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#11

Off the Record / Re: Brexit and the waning days...

Last post by Sheilbh - Today at 04:03:55 PM

Oh yeah. They definitely exist but in pretty pathetic numbers.
It is a common populist chant from old folk out of touch with the real world - "you shouldn't just hire foreigners. You should train up local kids instead! "
Which... Aye. Naiive in the extreme. I completely understand why companies tend not to do this. Do it and your less socially conscious competitors can just use the money saved not training to poach any good people you've trained or hire in people ready to go without having to wait years for them to skill up.
I do think this is where it works well with trades and less academic stuff, as very often a lot of the work is just about having an extra body to help with the heavy stuff. Apprentices aren't just a drain as they can be in professional jobs.

I think it works very well with vocational areas - which includes law, accountancy. I'd also welcome nursing and teaching going back to having a purely vocational route.

There are big tax benefits for having an apprenticeship scheme which is part of why law and accountancy firms have invested into it.

But is a different type of route and needs resourcing from the company and a bit of thinking about how to make it work.

That would definitely help. I've regularly heard of people looking for apprenticeships and having no clue where to start, basically just asking if anyone knows anyone.
[...]
The women thing is a problem.
My joiner-dad had a female apprentice a decade or so back.
I've heard tell she has had big trouble getting work since with a lot of management saying amongst themselves "so if we have a woman on site then we would need an extra toilet and a special bin for pads and all that. It's just extra trouble"
Considering exactly following the rules is rare in that industry... They're keen to avoid being stuck to them.
Illegal and discriminatory and shit but I do get their reasoning within their own thought process. I suspect the solution can't just lie in threats for discrimination.

Yeah and as I say I think this would be helped by a more consolidated industry. I'm not sure how you encourage that though.

And you've slipped into just looking at the higher end.
There's tonnes of graduates out there in call centres and other low paid white collar work.
Yes, in terms of overall export value to the economy it's services that really do it. But how many people actually work in this top end consulting place?
There's a whole economy of less immediately rewarding not particularly exportable work providing a foundation behind this, which is suffering.

Not really. My point is that higher education is shaped by our economic structure and people are doing vocational degrees because there's demand from both sides for it - and are in every other sector. The reason 75% of students are doing law, accountancy, business, medical professions is because our big exporters are professional services and (as everywhere else in the West) healthcare is also a sector with a lot of demand for graduates. It's not culture and we can't just magic that economy into something else (I'm not sure we should necessarily want to either).

Call centres typically don't require degrees - as I say this is the Tory line of higher education churning out people with shit degrees going into shit jobs and it's not really true. It's people doing pretty useful degrees and going into everyday jobs. All of the administration and management and project management etc in the NHS, all across the civil service, in every big-ish company (it's just we also export it as consultancy). But the reality is the vast majority of students are not doing Media Studies and then ending up trapped in a call centre they're vastly overqualified for. That's a tabloid stereotype.

In the UK I don't know anyone (well. Garbon? Ish?) unless it's someone making a big conscious career switch.
The cost is a huge part of it absolutely.
But then just signing on to do a course at a local uni is a pita. Admissions are very focussed on this yearly cycle for whole degrees.
Pre brexit I did quite a few courses over the years with Swedish unis. The only thing hindering me being the low number of remote courses that were relevant and I was qualified for (Swedish being a key thing missing) . If it was local and in my language....

Universities normally run all sorts of short courses and certificates, same for FE colleges (which are funded by local councils so fucked). But looking up stats and apparently 44% of adults in the UK have taken part in some sort of formal learning in the last three years and 55% of full-time workers are doing it right now.

It looks more common as you get older (wealth and, I suspect, kids growing up probably being key factors) and there's a big socio-economic split.

#12

Off the Record / Re: Russo-Ukrainian War 2014-2...

Last post by Tamas - Today at 03:57:53 PM

Shoigu has been sacked. I heard during the arrest of that corrupt colonel that this was a big hit for Shoigu and it likely was the first step in getting rid of him, the only question being whether Putin would be forced to fire him or if he wanted to.

#13

Off the Record / Re: Vote in the Catalan electi...

Last post by celedhring - Today at 03:01:40 PM

So, nationalists have lost their majority for the first time in 40 years, with socdems (#4) finishing first in votes and seats. Only Puigdemont's (#8) party has slightly improved results, the ruling pro-indy leftie party (#2) crashed and burned.

