Category: Blogs

An effective digital strategy by British government will benefit the UK and its citizens for decades to come. Richard Lee writes.

Depending on whether you are going for a permanent role or a contract role, CV’s will tend to differ.

Permanent CV

The general rules of thumb for permanent candidate CVs are that they should be no longer than 2 pages in length. Any more and it is unlikely that your CV will be read. This will be difficult if you have had multiple jobs roles in your working career and will be a problem for Millennials and Generation Z who have the trait of ‘job hopping’ within 2 to 4 years. If you are struggling for space, focus on detailing the most relevant jobs. Unrelated posts should be as short as possible. For Example:

Shop assistant                   Clothes Shop                    Jan 2000 – Dec 2003

The format of a permanent candidate CV should be:

•    Name and contact details

•    Personal statement

•    Employment history and Achievements

•    Education/Qualifications/Courses

•    Key Skills

•    Hobbies and Interests

•    Brief Summary

Contract CV

Contract CVs are a completely different ball game. Due to the nature of contract work where employment is based on short-term employment for a particular project, the length on a contract CV could be up to 4 pages.

Contract CVs are specialised and targeted to the role that the contractor is applying for. The first page will be dedicated to grabbing the attention of the employer. For a contract CV, the skills that the contractor possesses would be front and centre after their personal details.

Sections for your GCSE results and your hobbies are generally not included in a contract CV and a summary will usually take the place of the aforementioned sections.

A contractor may have multiple CV’s, each focusing on different skills and tailored towards different vacancies depending on what role they are applying for. The format for a contract CV should be:

•    Name and contact details

•    Brief summary

•    Key Skills

•    Education/Qualifications/Courses

•    Employment History and Achievements

•    Personal details

What’s the same?

Permanent and contract CVs are not all that different, both CV’s need to be laid out in a way that keywords can be found by the employer and employment history should be displayed with most recent first, going a descending order. You want to catch the eye of the employer, but refrain from using garish fonts and colours. Keep the format consistent throughout but be professional.

Grammar and spelling are highly important and a must for both permanent and contract CVs. Get familiar with you spell checker to make sure all your spellings are correct.

Conclusion

Although the layout of the contract and permanent CV’s are different, the basic information in the CV is the same. Contract CVs will generally have more information about previous roles due to the nature of contract employment but CVs will have the most important details right from the start.

Source: ComputerScienceZone.org?

Technology is equipping learners with the ability to work effectively and access resources on the move, but it’s not just students that can benefit

Technology is changing every industry and vocation, meaning students must be equipped with the skills to take ownership of their own learning and adapt to the current trends in the world of work.

Just as businesses have implemented the cloud to empower their employees with added resources and flexibility, schools must also adopt similar solutions to prepare their students for the future.

While giving students hands-on experience of modern technology is important from a development perspective, the expectations of digitally native learners means education institutions must deploy the right solutions now in order to stay relevant. As competition to recruit students increases, academies and universities in particular are turning to technology to differentiate.

Anywhere learning

As a starting point, with today’s students used to consuming online services through a range of different devices, there is a growing expectation for schools and universities to deliver their resources in a similar way. While the majority of universities have provided course materials online for some time, this is only the tip of the iceberg.

As cloud computing is particularly useful for supporting multiple devices, education providers should aim to provide the majority of their services using this technology, allowing students to work effectively whether on smartphone, laptop or tablet.

For example, by having access to all systems on all devices, students can access reading materials, edit documents or submit assignments in any context they choose – whether this is during the commute to class or during an unexpected quiet period.

In addition to expanding the amount of time available for learning, this also removes limitations on the level of resources at any given time, enabling students to access more information based on the direction of their research.

This way, students will be able to input new ideas depending on where their research takes them and learn how to find the answers from themselves.

However, this does not just benefit the students’ alone. To give an example, Sorring Skole, a primary school in Demark has brought in Chromebooks for the third to sixth grade to take the learning experience to the cloud.

By hosting documents and learning materials on a cloud server, teachers have been able to access data from practically anywhere, enabling more efficient assessment and appraisal processes, and removing the risk of lost documents or results.

Teachers can also provide feedback over cloud services, enabling a quicker turn around on marking materials, freeing up time for teachers to concentrate on educating rather than administrate tasks.

As a result, by selecting systems that give users secure access to their data and applications wherever they are, the cloud can provide an enhanced learning experience while reducing demands on staff services.

Learning across boundaries

In addition to providing flexibility on devices and location, the cloud enables teams to work together in ways that were never possible before. For example, by using services that enable multiple users of a single document, such as Google Docs or Microsoft Office, this can enable teams of students from within a classroom, or from across the world, to work on the same project.

