large companies, it's a mixed picture. It used to be hard for outsiders to cherry-pick as accurately as they might. When all workers are putting their info on LinkedIn, that changes." The downside is that, for workers who don't have skills or reputations that are in demand, on-demand talent platforms can lay those shortcomings bare. "In a new world looking at credentials, skills and traits, people who don't have them are much more exposed," Manyika said. "Imagine a world where can you scan and what you want is undifferentiated labor. What's changed is that you now have a much larger pool to draw from. Whenever that happens, it depresses wages." Another challenge for workers, Manyika noted, is that reputations are not easily portable between digital platforms. Someone who builds up a trusted reputation on one platform, for instance, can't transfer that over when getting established on another one. "The nice thing about credentials is that they follow everywhere," Mankiya said. "A degree follows, but that's currently not the case with reputations. I would love, if I have a great rating on Uber or Yelp or TaskRabbit, for that to be portable. We saw this in the e-commerce world, with merchant ratings on eBay and Amazon not being portable." What Should Workers Demand In An On-Demand Economy? Society doesn't automatically benefit simply from inviting entrepreneurs in to set up a website or mobile app, nor do benefits trickle down to everyone when agents of disruption create on-demand apps to exploit loopholes in regulatory structures. While the advantages may be clear for full-time jobs, they're less apparent for people working in the on-demand economy, often called the "gig economy," in which people aren't moving from one job to another but, rather, from one task or contract to another. Manyika described this as "the difference between someone who lives in a '1099 world' versus a 'W-2 world'." In the United States alone, 51 million Americans are now working as freelancers, according to “Freelancing in America: A National Survey of the New Workforce,” a study conducted by Edelman Berland and commissioned by the Freelancers Union in partnership with Elance-oDesk -- which is, as you might guess, a digital talent platform. While platforms like LinkedIn could help professionals move up a traditional career ladder, with associated benefits, sick or family leave and retirement plans, tens of millions of contractors for on-demand startups might experience more economic insecurity and inequality, not less. For instance, driving for Lyft or Uber can provide significant supplemental wages or be a temporary gig with a great deal of flexibility, but there are also outstanding questions about whether a driver's wages add up to sufficient income to support a family. As startups create new platforms for labor markets that haven't already been digitized, several dynamics will be worth watching. First, consider the collective bargaining power of contractors working with on-demand startups, as opposed to organized labor in traditional employment. "There may be a need to self-organize to advocate for things people care about," said Manyika. "It's not clear how traditional institutions apply. They will have to adapt to this new world." Second, consider how or whether profits or equity are shared between the labor platforms and those providing the labor advertised or sold on them. Third, consider the extent to which costs (cleaning equipment, gas for cars) are externalized to contractors and liability is shifted from the platform to the contractors working on it. Finally, watch how all of these questions are explored as various suits move forward in the legal system. This summer, a California judge ruled that an Uber driver was an employee, not a contractor. Some researchers maintain that self-regulation by startups will be enough to protect consumers and weed out bad actors and poor service. Even if that equilibrium does emerge, government watchdogs will still need to play a role in auditing these systems for discrimination or gaming. More broadly, if on-demand platforms become enduring institutions in labor markets, then nations with significant numbers of contractors will need a different kind of social compact than what existed in the last century that fits a different kind of labor and work. As James Surowiecki wrote in The New Yorker this summer, the "real problem here is that Uber drivers don’t quite fit into either of the traditional categories." Declaring them independent contractors or employees, as a California judge presiding over a lawsuit against Lyft commented, means forcing a square peg into one of two round holes. We’d do better to create a third legal category of workers, who would be subject to certain regulations, and whose employers would be responsible for some costs (like, say, reimbursement of expenses and workers’ compensation) but not others (like Social Security and Medicare taxes). Other countries, including Germany, Canada, and France, have rewritten their laws to expand the number of worker categories. There’s no reason we can’t do the same, and give gig-economy workers a better balance of flexibility and security. To do that, Surowiecki suggests that workers at on-demand startups should be extended benefits, like workers’ compensation and unemployment insurance, that aren't dependent on an employer -- not unlike the way that Affordable Care Act works for health and dental insurance. There's a reason Uber loves Obamacare: "The democratization of those types of benefits allow people to have more flexible ways to make a living,” Uber CEO Travis Kalanick said last November. “They don’t have to be working for The Man.” To maximize the potential of digital labor platforms of all types, the McKinsey report similarly recommended improving social safety nets and access to education, which should also help those negatively affected by increasing automation. The report added that policymakers must ensure that people have access to the Internet, modernize labor laws, improve safety nets to provide benefits, and define clear rules of data ownership and privacy. What's left unsaid in all of this is what it will mean for society if our worth as workers, managers, clients and contractors is reduced to a long trail of digital traits, reputation points and consumer reviews. Some people may work to live, while others may live to work. As we negotiate today's shifting landscape for employment, finding the right balance between contracting and community building will be a challenge that everyone will share in. -- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
