European Hospitality Skills Passport Launched

European Hospitality Skills Passport Launched: "The European Commission on Tuesday launched the European Hospitality Skills Passport, a tool developed to facilitate contact between jobseekers and employers in the hospitality and tourism sector in Europe.

The Skills Passport allows workers and employers to overcome language barriers and to compare hospitality workers' skills in order to facilitate recruitment in the sector. Hosted on the European Job Mobility Portal EURES, the skills passport is available in all EU official languages. The passport will be extended to other sectors in the future, the Commission said in a press release.

EU Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion László Andor said: "The European Hospitality Skills Passport is an important practical tool to promote mobility of European workers, especially young people, in a sector that has high growth potential. This initiative is also a good example of the outcome of social dialogue between employee and employer organisations at European level, and we look forward to seeing this cooperation expand into other sectors of the labour market.""

Checking your Market Value and Keeping yourself sharp!

Recently I read an article over the way that one should use should ask for a raise.
The biggest problem is that we do not know our worth.
It is an essential element needed for your negotiation.

A good way to check your worth is via Internet tools which show statistical information from people who entered their salary, experience, sector in which they are working on and education level.
Another way, the one which I suggest to you since I think it keeps people sharp, is to quietly look for open jobs, similar to yours and have interviews. It shall give you a better idea of what you worth, it will increase your negotiation skills, it will expand your network and it will create 'open doors' in case things go wrong during your raise negotiations..

Also, you must be able to present the situation in case you would not be there.. In other words, what is the added value of having you at the position you are now and how do you make profit or add value to the department/company? Why should you get a raise? Why you and not somebody else?

Papy-Boom in Europe. The need of Engineers!!

Most old engineering companies in Europe are facing a ‘Papy Boom’ (ie people massively hired in the sixties are now retiring and need to be replaced) while too few people study engineering, IT and sciences. Not only these people need to be replaced, if the companies in which they are working want to keep on going, but they need to train their successors, too. They need to pass on the way of working and the company mentality.

There is good econometric evidence that the demand for graduate engineers exceeds supply and the demand is pervasive across all sectors of the economy. The implication of this is that the economy needs more graduate engineers for both engineering and non engineering jobs. The evidence can be seen in a persistent, sizable wage premium for people holding engineering degrees and this premium has grown over the last 20 years.

Large engineering companies (ie PHILIPS (click for available jobs), SIEMENS) and gradually growing engineering companies (ie ASML (click for available jobs)) are in need of skilled engineers.

What is going on in Europe?

I am not an expert, and maybe this is a good thing, but I am able to make a small prediction for the things to come.

Lately, many small businesses are closing in economically strong countries .. Why is that?

I believe that is has to do with fear. People see what is going on in South Europe and they prefer to save their money (or invest them or spend them wisely) than to spend and consume. Economical problems tend to spread and they might move from South to North sooner than we think.. 

Everything is a chain..

Unemployment is growing in all countries, with different rate, that causes uncertainty for the financial status of the consumers which is causing fear and that fear decreases their buying force.

Cash is made to flow!