By becoming a member of a virtual team, students can experience a range of different cultures and influences, setting up a more immersive and innovative learning environment.

Through the introduction of AV technology provided through the cloud, teachers also have the ability to interact with their counterparts across the world, in order to share methods and information, or even introduce guest lecturers into lessons via video conferencing.

For example, by working with institutions overseas, teachers will be able to provide virtual tours of distant locations or host Q&A sessions with experts on certain topics. As a result, in addition the providing flexibility, utilising cloud technology can also create a much more diverse learning experience, which provides students with new avenues to exercise their team-working abilities.

By having the tools to enhance collaboration in this way, teachers will be better equipped to train their students for the demands on the workplace, while having the ability to inspire debate amongst the students themselves.

Keep IT simple

Aside from the direct educational benefits, the arrival of cloud technology also creates huge benefits for the IT departments from an economic perspective. By utilising off-premise computing power, IT departments within education institutions are able to free up their server from the burden of maintaining databases, running applications and storing information – effectively expanding the capabilities of their own PCs.

By moving standard services such as email and ERP systems to the cloud, this can free up more resources to concentrate key functions such as research and education meaning resources are used much more efficiently. As software on the cloud is also delivered through flexible subscriptions, this means it is often cheaper than upfront licenses and leaves.

Of course, in order for this to be successful, the cloud solutions and devices that are chosen must be easy to use and integrate seamlessly with the rest of the business, while having a high level of security credentials.

When looking for solutions, education providers should therefore consider which operating systems would be the most user-friendly, which classroom management tools are required and what level of support is required to support these cloud systems.

With the right mix of mobile devices and cloud software, schools and universities will have the tools to prepare the students for the future.

Source: Information Age

Results from REC’s JobsOutlook January 2015 survey shows 35 per cent, 10 per cent increase of employers need increase their workforce but do not have the room to take on extra workforce. Compared with January 2014, where 25 per cent of respondents reported having no spare capacity.

According to the same survey, more than 50 per cent of businesses will be seeking assistance from recruitment agencies (between April and December 2015) in order to recruit staff with the skills that they demand.

The skills and demand for the IT sector are constantly changing and therefore skills that are required and highly sort after in previous years may not be the same in the years to follow. You can see this in Certes 4sight IT staffing review. IT contractors who possess one or more of these high demand skills are in an advantageous position, according to ContractorUK.com.

The skills shortage yields bigger negatives for businesses and the IT sector in the UK. The demand for skills is rising and changing. With limited capacity to cater for these demands, the UK’s global competitiveness could see a downturn.

For IT contractors, the growing need for skills for temporary projects can provide opportunities to acquire new skills which will allow them to take on high level roles. For employers, using contractors allows them to access the skills that are in demand.

If you're an IT contractor searching for your next role, visit Certes. We have thousands of IT jobs in a variety of industries.

But what are the differece between the US and UK in recruitment.

Source: Jobvite

In short videos can be use as job advertising and in the interview process.

Studio in your hands

As video technology develops, it’s becoming extremely easy to communicate with. The time for cumbersome and expensive video equipment and complicated editing software are behind us. Anyone with a decent phone can record and upload the content to video sharing websites in a matter of minutes. Youtube can be used to give applicants all the information required in just a few minutes and that message can be sent to thousands upon thousands of possible candidates in seconds. Applications like FaceTime and Skype make it remarkably easy for candidates and employers to meet “face-to-face” without geographical locations being a factor. Scheduling a time for an interview is severely cut as a time can be worked around pre-existing arrangements. Video interviewing allows for a better sense of who the candidate is instead of making judgement on their CV, the applicant can give you all the information directly to you that they could not fit on paper.

With today’s technological advancements, all this can be done from your phone.

Showcase your good side

For candidates, video gives the capability of candidates recording an introductory video, eliminating the need for a live video interview and even the traditional first stages of an interview. Attaching the recorded video to the rest of their digital application would be then sent to hiring managers and decision makers simultaneously.

For clients, having the ability to showcase the company, the culture and organisational structure can make applying to the company more appealing and engaging for the candidate. Besides providing a “fly on the wall” view of the company you are also giving the impression that your company is at the forefront of utilising technology. Video’s can also be used to attract talented millennials.

Benefits are limitless

Interview may be conducted using a representative of who the candidate would be working for due to busy schedules. With video the person who the candidate would work directly under could take part in the interview process. Additional benefits are a group of hiring managers can easily collaborate to make hiring decisions much quicker than traditional means.

