Improving Job Quality in the UK Labour Market

Improving Job Quality in the UK Labour Market The prospects for improving job quality at the lower end of the labour market in the UK pay Introduction Frederick Engels once wrote that labour is the prime basic condition for all human existence, and this to such an extent that, in a sense, we have to say that labour created man himself (1934). A person’s job helps define who they are. The level of income, time spent working, and the quality of the job, highly influence a person’s life. As Sweet and Meiksins say: â€Å"work occupies most of our waking hours; it is a crucial part of identities and influences life chances.† (2008, p. 1) As it has always been, employers are mostly looking for hardworking, well-educated people with particular sets of skills. These days education has become the Alpha and Omega of employment as Daniel Bell puts it: â€Å"If capital and labour are the major structural features of industrial society, information and knowledge are those of post-industrial society.† (1973, p. 211) With the rise in the number of people with higher education, one would expect a rise in higher, well-paid jobs. But in the UK, the situation is quite different. Not only is there a lot of low skilled service sector jobs with low wages, which result in poverty, but there is also growing pay inequality. The worst off are those on the lower end of the labour market who receive a pay of the bottom 20-25% and hold low-skilled jobs which are routine and semi-routine, and require no qualification. The most common job among these is that of the sales assistant. The number of these kind of low-wage workers in the UK is a staggering 20.6% (OECD 2011). This kind of inequality brings health and social problems. Studies show that more unequal countries have worse health and social problems such as lower life expectancy, higher mental illness and obesity, more teenage births and infant mortality, more homicides, etc. (Wilkinson and Pickett, 2009). This is quite a logical deduction to make, since a big part of an individual’s life is his/her job, and dissatisfaction with one’s job – which is directly linked to the dissatisfaction with one’s income – greatly influences the physical and psychological health of the said individual. Changes in the new economy In recent years, there has been a shift from the old economy to the new. These terms were thought up and are used by Sweet and Meiksins in their work – Changing countours of work. There they state that the old economy represents the various ways of assigning and structuring work that developed in the wake of the Industrial Revolution through to the mid-20th century. It included systems which were built around mass production, gendered divisions of labour, unionized labour, etc. The new economy brought about changes. For one, good jobs that require a limited education are disappearing, which forces a big group of people to take on menial, low-paid jobs with little prospects for future advancement. This system partially stems from Frederick Winslow Taylor who introduced his philosophy at the beginning of the 20th century. He argued for the separation of ‘thought’ from ‘execution’, which resulted in the creation of legions of deskilled jobs and the decli ne in the individual worker’s ability to control the conditions and rewards of work. (2008, p. 10). This fit perfectly into the abiding cultural belief that some should be owners and others workers. This popularized the idea that inequality in the workplace is actually desirable in a capitalistic system. (Sweet and Meiksins, 2008, p. 11) The belief that workers are indolent and cannot be trusted is directly responsible for the creation of the so-called McJobs – a.k.a. jobs on the very low end of the labour market. Wikipedia defines a McJob as a low-paying, low-prestige dead-end job that requires few skills and offers very little chance of intercompany advancement. The quality of these types of jobs is extremely low. The deliberations of the European Commission show that there is a propensity for the representatives of governments to assert that all parties would gain from job quality improvements. Francis Green states that wage rate is a key indication of a job’s quality, and claims that for the pay to be fair, it should be related to a worker’s contribution to the performance of the organization. (2006, p. 111) Green claims that there are no specifically economic reasons to look forward to long-term improvements or any other trend in the perceived fairness of material rewards. In the mid-20th century countries in transition would experience rising inequality, followed by a later equalizing trend. A lot of countries experienced declining income inequality for most of the 20th century, which started to rise again after the 1970s. (2006, pp. 119-20). This could be construed as a realistic standpoint, but it could also be called unnecessarily pessimistic. Although trends are not promising, this issue is one yet to be tackled. Concerns over wage inequality Public debates and policy discussions are brimming with concerns over inequality of wages. Despite the increased importance of tax credits as a source of household income growth over the past decade, pay still remains central to maintaining adequate living standards for most low to middle income households. (Pennycook and Whittaker; 2012, p. 4) It has widely been agreed that by far the best single measure of income inequality is the Gini coefficient of concentration. (Chen, Tsaur and Rhai; 1982, p. 473). With the Gini coefficient, 0 marks that everyone has the same income, and 1 that the richest person has all the income. In the UK this number is 4 which is well below what one would hope for. OECD shows that the gap between the rich and the poor has widened in the past decades. The incomes of top earners in the UK have