Attracting More Women to a Career in Welding

Attracting More Women to a Career in Welding Training as a welder can open up opportunities to work in a diverse range of sectors from construction and manufacturing to aerospace and petrochemical industries. But despite there being a demand for welding skills, women are still underrepresented in the profession. Skills gap There is currently a shortage of welders in Britain and the Migratory Advisory Committee states that 13% of welders in Britain come from the European Economic Area. This is likely to impact the country’s ambitions to build more infrastructure such as more roads and railways in the coming years. Construction of the new Hinkley Point power station, for example, will need at least 500 welders, according to EDF’s workforce development director Guy Hazlehurst. This shortage arguably makes attracting more women into the profession even more important because it can help widen the pool of people to recruit to fill this skills gap. Attracting more women to become welders But there have been improvements made to recruiting women to STEM roles in recent years. It is expected that by 2030 30% of core STEM roles will be filled by women. WISE (Women in Science and Engineering) has put together a 10 step initiative to help recruit and retain women in STEM roles. They recommend taking steps such as making jobs more attractive by offering flexible working and sponsoring female talent to the same extent as male talent. Educational outreach programs can also help attract women to welding. As part of The Welding Institute’s education outreach work, they have put together a series of learning activities and programs that start at primary school and go all the way to postgraduate level. These include work experience placements, science fairs, and hands-on workshops. Efforts are also being made to change society’s preconceived ideas of what job roles are suitable for women. In the US, the hashtag #Ilooklikeanengineer is being used to change gender stereotypes, for example. Existing female welders can also play an important part when attracting more young girls to the profession. They can serve as role models to young girls who are considering what job they want to do in the future. A female welding apprentice shares her experience Megan Clough, who is doing a welding apprenticeship at Riverside College in Widnes, shared her experience with us. Megan said: “Although I have been accepted, at first I didn’t know what to expect. I needed to understand and accept the men’s personal views about me coming into their workplace. I am the first female to work on their shop floor in over 30 years! “I felt great pressure to show it was worthwhile giving me the apprenticeship.” The apprenticeship has given Megan the chance to learn lots of welding skills, including following instructions from drawings and calculating dimensions. She has also learned to operate several types of machinery including guillotine, drills, and saws and she has grown confident in her abilities. But it hasn’t been plain sailing. “The trust was hard, to begin with, I was constantly unable to do certain things. “Now, I can be asked to do something I’ve never done before and be trusted to get on with it independently. I get a huge amount of satisfaction when I see the end result of a product I have personally hand made with no assistance.” She now also feels like one of the team: “I’ve thoroughly enjoyed building relationships with the older generation of welders and challenging stereotypes about women working in welding.” And she advocates doing an apprenticeship if you want a career in welding. “I would definitely advise younger people to look into doing an apprenticeship because it’s an effective way of earning while you learn. You get real, hands-on experience while gaining impressive qualifications and not having the hassle of being in debt! “Many people are unaware that apprenticeships can lead to degrees and other types of further education. Our generation is in high demand in the trades because they are essential to our world in a wide variety of ways.” She is also optimistic about the future for women in welding: “There is so much support for girls who are involved in this industry. “There’s a big push for equality and diversity in the workplace, so it’s important for girls to realize they can live in a man’s world and do the exact same things men can do and even do them better!” Start your welding training Training to become a welder typically involves doing an apprenticeship, although there are other routes into the profession, including completing a full-time training course. “Riverside College is a forward-thinking and progressive further education provider, we value our female engineers and actively seek to support and build confidence both inside and outside of college. We have seen a rise in the number of female applications to the college for both our full time and apprenticeship provision, this is in part due to our current female engineers, such as Megan acting as student representatives; happy to encourage others considering the engineering industry.” Andy James, Head Of School for Engineering Motor Vehicle at Riverside College About the author: Claire Spillane, is Finance Director at Westermans International.