Employers can also quickly and easily extract candidates who skills do not match up to their requirements.

Screening candidates for any role becomes less time intensive and considerably reduces cost with utilising video, whether is a vacancy for an entry level position or senior executive level candidates. They are extremely busy and travel time and costs are immediately eliminated. If employers are hiring internationally the cost and travel time is cut exponentially.

Other skills can be assessed with video; some role may consist of public speaking or presentation skills. These skills are showcased from the outset of a video interview and the interview can see how well a candidate reactive being in front of a camera.

Although video should be implemented. There is still a need for face to face meetings. The traditional method shows how well a candidate can interact with staff that they will be working with. However, a guaranteed face to face interview can be scheduled further down the recruitment line when the candidates have been shortlisted.

Businesses across the world are under a continuous stream of cyber attacks – how are UK businesses faring in this environment? 

Hundreds of millions of cyber threats travel the internet every day and businesses of all sizes are at serious risk. For example, between 2010 and 2014, successful cyber attacks on businesses of all sizes increased by 144%.

On top of this, the National Cyber Security Alliance reports that approximately 60% of all businesses who experience a loss due to a security breach go out of business within six months.

This is quite staggering and clearly cyber-crime is big business—we’re talking large-scale organised crime and billions of dollars to be made from corporate and personal data.

And, the Web is the primary highway for these attacks. Sophisticated phishing emails, malware, and even spam target more than just servers and desktops; laptops, smartphones, and tablets can also be the focus of a cyber-attack, from any location around the globe.

Cyren recently conducted research to explore how smaller businesses are coping with the level of escalating cyber threats to look at whether it was just the larger organisations that are being attacked and how the small to medium sized enterprise and businesses are bearing up.

The research which was conducted by Osterman Research and sponsored by Cyren highlighted that security problems in small to medium sized businesses are rampant. It surveyed IT and security managers at 102 UK companies with anywhere from 100 to 5000 employees

The reason security problems are rampant is because 75% of organisations surveyed reported a security breach or infection in the last 12 months, rising to 85% for businesses with 1000 or fewer employees. 

In terms of frequency and the type of breaches causing organisations anguish, the average number of known breaches reported was 2.1. The threats that were rated of greatest concern were data breaches, ransomware, targeted attacks and zero-day exploits.

Interestingly, ransomware infections were reported at twice the rate among organisations with fewer than 1,000 employees, when compared to organisations with 2,500-5,000 employees, which came out as 6 percent versus 3%, respectively.

The greatest security gaps, where IT managers’ level of concern most outstrips their evaluation of their security capabilities, are in dealing with targeted and zero-day attacks. The threat of data breaches, botnet activity, and malicious activity from insiders were also cited.

Only 19% of the respondents said that their web security is inspecting SSL traffic for threats.

The research also showed that IT managers are far more concerned about the costs of infection than the cost of protection. The initial cost of web or email security solutions or their total lifecycle cost were ranked much lower as decision criteria than features like ease of administration, visibility, and advanced security protection (the top three categories).

Therefore, it is safe to assume that IT managers are far more concerned with stopping malware than controlling employee web behaviour, with the exception of preventing access to pornography from business networks.

“Shadow IT” is a moderate concern for larger companies, but a low priority for those with 1,000 employees or less, with only 9% considering it of concern. The largest organisations surveyed, with 2,500 to 5,000 employees, are currently rating application control as the most important capability in evaluating new solutions, with 73% rating it extremely important. This compares to just 43 and 41 percent of organisations in the two smaller employee size categories.

Data loss prevention is highly utilised in the UK, ranking as the second-most-deployed capability for both web security (64%) and email security (62%), among the capabilities evaluated.

Less than 25% say they protect company-owned or BYOD mobile devices, and less than 30% of remote offices and Guest Wi-Fi networks have gateway security. The vast majority of organisations rely on endpoint protection for traveling employees’ laptops and to protect use of the web at remote offices.

Source: Information-Age.com

The IT function has been marked by a change of approach over the last decade – from responsive to adaptive – as a more predictive business world has emerged

CIOs have striven to make their IT functions flexible in nature as they constantly adapt to new operating environments and new business models. This is not enough.

If you consider the development of technology as a natural progression, then IT needs to become more predictive in nature. It must have the ability to inform the business it serves and be 100% data driven.

But it’s not quite there yet. With data capture from an increasingly diverse range of sensor-driven devices on the rise and a plethora of data sources available, the opportunity to derive insight from relevant data needs to be seized more widely by businesses.