risen much faster than for everyone else. The richest people have an income of about 10 times that of the poorest. Since the 1990s there has been a rise in people reporting high incomes, and also, high income taxes dropped. (2014) Groups that are most likely to hold low paid jobs are women, part-time or temporary workers, young workers, and workers in relatively low-skilled occupational groups such as Elementary Occupations (cleaners, security guards, catering assistants, leisure workers) and Sales Customer services (Pennycook and Whittaker; 2012, p. 5) What causes wage disparities? Over the past few decades, the UK, as well as other countries, has gone through significant changes. It underwent rapid technological progress and was more closely integrated into the global economy. When talking about the issue of income inequality, a lot of people tend to recognize globalization and technological advancement as the main culprits. They affected the job market by bringing high skilled workers greater rewards than the low-skilled ones, thus widening the gap between their respective earnings. Technological progress also penalized those who did not have the necessary skills to adapt and use technology effectively. (OECD; 2011, p. 28). This tended to have the worst effect on the people in low social positions which caused the gap between the well-off, who could afford the time and money to tackle the changing demands, and those who got stuck doing work that was becoming less and less appreciated. Alongside these changes, minimum wage also declined across many countries, as did the share of union members among workers. A lot of policies and institutions also made significant changes which contributed to higher employment, but also wage disparities. (OECD; 2011, p. 30). A lot of people found employment in factories, the service department and other low-skilled jobs which were in abundance, but had low wages and no prospects for the future. Some other things that encourage inequality are: privatization, subcontracting, deregulation, welfare to work policies, and neo-liberal policies. Possible solutions Britain’s reliance on an extensive pool of low-skilled, low-paid labour is not predetermined. The particular incidence and composition of low-paid work in any given country is the result of unique patterns of production and employment and these patterns are influenced, in part, by policy choices. Reducing the share of workers who are low paid is not a political objective that can be easily addressed by legislative levers. It is therefore not surprising that many policymakers have been justifiably reluctant to intervene in the market, preferring instead to correct market inequities through remedial redistribution (Pennycook and Whittaker; 2012, p. 39). But the redistribution systems in reality did little to reduce inequality. (OEDC; 2011, p. 92) Reforming tax and benefit policies would help soften the problem of inequality, by getting more people into the labour force, while making sure they stay in jobs paying good wages is essential. (OEDC; 2014). Government help and transfers also have an important role of making sure that low-level income households don’t fall further down into poverty. The reform of the tax policies for high-income individuals, whose job and income is generally more stable, would also help the redistribution of wealth and social mobility. However, these reforms would have to be thoroughly examined, and well thought up. The key would be ensuring that the poorly represented groups, such as young people, women and immigrants, have access to jobs with prospects for advancement. Another key point would be to allow low-paid individuals additional job-related education and skill-acquirement by incentivising companies to invest in their ‘human capital’. Due to the high demand for high-skilled individuals, especially in the newer fields of technology, marketing, and such, in the long haul, one of the possible solutions would be better government-supported education in these deficit fields for children of low-income families. This would create better social mobility, and at least a small boost in economy. The Welfare Reform Act 2012 introduced a wide range of reforms to the benefit and tax credit system (Universal Credit). Under the current system a working-age individual with low earnings and no disabilities may be entitled to receive payments from one or more of three main benefit groups; unemployment benefits and social assistance; the Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit and Tax Credits. Different benefits within each of these three groups are internally coordinated and roughly based on the same framework, while there is close to no coordination across the three benefit groups, leading to a rather erratic incentive structure. Under Universal Credit, the main means-tested benefits, except the Council Tax Benefit will be pooled into one single benefit with generous earnings disregards and one single rate of benefit withdrawal against income (taper rate). At the same time, support for childcare through the benefit system is made accessible for parents regardless of how many hours a week they work. Stated goals of the Universal Credit reform include giving people incentives to work, diminishing complexity, reducing relative poverty and containing the rising cost of welfare dependency (Andrà ©, C.et al. 2013). This act is important for this discussion because, what is hoped to be achieved in the long run is giving people incentives to work. Combined with some of the measures mentioned before, this would also allow people, who are now in a vicious circle of not having enough money for up-skilling, and not enough skills to make money, to break free and start climbing the proverbial social ladder – better jobs and better pays. Some say that the greatest priority is bound to