Free Perfect Resume Template for Go-Getters

Free Perfect Resume Template for Go-Getters Free Perfect Resume Template for Go-Getters A go-getter is someone enterprising, and who works hard to succeed. If this you, your resume should reflect that. Good news! We’ve created a template just for job seekers like you. It starts at the top with an attractive header for your personal and contact information. Next is a place for your profile. This is much better than the standard, objective statement for making a great impression to know all about you. Then comes your experience and education. Do you have more information to add? That’s easy. All of our templates can be customized. Just download the template, and use Word to edit the document. There is no easier way to get the perfect resume.If you think this is the ideal template for you, don’t hesitate! You can download it for free right now. There are no strings attached! And if you need more choice, take a look around and browse more simple and compelling resume templates. File size: 394 KB Format: .docx Downloaded 8,949 times License: Free, personal use only. Please read the license terms for resources. Download previous article 6 Ways to Stay Happy in the Workplace next article How To Ask Your Boss for a Raise (And Get One!) you might also likeCadmium Yellow: Simple, Yet Elegant Resume Template

On the Job by Anita Bruzzese Does It Matter Whether You Have Friends at Work

On the Job by Anita Bruzzese Does It Matter Whether You Have Friends at Work How important is it that you work with people you like? Does it matter if you hang out with them outside of work? Or, do you prefer to keep your professional and personal lives separate -- talking to friends during the day via Twitter and Facebook?In my experience, it makes a difference to me that I like the folks where I work. If I don't, the days can be very long, and very stressful. At the same time, I know that if I work with people I like, I have a tendency to gab to them about non work-related stuff -- what I did over the weekend, the ongoing war I have with the deer that get into my garden and whether or not I can make dinner with only olives and bran cereal.What impact do friends have on your work? Read this column I did for Gannett/USAToday.com and see if your views change....While research shows that workplace friendships result in higher job satisfaction among employees, there is a dark side to having buddies on the job, says a new study. You hear all these positive thi ngs about how friendships at work can build morale, and thats true but they can be bad for work because they can cause us to avoid getting work done, says Jessica Methot, an assistant professor at Rutgers University. When she was at the University of Florida, Methot studied colleague relationships and found those who worked with people considered friends engaged in more whining and gossiping and complaining, she says. In other words, these friends really didnt help one another be more productive, she says. Patricia Turner, who works for an e-learning publisher in Lewisville, Texas, says she has noticed that if friends work in different departments, theres a tendency for one person to hang around the department with the friend and talk about their plans for the weekend. Honestly, theyve got no reason to be there (in that department). Neither person is getting any work done, Turners says. Methot says thats a prime example of how workplace friendships can cause problems and impa ct productivity. If youve got friends working in different departments, they have a tendency to want to get together, and chat, she says. The need to socialize with a friend at work even if it means going to another area of a company is something that managers need to be aware of when looking at work teams, Methot says. There are implications for companies that want company-wide team efforts. If you help all these people become friends, what kind of distraction is that going to be when theyre in different departments and they want to get together? she questions. For Turner, workplace friendships are nice to have, especially since it makes the work day more enjoyable if she can go to lunch with colleagues or talk easily with someone while on the job, she says. She adds she has a couple of workplace pals that are very close, and spends time with them outside of work. She says the flip side not getting along with a co-worker can make for a tense workplace atmosphere. I did ha ve a job for 12 years where I worked beside a woman who was hard to work with. It was hell. She was dominating and territorial and I was always watching my back, she says, adding that the co-worker made me work harder. It made me more competitive. Methot says that when speaking with participants in her survey, the workers revealed they often had not considered the dynamics of their workplace relationships or how friendships impacted their job or productivity. When employees think about not being able to get their jobs done, they think in terms of it being the fault of a supervisor or the Internet going down they hadnt really thought about their friends at work, she says. Still, Methot says that friendships overall are more positive than negative for the workplace. I think what surprised me was how workplace friendships among peers really provided support. An employee was much more likely to ask questions of a friend about how to do something, and they also got emotional supp ort the friends were more empathetic about what the person was going through, Methot says. At the same time, Methot provides a warning about workplace friendships: They can get rocky when one friend is promoted over another. Were much more likely to be envious of someone were close to getting a big project, for example. We are much more likely to compare ourselves to them, and we may feel that we deserved it, not them, she says.Do you think your productivity is impacted by friends at work?