The benefits of a more predictable future based on data are clear, primarily because it will enable more long-term thinking in terms of investment and risk-taking.

Remote connection to devices

Collecting data from devices and ‘remoting-in’ is a key foundation for this move. The concept of ‘remoting into’ another device has existed for the last 20 years or more. However, the future of remoting-in will not be limited to the typical use cases of remote support and remote access we see and read about now.

Instead, it is set to become a ‘connected state’ in which any smart device can connect to another smart device in a seamless and secure way, providing access and data exchange at the click of a button.

Indeed, as more and more devices become smart and IP-enabled, the world of connections opens up exponentially but also becomes increasingly complex.

Keeping track and control in a secure way will be essential. As such, the goal for IT in general over the next few years will be to make it as easy to ‘remote into’ a refrigerator, car, MRI scanner, parking metre, industrial sewing machine or fish-feeding controller as it is to a colleague’s iPhone or Android phone today. The collection of vital data will be a key building block for more predictive computing in future.

Remotely connecting people to people

Beyond the devices, businesses also need to ensure their people are better connected as well. Collaborative technologies are enabling ways of working which we were unable to conceive of a generation ago.

However, there is still room for significant improvements in connectivity, reliability and enterprise scalability.

In the coming years, there will be dramatic improvements in collaborative technologies, leading to more effective meetings and sessions across increasingly dispersed and remote teams, with hassle-free access from any smart device.

Regardless of sector or application, predictability of connection, quality of video and immediacy of chat are just some of the capabilities that will be key to these technologies. No less than total reliability is acceptable.

This will not just be the preserve of mid-sized and large-scale organisations, but will actually enable new consumption-based cost models to emerge and be the key to mass adoption.

The internet of consumption

The increasing importance of remote connections and data-driven IoT devices could be seen clearly at the latest Consumer Electronics Show, where the most advanced IoT devices were being showcased.

There was a particular focus on smart homes, the fitness industry and connected automobiles. This lends credence to the fact that the consumer space is where most of the hype is.

However, while this is pretty interesting and will begin to affect us all in one way or another over the next few years, the consumer hype doesn’t give the complete story. For B2B companies, the opportunity is equally significant, if a little more pragmatic.

For businesses, IoT opens up the possibility for new business models and ways to make money. Being able to connect, monitor and control remote devices will allow organisations to rethink their pricing strategies and take advantage of new revenue streams.

For example, an industrial sewing machine manufacturer now has the capability of selling smart machines to clothing manufacturers that can be monitored, upgraded and analysed on a real-time basis.

This opens up the potential to charge customers in a different way, such as by needle use, idling time and total usage time. This is effectively a more consumption-based pricing model, as exemplified by so many software vendors these days.

There are many examples where IoT can be practically implemented in such “heavy metal” industries that will provide new revenue streams for manufacturers.

The transition from the current legacy devices or machines to the new smart devices will require expertise and help from vendors that understand how devices are connected to each other over a secure transport layer. We will see rapid adoption within this B2B area over the next few years.

Virtual and augmented reality

A final consideration is virtual and augmented reality technology. Both are entering the maturation stage and will become increasingly relevant in the business world in the coming year.

The concept of remoting-in will be very relevant here. Virtual reality (VR) has been gaining serious traction over the past year and the increasing availability of VR apps and VR headsets is popularising it as a concept. VR’s importance is ramping up in the gaming sector but also in sports and other branches of entertainment.

VR’s work-related sibling, augmented reality (AR), is just beginning to see traction in the market. Over the next few years, more and more enterprises will look to enable their ‘deskless’ professionals with a new compute paradigm that helps them become more productive and solve issues on the ground, at the front line.

Indeed, mainstream manufacturers such as Microsoft and Google have committed to producing devices that deliver a new user experience, and specialists like Atheer Labs are well on the way to getting adoption of AR devices in the workplace.

An increasing number of B2B companies will look to implement AR-based support for their workers and will require sophisticated software to maintain and deliver an advanced user experience leading to greater productivity and more accurate operations. In essence, more predictive outcomes.

IT is on a rapid and exciting journey at the moment. As endpoints generate an increasing amount of data that needs to be remotely managed and monitored, businesses are waking up to the fact that it needs to be accessible and aggregated.

Data analytics needs to bring insight and from that allow decision-making to be more predictive and less based on intuition, gut or some view of the past.

Source: InformationAge

What's also worth noting, the Computer and IT is the sector that is generating the most revenue permanent areas, generating £525 million.

Source: REC