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IN FOCUS
Got a potential investigation? news@palatinate.org.uk
Friday 8 May 2009 palatinate.org.uk
Got a News Features idea? news@palatinate.org.uk
Friday 8 May 2009 palatinate.org.uk
IN FOCUS
Adam Painter weighs up the pros and cons of leaving Britain in search of work
George Stafford and Jess Gordon review Labour’s Last Stand
“The question of employment opportunities outside the UK for graduates has never been of greater exposure”
before travel would be beneficial says Peter. Moving away can add to, or give you many key skills as prospects.ac.uk outlines, working abroad can, “provide an opportunity for total immersion into a foreign culture”. Furthermore, skills
such as initiative and determination, communication and flexibility they say can also be strengthened. When it comes to actually going away there are so many opportunities and areas to try. The sheer amount of options can be daunting and confusing. Therefore it is paramount that you try and minimize your options. For example, deciding whether you wish to go away for a short term project or long term employment would be the biggest decision to make. If going for employment it will of course be important to search relevant employers and check out their entrance requirements. Will you need to be able to speak the language for example? If looking for actual employment abroad a clear decision must be made about which career path you wish to follow
A man delivered his baby son by watching a video on YouTube. Mark Stephens from Cornwall watched the video as a precaution when his wife began to feel discomfort and called for an ambulance. However the ambulance did not arrive in time and he had to use what he had picked up from the internet just hours earlier. They had planned a home delivery, but not quite in this fashion. “The videos gave me peace of mind. I think I would have coped, but watching videos made things much easier,” said Mark. Mother and baby were taken to hospital, and both were healthy.
BBC blunder Residents in a Scottish village have complained to the BBC that its negative weather reports are driving away tourists. Villagers claim Carrbridge, which is situated in the Cairngorms National Park near Aviemore and protected by mountains, has its own weather system. They also criticise the BBC’s use of the word ‘showers’, when in fact the weather is mainly dry. Local businesses believe tourists are using the web to determine the weather and where to book their holidays and day trips, and are being put off by this negativity. Tourism is the main industry for the village of 250 inhabitants.
Flickr: Stuart Axe
Bursting the bubble
long term jobs but can be of great help in researching the necessary requirements. Of course any work, even work in hospitality and catering can increase your cultural and commercial awareness, as well as giving you an insight into different cultures. Although it is incredibly difficult to outline all possible options the aim of this piece is to inform of what is available and make you think about why or even if you wish to take the big step of going abroad. Yes, you can gain a huge amount from going away whether it be for the long or short term however that does not mean you have to. Foreign work can give huge advantages however it can also go belly up.
TWO WEEKS AGO Alistair Darling delivered his 2009 budget speech to the House of Commons. Palatinate investigates what the changes may mean for students in Durham. The major headline that came out of the budget was an increase to the top level of income tax, which is now set at 50% for incomes above £150,000 a year. Obviously this will not apply to students in Durham, but there was
“if you drink 15 pints a week you will spend an extra £7.80 in the next financial year”
“Despite all the doom and gloom in the mainstream media there are still plenty of UK opportunities”
plenty in the speech to take note of. Duties on alcohol and tobacco have risen once again, putting the price of the average pint up by 1p, and an
Peter Fox makes it very clear that you should think incredibly hard before deciding to go away. He wishes to clarify that despite all the doom and gloom in the mainstream media there are still plenty of UK opportunities. He says, “good quality graduates who have been involved in other extracurricular activities are still encouraged by employers to apply. They are still keen to recruit the best candidates”. In fact he also states that it “is more like 20%” of recruiters who have slimmed their intake. Therefore do not let the current recession cloud your judgement; of course times are tough and it may be in your mind the best time to go abroad. Try to build your plans into your long term aims and consider why you are wanting to go away, essentially do it for the right reasons. Of course people are not just packing their bags in the current climate, postgraduate options should also be considered,and many students are in fact taking up this option. Things in the UK are not apocalyptic, there are still opportunities here for hard, conscientious workers. In the end it is up to you, plan, take the advice and then decide. Your answer may not be as straight forward as you first thought.