My Journey From High School...To College....To CEO - Classy Career Girl

My Journey From High School...To College....To CEO Heres a short summary of my life from high school to college to becoming a CEO. When I was in 3rd grade, I started a save the earth club. By middle school, I was organizing food for the homeless, teaching Sunday school and visiting local nursing homes. As a teenager, I was leading anything I could. I was passionate about youth in government, our high school seatbelt challenge and leading church mission trips. And then college happened. I studied abroad, got straight A’s, worked 3 internships and was completely confused about what I  wanted to be when I grew up. I thought I did everything right but felt stuck and confused. So I took the first job that came along. I worked for a top consulting company for 8 years. I climbed the corporate ladder. I traveled all around the country. I made an impact. I was challenged. But I was still unhappy, confused and stuck. Then something changed. I started a blog, sold an online course (before I even created it)  and found my passion. I chose to write and teach about what I loved. It didn’t matter what I was teaching, I just loved sharing my knowledge with  others. On an average day, I would wake up early, blog, go to my day job  and  then come home and teach again at night. The beauty of it is this. I was taking baby steps and imperfect action every single day inspired by multiple books, classes, websites and coaches I was working with. I was learning about my purpose, interests and improving my health and life balance. Then, I had this lightbulb moment. Today’s ambitious women  thrive in communities supporting one another to reach our goals and dreams. Why did I have to search so many places (and pay so much money) to find the support and education that I wanted in my career and life. If life is all about balance, why wasn’t there ONE place that balanced everything I needed for my career success, happiness, health and life FOR me.  Why couldn’t all this be in one community  for this busy, classy mama? Well, I think it can. That’s why I started our membership communities, Corporate Rescue Plan and Love Your Career Formula. I believe in the  balance  of your work, dreams, success and happiness. Some say it’s impossible. Well, I happen to believe that  anything is possible. Our members range from young professionals to second career changers, from fast climbing corporate gals to empire-building entrepreneurs…

Why Time Management Does Not Work

Why Time Management Does Not Work The abundance of today’s tools, from any app or a reminder to organizers and diaries, can drive anyone into depression and bring them stress. We make use of one instrument, then the second, then the third; something helps you for a while, then you realize that something in this “system” doesn’t work like it has to.People can estimate how much the task will take, but they will never be able to calculate the time absolutely. Each person perceives time in his own way â€" it’s like an inner experience. And the experience here is not everything.evalDid you notice that very similar tasks can take a very different amount of time? Why does it happen? It just depends on a different mood, different level of engagement, motivation, fatigue and many other factors. So time is a very abstract concept when it comes to managing it.The biggest myths about time management techniques and how people perceive them A well-renowned writer of the Guardian and a psychologist of the new generation O liver Buckerman suggested that time-management turns people into stressed and unproductive zombies.The way people do business has changed dramatically over the years. Yet, the recommendations about the time management have stayed the same.Time management technique teaches people to make a to-do-list first thing in the morning. Modern people check their emails forenoon. By morning time they already have plenty of tasks for the day and a bunch of outdated ones that need to be done ASAP.Traditional time management suggests prioritizing. However, every errand that people must run is of high priority these days. Eventually people get nothing done and a workload of new assignments.Closing the door on everything that can distract you was actually working a long time ago. Employees working in cubicles don’t have such benefits. Even if you have managed to isolate from the internet and come up with a task list, it vanishes the minute you walk into the office and get a vast of trouble thrown at you.Post-its and flagged e-mails. There are too many of them. You get confused quickly. You bring work home and there is always stuff to add in the long lists of tasks.One technique doesn’t fit everybody. People get differentiated into various categories of extraverts and introverts, rational and irrational kinds. Psychologists are making up trainings for these categories only, failing to remember how diverse all people are.People are failing to adhere to the system. You can’t keep doing only one technique of time management without all of the other aspects of the system. You can’t write down things on post-its one day and keep writing them in the calendar the other.Futility of attempts to control time. Practically all of the so-called “Get-It-Done” strategies involve trying to force people to do what they really do not want to do. Attempts to develop new habits that will counterbalance the old and destroy them work just about the same as the new car body on an old rus ty engine. If we do not start from the foundation, the whole restructuring will not make any sense.Too-difficult tools. The 10$ app on the phone won’t work if you keep writing everything down on paper.Unrealistic expectations. People think that if they wrote a list, the things would do themselves perfectly, in other words they don’t look at the time rationally.Smoking deserves special attention. Many people think they smoke because of the stress, showing the society how exhausted and hardworking they are.They don’t realize that this bad habit makes it difficult to get out of bed in the morning and gives them severe headaches thus causing more stress and taking time.In his well-known book Allen Carr has proved that you can improve your productivity by 30% once you get rid of nervous stressful smoking habit.What is the substitute for time-management?evalCarson Tate, the author of the “Work simply” strategy, claims that time-management strategies haven’t been proved to have impact on one’s professional performance.So, stop following the tradition of complaining how you never have enough time and get a hold of your life. Stop time-managing pro managing your life.There are first three things for you to get started.Clarify the priorities instead of prioritizing particular tasks;Develop attention management skills instead of blindly following time-management tips;Build a complex management of the workflow.A recently discovered workflow methodology motivated people to be proactive and thoughtful.Adam Karsh has started a whole attention management skills workshop where he teaches about different types of attention, the methodology of focusing one’s attention, learning to prioritize time and focus and, as a result, increasing your work productivity.Photo Credit â€" Shutterstock.comIn realityevalAllow yourself to move around and have time for short breaks. When the location is changed your mind gets a break and it can experience an explosion of mental ene rgy and inspiration.Eliminate noise and other distraction. Wear headphones if you must.Watch yourself. Sometimes people get distracted just from the thoughts in their heads. Attention can go elsewhere without your control. Don’t let your attention go negative. Cut out the negative thoughts before they go strong. Focus on something positive.Invest in your attention. You should define the things with the highest return for the attention. The rule of 80/20 states that 20% of your attention gives 80% of the effect. It’s like putting money for a deposit.Forget about multitasking. You are the most efficient when focused on a single task.Keep practicing. You won’t acquire this set of skills overnight, so practice constantly. If you feel like you are failing to do a task, a simple affirmation like “Time to focus” will help you reinforce a good habit.So time control â€" does not exist, there is only control over yourself. A simple thought lying on the surface, repeatedly voiced. It ’s not the time-management, not the tools or techniques, etc., but only the people.People should become the masters of their time and choose how to invest it. Use your powerful brain, because it is capable of constant learning and developing productive habits if you give it a little push.