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Democrats made hay with a comment from former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) that they say shows he's out of touch with average Americans. On Wednesday, Democrats seized on Bush's comment in an interview with the editorial board of New Hampshire's Union Leader. He said that growing the economy would require people to "work longer hours." But there's much more context to that statement, something Bush's campaign tried to explain when it spent Thursday morning clarifying that he was talking about part-time jobs. Here's the full exchange: BUSH: My aspiration for the country and I believe we can achieve it, is 4 percent growth as far as the eye can see. Which means we have to be a lot more productive, workforce participation has to rise from its all-time modern lows. It means that people need to work longer hours and, through their productivity, gain more income for their families. That's the only way we're going to get out of this rut that we're in. QUESTION: To keep us from taking it out of context, what you meant to say — when you say more hours you mean full-time work. BUSH: Given the opportunity to work. Yeah, absolutely. QUESTION: Not that a full time guy or somebody working two jobs needs to be working even more time. BUSH: Absolutely not. Their incomes need to grow. It’s not going to grow in an environment where the costs of doing business are so extraordinarily high here. Health care costs are rising. In many places the cost of doing business is extraordinarily high and the net result of that is that business start up rates are at an all time low. Work force participation rates are low. If anyone is celebrating this anemic recovery, then they are totally out of touch. The simple fact is people are really struggling. So giving people a chance to work longer hours has got to be part of the answer. If not, you are going to see people lose hope. And that’s where we are today. He has a point, both on the part-time jobs and in general. First, on part-time work. Here's a chart that shows the number of people working part-time for economic reasons. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 6.5 million people are doing so, meaning they prefer full-time employment but had their hours cut back or could not find a full-time job. "To the extent that he was talking about moving involuntarily part timers into full-time jobs, I agree!" said Jared Bernstein, the former chief economist and economic adviser to Vice President Joe Biden. He added that he didn't agree with his policy positions to fill those full-time jobs — "supply side tax cuts or random calls for 4% growth" — but the point about moving part-timers to full-time stood. Bush is also right on the general economic theory: That a country's economic output is measured by its total number of workers, how much they can produce from one hour of work, and how many hours they work. Getting one, or all, of those to jump is key to increasing economic growth. And right now, all three are lacking. The labor-force participation rate is at its lowest level since 1977, productivity has staggered over the past decade, and the number of hours worked has held over the past 10 to 15 years. It's unclear, however, that increasing hours worked beyond those part-timers who want full-time jobs is the answer. People who already have full-time jobs tend to work more hours when they really need to stretch to increase their paychecks. You can see in the chart below that globally it's poorer countries that tend to have a higher number of hours worked per person. Work more hours? And wind up like Greece? No thank you. pic.twitter.com/GCetUanoem — What Works Journo (@MattBruenig) July 8, 2015 That said, the US has had periods of higher average annual hours. But do we want to go back? Matt Yglesias points out that the 1990s were the last time we saw regular GDP growth at or above 4%, and the Clinton years did include an increase in average annual hours. However, he writes, "at the time this was typically offered as a critique of the 1990s economy ... on the theory that economic growth obtained through more toil rather than higher hourly pay is illusory." The other thing about increasing hours worked is that they can go up only so far (unless our days start getting longer). That's not a good solution for long-term GDP growth. On the other hand, there isn't a daily cap on worker productivity. Productivity increases often come from technological leaps. The question for the candidates might be: What's your plan for innovation?Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: The 9 highest-paying jobs with openings right now