Thousands of people have thronged to the streets of the Sierra Leone capital, Freetown, to see one of the country’s shortest people get married. Masire Kamara, a tea seller at the local market, is well known in the city. When it came to the kiss she had to stand on a chair to reach her partner. The Church was packed and street festivals went on all night in celebration, making Masire a local celebrity. The mayor of Freetown and several MPs also attended the ceremony.
Message from the past Buliders near the Auschwitz death camp in Poland have claimed to have found a prisoner’s message hidden in a bottle. The message, written in pencil and dated 9th September 1944, bears names, camp numbers and home towns of seven young inmates from Poland and France. The note seems to be written by young Jews trying to leave some momentum of their existence behind. The bottle was buried in a concrete wall of a school just outside the camp that the prisoners were forced to build.
amount you can put into a tax-free ISA to £10,200, starting next year. Finalists with no plans for life after Durham will find it hard to be completely out of work in 2010. In an attempt to prevent unemployment numbers getting any higher, the government has promised to offer employment or training to all under-25s who have been out of work for
“Finalists with no plans for life after Durham will find it hard to be completely out of work in 2010.”
a year, starting from January next year. It is difficult to tell how the financial downturn has affected Durham life this term. Empty college bars and clubs are probably a symptom of exam season more than the credit crunch. There are few immediate effects of the budget on students. Studying at university in Durham is still probably one of the best situations to be in over the next financial year. Rises in fuel duty will be largely irrelevant, as most Durham students do not have a car or need to use public transport. Shops trying to stay in business are offering enticing deals, such as mid-season sales in clothing stores or meal-deals for £2 in Marks and Spencer. Most importantly, students are not in fear of losing a job on which their livelihoods depend, unlike millions across the country. One aspect of the credit crunch that does eat into the overdraft is rising food prices: but as long as inflation is kept under control student budgets should survive Darling’s reaction to the crunch. The immediate effects of the budget are fairly limited for students, but its long-term implications are much more important. Reaction from Durham students to the budget has been overwhelmingly negative. “There isn’t much in the budget to help students” responded St Aidan’s first year Hugh Silk who believes the tax increases might lead to a brain-drain “for anybody earning that much the attraction of working in the UK has been lessened”. Similarly Collingwood student James Underwood said “In terms of help for students the budget is not going to do a great deal. I
think a radical overhaul of the taxation and student finance system is needed.” Asked if he would consider working abroad after graduating he replied “I personally wouldn’t move abroad but I think more people will leave. I’m not sure its the right thing to do though.” The advantages of being at university in the downturn are balanced against the effects of the governments’ massive spending over the next year, which will be funded by borrowing money. The government will borrow £348 billion over the next two years, which is more than the sum total of all governments’ borrowing of the last 300 years put together, doubling the national debt. This debt will have to be paid back over the next decade. Students currently at university will have to face higher taxes when they find employment in years to come to pay for last month’s budget. Many students will be looking for jobs in the public sector: in teaching, the armed forces or the civil service. It is likely that the salaries of these jobs will have to be lowered because of funding cuts to accommodate for the debt. The borrowing incurred by Darling’s budget may well save the country from economic collapse, but it is certain that we will have to pay for it in years to come.