Summary Sunday Self-Promotion Is Difficult

Summary Sunday Self-Promotion Is Difficult Self-promotion, personal branding, marketing, online visibility, reputation management- whatever you want to call it, these skills have become vital to your career success. This collection of articles centers around this theme and is made up of current posts found and shared online this week! Self-Promotion Is Difficult I dont think Ive met anyone who likes to brag. I dont like to toot my own horn is another phrase I hear a lot. And Im with you all. Except, heres the problem. If you dont take credit, where will it come from? Will your overworked, untrained manager recognize your accomplishments? Will a co-worker give you credit? It is unlikely. So you are left with two choices- get comfortable taking credit or hope that your good work will be appreciated or even noticed. Heres Help 40+ Social Tools I use for Personal Branding Success  Brian Fanzo 37 Ways Successful Professionals Promote Themselves â€" What are you NOT doing?  Chameleon Resumes, Lisa Rangel 25 Free and Low Cost Ways to Market  Yourself  Small Business Trends, Deborah Shane 10 Reasons Visual Content is More Compelling Than Written  Content 10 Things I Learned By Studying Every SharkTank Pitch Ever Made Inc., Bill Murphy

3 Ways Volunteering And Networking Mesh

3 Ways Volunteering And Networking Mesh Networking is that fragile web of connections you have with other people and volunteering can strengthen that web in several ways.  Here are some of the advantages a voluntary approach to networking can add to your career: Maintaining activity through volunteer work in your field keeps you in contact with potential employers and co-workers. When an opening comes up, they remember meeting you at several events. They also remember what you were like to work with! Staying active is good for you too, because it keeps you in the habit of productivity. Voluntary experience is still experience on a resume.  The experience problem  has a solution, and that solution is gaining experience by doing productive activity in your field or in areas that can translate to a potential position. Organizing a fund raiser for the SPCA shows leadership skills, administrative ability, and community awareness: it doesnt only apply to animal rescue. Working as a volunteer often leads to working for a paycheck.  More than one position has been created because the organization realized a volunteer who was going to leave as soon as they found a job somewhere else was a worker they wanted to keep. Its also a good way to be in on job openings before they are posted publicly. Volunteering does not have to be a full-time position.  In fact, its generally not a good idea to fill your unemployed days with overwhelming voluntary activities when you should be working on your job search. But it definitely has a place in your career path and investing in carefully chosen volunteer work will enhance your networking in ways that will benefit you.