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Democrats made hay with a comment from former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) that they say shows he's out of touch with average Americans. On Wednesday, Democrats seized on Bush's comment in an interview with the editorial board of New Hampshire's Union Leader. He said that growing the economy would require people to "work longer hours." But there's much more context to that statement, something Bush's campaign tried to explain when it spent Thursday morning clarifying that he was talking about part-time jobs. Here's the full exchange: BUSH: My aspiration for the country and I believe we can achieve it, is 4 percent growth as far as the eye can see. Which means we have to be a lot more productive, workforce participation has to rise from its all-time modern lows. It means that people need to work longer hours and, through their productivity, gain more income for their families. That's the only way we're going to get out of this rut that we're in. QUESTION: To keep us from taking it out of context, what you meant to say — when you say more hours you mean full-time work. BUSH: Given the opportunity to work. Yeah, absolutely. QUESTION: Not that a full time guy or somebody working two jobs needs to be working even more time. BUSH: Absolutely not. Their incomes need to grow. It’s not going to grow in an environment where the costs of doing business are so extraordinarily high here. Health care costs are rising. In many places the cost of doing business is extraordinarily high and the net result of that is that business start up rates are at an all time low. Work force participation rates are low. If anyone is celebrating this anemic recovery, then they are totally out of touch. The simple fact is people are really struggling. So giving people a chance to work longer hours has got to be part of the answer. If not, you are going to see people lose hope. And that’s where we are today. He has a point, both on the part-time jobs and in general. First, on part-time work. Here's a chart that shows the number of people working part-time for economic reasons. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 6.5 million people are doing so, meaning they prefer full-time employment but had their hours cut back or could not find a full-time job. "To the extent that he was talking about moving involuntarily part timers into full-time jobs, I agree!" said Jared Bernstein, the former chief economist and economic adviser to Vice President Joe Biden. He added that he didn't agree with his policy positions to fill those full-time jobs — "supply side tax cuts or random calls for 4% growth" — but the point about moving part-timers to full-time stood. Bush is also right on the general economic theory: That a country's economic output is measured by its total number of workers, how much they can produce from one hour of work, and how many hours they work. Getting one, or all, of those to jump is key to increasing economic growth. And right now, all three are lacking. The labor-force participation rate is at its lowest level since 1977, productivity has staggered over the past decade, and the number of hours worked has held over the past 10 to 15 years. It's unclear, however, that increasing hours worked beyond those part-timers who want full-time jobs is the answer. People who already have full-time jobs tend to work more hours when they really need to stretch to increase their paychecks. You can see in the chart below that globally it's poorer countries that tend to have a higher number of hours worked per person. Work more hours? And wind up like Greece? No thank you. pic.twitter.com/GCetUanoem — What Works Journo (@MattBruenig) July 8, 2015 That said, the US has had periods of higher average annual hours. But do we want to go back? Matt Yglesias points out that the 1990s were the last time we saw regular GDP growth at or above 4%, and the Clinton years did include an increase in average annual hours. However, he writes, "at the time this was typically offered as a critique of the 1990s economy ... on the theory that economic growth obtained through more toil rather than higher hourly pay is illusory." The other thing about increasing hours worked is that they can go up only so far (unless our days start getting longer). That's not a good solution for long-term GDP growth. On the other hand, there isn't a daily cap on worker productivity. Productivity increases often come from technological leaps. The question for the candidates might be: What's your plan for innovation?Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: The 9 highest-paying jobs with openings right now
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Despite the economic crisis, Greece’s globe-spanning shipping industry is still hiring—and at better-than-average wages—spurring enrollment at maritime academies.
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Despite the economic crisis, Greece’s globe-spanning shipping industry is still hiring—and at better-than-average wages—spurring enrollment at maritime academies.
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The pensioners of Greece are sitting on the front lines of an epic struggle for Greece’s future – as both the defenders of the country's retirement system and the citizens most vulnerable if it comes undone. “Retirement is supposed to be relaxing,” says Sofia Kokkinis, whose husband's pension was cut by 500 euros a month under austerity measures. Recommended: Think you know Europe?
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The chancellor talks up the self-employed, but their lives are precarious. The left must wake up to their plightIf booming levels of self-employment are an indicator of a thriving economy, then Greece is the powerhouse of Europe. Just under a third of the population of this austerity-ravaged nation are self-employed, more than double the EU average. Spain is another go-getters’ paradise, it seems: with half an entire generation out of work, self-employment among the young has surged. And then there’s Britain, where around 40% of the rise in jobs since 2010 is down to self-employment. If our rulers are to be believed, here is entrepreneurial flair and British dynamism in action, a vindication of the government’s “long-term economic plan”. But the plight of the self-employed is being ignored. It is time that the left began championing their cause. Related: Self-employment surge across UK hides real story behind upbeat job figures Continue reading...