How has the financial crisis affected your postgraduate or gap year plans? Do you care about the Budget? Will the tax increases promt you to seek a career aborad? Email us: in.focus@palatinate. org.uk
Budget reaction
by Ursula Hankinson
Shortest bride
extra 7p onto a pack of 20 cigarettes. However, these rises will not break the bank; if you drink 15 pints a week you will spend an extra £7.80 in the next financial year, and an extra £7.28 if you smoke 2 packs of cigarettes a week. Tax on fuel has also risen by 2p a litre, applying from September. If you want a new car to fill up with pricier petrol, now might be the time to get one. A scheme based on German and French models gives you £2000 off the price of a brand new car when you trade in one that is more than 10 years old. The grant will be available until March 2010. But most students are not lucky enough to own a car to exchange, or the cash to buy a new one regardless of the discount. However, there are some students lucky enough not to have to spend their student loan. They now have a greater opportunity to earn tax-free interest on it. To encourage the public to save more, the government has raised the JONATHAN ALLEN
advisor, suggests that whilst these forms of funding are entirely credible it is worthwhile trying to have some of your own money stored away before travel. Trying to get some work in the UK
and in what way your UK degree is accepted in your chosen country. It is of course difficult here to talk through the thousands of different career areas you could work in, here it would be easier to alert you to the many background checks you must consider before taking such a big step. If looking for long term employment one must research the company you are applying to, its history and custom. The company’s terms of employment will also be very important and it may also be worth considering whether there will be opportunities for you to move back to the UK in your role. Although there are of course many graduates who go on to work abroad full time, whether in a profession, for charity or to teach; the majority of students who are looking to move away will do so on a short term basis. This will usually manifest itself via a short term project in which to gain vital transferable skills and commercial awareness or a specific task to train for a chosen area of employment. Camp America for example can be great for enhancing teamwork skills, getting fit and experiencing a different culture. Certainly for sports students it can be very beneficial. Other ‘projects’ would be familiar to most and are run by companies such as Projects Abroad. Often they involve community or conservation work but can often entail work base projects. These may involve media work, experience of international law and things such as child care experience. Often in such schemes you may stay in a hotel or most likely with a local family. They are not cheap but can provide an array of life experiences. When it comes to going to foreign lands there are a few obvious things to consider. Visa requirements are usually a key problem for all travellers;certainly short term ones. The USA and Australia are especially tough with immigration,as are some of the Asian countries. Therefore it is essential to check embassy websites for all updated travel information. The EU however is fairly easy to travel around. Being a member of the EU, UK residents can travel and work in the EU without too many problems. If you are looking for work inside the EU a great site to check out is EURES at ec.europa.eu. The site contains mainly
C
“Today everyone can see what an utter mess this Labour government and this Labour Prime Minister have made of the British economy.”
“Alistair Darling did well in a very tight spot … Brown and the Labour party are lucky in this Chancellor”
– David Cameron
– The Guardian
Flickr: FF Arcade
FLICKR ID: JAFFA THE CAKE
A fair budget?
Midwife YouTube
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IN FOCUS
Home or away? NO, WE ARE not talking about football or which question to choose on Question of Sport. In fact this question is of much greater importance. Many of us, unless we are happily isolated from the news, will be well aware of the dire financial circumstances the UK currently finds itself in. Now, whilst this is not the place to discuss the recession or who caused it, the effects of it will impact upon every one of us. Certainly, graduates in the next two years are going to be faced with a severely restricted labour market as we continue in a deep recession at least until next year. If this news was not bad enough (and you may be wondering how it could possibly get any worse), most other countries are also suffering from the collapse of the financial sector and the overall fall in world demand. Therefore, it is not simply the UK suffering in terms of graduate opportunities. Nevertheless the question of employment opportunities outside the UK for graduates has never been of greater exposure. For there are still opportunities out there, not just for full time employment but also temporary opportunities to expand your CV before returning to the UK labour market when the economy improves. That said, there are of course still opportunities here in the UK. This is not about persuading you either way, but to clear up any misunderstandings and provide some help and advice during a period of exposure for work abroad. Moving away is always a very big decision to take and it is certainly one you should not take lightly. There needs to be an in depth consideration of your aims, motives and potential outcomes of any foreign work or study. Before you even start, you need to make sure you are financially able to undertake such a commitment. This of course involves future planning to assess your potential outgoings, and is likely to take priority before any active planning of moving to foreign climes. In the current climate, banks will be less willing to lend to students who are planning a knees-up and a quick tan whilst growing forever familiar to Fosters lager. Finance-wise then, it is worth considering your funding, whether you will try for a loan, sponsorship, or try to undertake some charitable work. Peter Fox, a Durham careers
IN FOCUS
“Gordon Brown’s budget is a dishonest piece of pre-election politicking… the rapid increase in borrowing is eye-watering”
“They have condemned us to years of unemployment and decades of debt. The public deserves something different.”
– The Economist
– Nick Clegg
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