However, I can't see a viable coalition. I think we're heading towards a repeat election.

Cross-wearing xenophobic chick seems to have got a seat. So has the winner of the languish poll, although her party (non-nationalist lefties) has lost seats, too.

#14

Off the Record / Re: Brexit and the waning days...

Last post by viper37 - Today at 02:52:47 PM

North Yorkshire apostrophe fans demand road signs with nowt taken out

Council says punctuation mark must go to suit computer databases, but grammar purists see signs of falling standards 


A council has provoked the wrath of residents and linguists alike after announcing it would ban apostrophes on street signs to avoid problems with computer systems.

North Yorkshire council is ditching the punctuation point after careful consideration, saying it can affect geographical databases.

The council said all new street signs would be produced without one, regardless of whether they were used in the past.

Some residents expressed reservations about removing the apostrophes, and said it risked "everything going downhill". They urged the authority to retain them.

Sam, a postal worker in Harrogate, a spa town in North Yorkshire, told the BBC that signs missing an apostrophe – such as the nearby St Mary's Walk sign that had been erected in the town without it – infuriated her.
"I walk past the sign every day and it riles my blood to see inappropriate grammar or punctuation," she said.

Though the updated St Mary's sign had no apostrophe, someone had graffitied an apostrophe back on to the sign with a marker pen, which the former teacher said was "brilliant".

She suggested the council was providing a bad example to children who spend a long time learning the basics of grammar only to see it not being used correctly on street signs.

Dr Ellie Rye, a lecturer in English language and linguistics at the University of York, said apostrophes were a relatively new invention in our writing and, often, context allows people to understand their meaning.

"If I say I live on St Mary's Walk, we're expecting a street name or an address of some kind."

She said the change would matter to people who spend a long time teaching how we write English but that it was "less important in [verbal] communication".

North Yorkshire council said it was not the first to opt to "eliminate" the apostrophe from street signs. Cambridge city council had done the same, before it bowed to pressure and reinstated the apostrophe after complaints from campaigners.

There was also an outcry from residents when Mid Devon district council considered making it a policy to do away with apostrophes to "avoid potential confusion".

A spokesperson from North Yorkshire council added: "All punctuation will be considered but avoided where possible because street names and addresses, when stored in databases, must meet the standards set out in BS7666.
"This restricts the use of punctuation marks and special characters (eg apostrophes, hyphens and ampersands) to avoid potential problems when searching the databases as these characters have specific meanings in computer systems."

#15

Off the Record / Re: Dead Pool 2024

Last post by Syt - Today at 02:13:27 PM

#16

Off the Record / Re: Dead Pool 2024

Last post by grumbler - Today at 01:51:14 PM

Roger Corman, legendary B-movie producer and director. Helped launch many New Hollywood directors.

https://www.lemonde.fr/en/culture/article/2024/05/12/roger-corman-hollywood-mentor-and-king-of-the-bs-dies-at-98_6671178_30.html

I've read numerous books by and about Hollywood, and he appeared in almost every one of them, almost always in a positive light.  Living to 98 with such good innings is a good life.

#17

Off the Record / Re: Dead Pool 2024

Last post by Duque de Bragança - Today at 01:12:25 PM

Roger Corman, legendary B-movie producer and director. Helped launch many New Hollywood directors.

https://www.lemonde.fr/en/culture/article/2024/05/12/roger-corman-hollywood-mentor-and-king-of-the-bs-dies-at-98_6671178_30.html

RIP

Loved his B-movies and the Intruder, possibly Shatner's best role.

#18

Gaming HQ / Re: The Miscellaneous PC & vid...

Last post by Josquius - Today at 01:02:34 PM

Seems terribly managed. Honestly not getting why it should be such a big deal. Plenty of games on steam need accounts with the developer to play. Paradox games for instance.
Something is blocking sony from opening up psn outside of a handful of countries? They just don't like money?

#19

Off the Record / Re: TV/Movies Megathread

Last post by Duque de Bragança - Today at 12:09:38 PM

Forgot that this is an excellent year to watch ....

Especially with the French title, found on the reverse cover art of the US blu-ray release:

#20

Gaming HQ / Re: STELLARIS: New Paradox Gam...

Last post by Syt - Today at 11:32:33 AM

Previously, machines had to have gestalt consciousness (like Borg) only. Now you can retain individuality and can have e.g. a megacorp run by machines.