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It sounds like something out of a dystopian novel: across Europe, hundreds of fake companies have been set up. They function just like a normal corporation would — employees send out invoices, pay bills, even apply for loans — but they don't actually produce anything. The sham corporations exist for the benefit of the jobless across Europe, desperate to be retrained and put to work. It is "an elaborate training network that effectively operates as a parallel economic universe," according to the New York Times. It sounds great. It's not just about training. It also does something else: gives purpose to the unemployed. Work gives us a sense of self, to some extent, and most definitely a sense of purpose. It's the bedrock of the structure of most people's lives. Family, vacation, leisure, they all fit around that huge chunk of time during the week known as the workday. Even leaving aside financial concerns, removing that structure and purpose from a person's life often causes depression. For the most part, people really want to work. A woman the New York Times interviewed, Sabine de Buyzer, told the reporter: “Since I’ve been coming here, I have had a lot more confidence. I just want to work.” But Europe's economy is still terrible. A lot of people just aren't going to find a job no matter how hard they try. In many countries, more than half of the unemployed population has been out of work for more than a year. That figure is almost 75% in Greece. In the absence of finding an actual economic policy solution to the jobs crisis in Europe, fake work for people who are having a hard time finding a job is a pretty good solution. It retrains people in a proactive way. Everybody loves roleplaying; school, not so much. LARPing (Live Action Role Playing) a job keeps people's spirits up while teaching them something. That's effective, even in France's still-struggling economy. From the New York Times: The success rate of the training centers is high. About 60 to 70 percent of those who go through France’s practice firms find jobs, often administrative positions, Mr. Troton said. But in a reflection of the shifting nature of the European workplace, most are low-paying and last for short stints, sometimes just three to six months. Today, more than half of all new jobs in the European Union are temporary contracts, according to Eurostat. Of course, the question remains: if the French government can afford these fake work training centers, which operate almost completely like normal businesses to the extent of holding fake strikes — a necessary skill for a French employee to have — why not put that money towards actually putting people to work? SEE ALSO: Why a wife bonus makes complete sense Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: These scientists are using video games to help find a cure for AIDS
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Greeks receiving the minimum wage will have to work for more than 60 hours per week in order to keep a three- or four-member family above the poverty level, according to a study by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) on the minimum salary in its member-states.
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A restaurant is serving up some new opportunities for refugee and migrant women. Mazà Mas, a pop-up restaurant currently located at the Ovalhouse Theatre in London and founded by 28-year-old Nikandre Kopcke in 2012, offers employment and teaches valuable skills to women who are often overlooked in the job industry. (function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.3"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));Happy happy days in the Mazà Mas kitchen at Ovalhouse!Posted by Mazi Mas on Wednesday, April 8, 2015 For migrant and refugee women, finding a job can be a difficult task, and they run into various forms of discrimination while looking for employment. "We're working with highly qualified women, including a doctor who had her own medical practice in Sri Lanka, but their qualifications aren't recognized in this country," Kopcke told the Guardian. "A lot of them are long-term unemployed. Employers pass them over in favor of younger people who have a recent employment history. It's a vicious cycle." Mazà Mas seeks to encourage migrant and refugee women to enter the job market, making them less susceptible to exploitation, and help them become less dependent on others for income, according to BuzzFeed. The social enterprise connects with the women through grassroots organizations. The restaurant, which serves global home cooking, has six women, from Brazil, Ethiopia, Iran, Peru, Senegal and Turkey, currently working as chefs. Another four or five are going through their training program and learning transferable skills like kitchen management and menu building, Mashable reported. (function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.3"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));(c) Mara DeKleinPosted by Mazi Mas on Monday, March 16, 2015 So far, the enterprise has boasted positive results. "All of our chefs have secured further employment in the food industry through their work with Mazà Mas, and three are in the process of developing their ideas for food businesses," the pop-up's fundraising site reads. Last week, the social enterprise surpassed its goal of raising 15,000 British pounds, (about $22,000), through a crowdfunded campaign, and hopes to set up shop at a permanent location within the next two years, Mashable reported. Kopcke -- whose restaurant idea was inspired by her godmother, a Greek immigrant to the U.S. who didn't get to live out her dreams of opening a bakery -- hopes that the Mazà Mas model will be replicated by other businesses. "This model is infinitely adaptable because it is a systemic problem," Kopcke told the Guardian. "I'd like to see it multiplied all over the world, getting people to work and changing women's lives." (function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.3"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));Happy International Women's Day!Today we're paying tribute to the unrecognised, unpaid, and undervalued care work that...Posted by Mazi Mas on Saturday, March 8, 2014 To learn more about Mazà Mas or donate, visit their fundraising page here. Like Us On Facebook Follow Us On Twitter -- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
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After scientists and university graduates, corporate executives are ready to leave Greece and are seeking employment abroad. More than 5,000 CEOs, COOs and CFOs have submitted their CVs to specialized multinational employment agencies operating in Athens, according to a Kathimerini daily report. Employment offices in Athens have seen the trend starting in December, when the prospect of snap elections created a fear of economic instability among Greeks. ManpowerGroup president Venetia Kousia said that younger corporate officials tend to seek employment abroad, and especially in countries of the Persian Gulf because of proximity to the homeland. “Executives, who at a younger age are often more willing to roll up their sleeves and deal with the challenges and uncertainties of today with a greater capacity to adjust and lower salary expectations, are changing the landscape at the C-suite,” Kousia said. The economic crisis of the past five years has caused salaries of top-level executives to shrink, thereby forcing them to go abroad, she added. Katerina Diamantopoulou, managing director and senior client partner of the Korn Ferry Group in Greece, said that since December her company is receiving dozens of CVs from executives every day. Diamantopoulou said that even highly paid C-level executives in Greece are searching for opportunities abroad, while during interviews they express worry over the country’s real economy and their career prospects. According to a recent Endeavor Greece study sponsored by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation and with the cooperation of QED, over 200,000 Greeks – most of whom were below the age of 35 – have left the country since the start of the crisis and are employed abroad. Most of them are scientists and professionals with a high level of education and skills, and 71 percent have sought a career in the European Union. Germany and the United Kingdom are their main countries of choice.
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As Greece is aging demographically, the retirement age will rise in the not so distant future, according to a recent study by the National Actuarial Authority. The study, that was submitted to the European Commission, also shows that the Greek population will shrink dramatically. In 2014, the population in Greece was 11.045 million and it will drop to 8.5 million in 2060. By then, six out of 10 Greeks will be over the age of 65 and one in four between 65 and 74 will still be working. The average retirement age will be 71.9 years then and auxiliary pensions will shrink or disappear altogether. It is estimated that the replacement rate for pension spending will drop from 80 percent today to 56 percent by 2060, with the decline starting no later than 2020, when the rate will reach 64.6 percent. These figures will also depend on possible claims on the reserves of pension funds by the government. The population decline will be mainly due to a decrease in net immigration up to 2030. This will double the rate of the active population aged above 65 years old from three in 10 today to six in 10 by 2060. In turn, elderly workers will choose to stay in employment. While in 2013 just 4.9 percent of the workforce was aged between 65 and 74 years old, by 2030 this is estimated to rise to 14.3 percent before climbing to 24.4 percent in 2060. The study further shows that in 2026 the average age of the country’s workforce will be 44 years old, compared 39 as it stands today. The average age of entry in the labor market will remain stable at 22.4 for men and at 24.7 for women, but due to recent changes in retirement age thresholds the average age for retirement for men will rise from 61 years old in 2013 to 64.9 in 2020, 65.9 in 2030 and 67.5 in 2060. For women it is projected to increase from 61.2 years old in 2013 to 65.5 in 2030 and to 67.1 by 2060.
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This week, I'm attending The Future of Work Conference being held in London sponsored by The WorldPost. One panel I am on is "Mind the Skills Gap." Discussions about the skills gap have usually included questions such as "How serious is it?" and "What can we do about it?" and "How can we get our schools and employers to work better together?" But now more serious questions are being raised -- questions about whether the skills gap exists at all. Less than a year ago, New York Times columnist and economic heavyweight Paul Krugman wrote that it does not. He called it a skills myth. And he said it again just last week. And while I'm hesitant to disagree with someone as well-versed and well placed as Krugman, there's really little debate that we have a skills gap -- or maybe, better said, an employment gap. Call it a skills gap, a wage gap, an education gap -- it's a gap. The space between chronically open jobs and frequently unemployed in the workforce exists in many places. A recent McKinsey report on education and employment in the EU found that, "In Greece, where the unemployment rate has been above 55 percent in 2012, employers still complain they cannot find suitable entry-level hires; the same is true for Sweden and Germany." Across the eight European countries surveyed, the majority of employers -- 61 percent -- reported concerns about being able to find sufficient numbers of employees to meet their business needs. Likewise, employers in Latin America, Europe, Central Asia, and Africa reported feeling there was a skills gap at 20 percent, 19.7 percent and 18 percent respectively. And it's not just those hiring who see this gap. Udemy, one of the leading platforms to offer online courses, recently polled over 1,000 Americans between 18 and 65 years old. Sixty-one percent of those in the survey said "today's workforce is plagued by a skills gap." Because so many people in so many places are seeing it, maybe we can get back to talking about why it exists and how we can help solve it. THE FIX As someone who's spent their career in education reform and pioneering innovative instruction programs designed, at least in part, to address this challenge, here is what I see and what I think we can do about it. First, when people -- employers, job seekers and professionals alike -- hear "skills," we think technology or highly technological or refined skills such as engineering and computer coding. And while part of the gap in the workforce is attributable to these high-training and learning skills, that's only part of it. In 2013, the top job skills in demand on LinkedIn were dominated by technical skills but also certain soft skills and entrepreneurial approaches. These softer, in-demand skills included: communications skills (social media, digital and online marketing) and relationship skills (business development and relationship management). Other frequently cited in-demand soft skills are: problem solving, teamwork, creativity, time management and persistence. In the U.K., the Confederation of British Industry's annual Education and Skills survey shows the workplace value in these soft skills clearly. According to their 2014 survey, 85 percent of employers reported they valued young people's attitudes towards work the most while 63 percent valued their actual aptitude to do the actual work. Similarly, a recent survey of more than 400 employers, cited noted "...employers in the United States indicate that the four most important skills are oral communication, teamwork/collaboration, professionalism/work ethic, and critical thinking/problem solving. More than 90 percent of employers surveyed declared these skills to be "very important." In contrast, writing, mathematics, science, and history/geography were ranked 6th, 15th, 16th, and 19th, respectively, out of 20 skills." This insight isn't meant to dismiss technology and related STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) training. But it should highlight that today's and tomorrow's workers will need both strong job ability and strong soft skills. Few things we can do will have more impact on future employment and workforce outcomes than teaching young people how to deploy both skill sets the way entrepreneurs do. Thinking and acting like an entrepreneur connects skills such as math, engineering and technology with communications, collaboration and problem solving. There are models to follow. In the U.K., the government has launched a pilot program called the Fiver Challenge, where students are given £5 to set up their own mini-business with the goal of making a profit. Its goal is to teach primary school children about the role of business and help them learn the entrepreneurial skills to launch their own mini-business and make a profit. My organization -- Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE) -- works with school districts in 10 different countries to teach the entrepreneurship mindset. Our research shows that students who take entrepreneurship classes are more likely to start their own business, more likely to be employed and earn more on average than their peers. Another truth is that while education systems are not investing enough in teaching young people to think like entrepreneurs, school systems are also lagging when it comes to teaching the harder, tech skills by themselves. In the information technology industry, nearly all technologies become obsolete within 10 years. As a result, education expires much faster than it used to. And because digital technology permeates all industries, no field of employment is spared the pressure of accelerated innovation. A recent TATA report about youth perceptions on work and the future found that 63 percent of European youth did not feel the education system had prepared them with the necessary skills or knowledge to find a job that involved technology. Not teaching quality job skills -- technology or otherwise -- may be why that Udemy survey also reported that only about half of Americans said higher education helped them get their first job and "more than a third believe they use less than 10 percent of what they learned in college in the workplace." So what can we do about it? In the U.S., teaching entrepreneurship skills is left largely to colleges and only non-profit organizations are working to bring these skills to younger students before they make choices that are likely to predestine them to poverty. Fortunately, European leaders seem to see the opportunity more clearly. The European Union has a plan, which states: "Education is key to shaping young people's attitudes, skills and culture and it is vital that entrepreneurship education is addressed from an early age. Entrepreneurship education is essential not only to shape the mindsets of young people but also to provide the skills and knowledge that are central to developing an entrepreneurial culture." But even in Europe, the embrace of entrepreneurship is seen as an add-on to other education tracks. The concepts have yet to embraced and enacted as wholly and deeply as other teaching reforms, such as teaching STEM. We need schools and programs that can connect strong STEM and other academic skills with entrepreneurial skills and mindsets which are rich with these productive soft skills such as communications, creativity and persistence. Blended and project based learning needs to be the rule not the exception. Even if you're in the Krugman camp when it comes to the skills gap -- there's no harm in having education systems which do both things well. Maybe that's something everyone can agree on and we can get started making it happen.
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