be employment security. Macroeconomic and financial stability is the prime job quality policy at the moment. It is the job of government to try to ensure stable macroeconomic conditions, which, despite efforts, has not worked out recently. This recession has hit the lower end of the working class the hardest, but recessions have in the past always ended and, despite climate change we can expect a renewal of growth over the next few years, which will gradually reduce job insecurity again. Francis Green’s analysis of recent trends in Britain implies that the three urgent ongoing issues for policymakers to address are skills, autonomy and effort. (2009. pp. 28-29.) Conclusion Jobs are a very important part of who a person is. It is one of the ways we define ourselves. Job satisfaction is one of the principal issues in the overall life satisfaction of an individual. The quality of a job is directly linked to wages. In recent decades, due to various reasons which include globalisation and technological advancement, there has emerged a trend of rising disparity of wages in the UK. The incomes of top earners in the UK have risen much faster than for those receiving low wages. The demand for high-skilled workers is rising, but 20% of people still work in low-paid jobs with no intercompany prospects. This wage inequality is the object of much public and political debate. Although every part of the government asserts that solving this inequality and improving job quality would be better for everyone, this is not a political objective that can be easily tackled by legislature. This is why many policymakers have been justifiably reluctant to intervene in the marke t, preferring instead to correct market inequities through remedial redistribution. Some of the ways in which the inequality could be softened are the reformation of tax policies for high-income individuals and households, benefit policies for low-income households, better education and skill acquiring opportunities, ensuring employment security and stabilizing macroeconomics and finances. These changes will have to be made gradually and carefully, but nothing in the economic research suggests that this wage disparity is necessary and cannot be avoided. References Andrà ©, C.et al. 2013. Labour Market, Welfare Reform and Inequality in the United Kingdom. OECD Economics, Department Working Papers, No. 1034, OECD Publishing Bell, D. 1973. The Coming of Post-Industrial Society. New York: Basic Books. Chen, C.N., Tsaur, T.W. and Rhai, T.S. 1982. The Gini Coefficient and Negative Income; Oxford Economic Papers, New Series, (34/3) pp. 473-492. New York: Oxford University Press Engels, F. 1934. The Part played by Labour in the Transition from Ape to Man. Moscow: Progress Publishers. Green F. 2006. Demanding work: The Paradox of Job Quality and Affluent Economy. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Green, F. 2009. Job Quality in Britain. Praxis, issue 1, November, London: UK Commission for Employment and Skills. OECD, Jan. 2013, Income Distribution and Poverty at the OECD [Online] Available at: http://www.oecd.org/social/inequality.htm [Accessed: 18 January 2014] OECD. 2011. Divided we stand: Why inequality Keeps Rising, OECD Publishing. Pennycook M., Whittaker M. 2012. Low Pay Britain. London: Resolution Foundation. Sweet S. and Meiksins P. 2008. Changing countours of work. Newbury Park: Pine Forge Press. Wilkinson, R.G. and Pickett K. 2009. The Spirit Level: Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better. London: Allen Lane

Are You Unique? (for Cloning) :: essays research papers fc

You have been told that you are unique. The belief that there is no one else like you in the whole world has made you feel special and proud. In the near future, this belief may not be true. The world was stunned by the news in the summer of 1995, when a British embryologist named Ian Wilmut, and his research team, successfully cloned Dolly the sheep using the technique of nuclear transfer. Replacing the DNA of one sheep’s egg with the DNA of another sheep’s udder created Dolly. Plants and lower forms of animal life have been successfully cloned for many years, but before Wilmut's announcement, it had been thought by many to be unlikely that such a procedure could be performed on larger mammals and life forms. The world media was immediately filled with heated discussions about the ethical implications of cloning. Some of the most powerful people in the world have felt compelled to act against this threat. President Clinton swiftly imposed a ban on federal funding for human-cloning research. Bills were put in the works in both houses of Congress to outlaw human cloning because it was deemed as a fundamentally evil thing that must be stopped. But what, exactly, is bad about it? From an ethical point of view, it is difficult to see exactly what is wrong with cloning human beings. The people who are afraid of cloning tend to assume that someone would, for example, break into Napoleon's Tomb, steal some DNA and make a bunch of emperors. In reality, infertile people who use donated sperm, eggs, or embryos would probably use cloning. Do the potential harms outweigh the benefits of cloning? From what we know now, they don't. Therefore, we should not rush placing a ban on a potentially useful method of helping infertile, genetically at-risk, homosexual, or single people to become parents. Do human beings have a right to reproduce? No one has the moral right to tell another person that they should not be able to have children, and I don't see why Bill Clinton has that right either. If humans have a right to reproduce, what right does society have to limit the means? Essentially all reproduction done these days is with medical help at delivery, and even before. Truly natural human reproduction would make pregnancy-related death the number one killer of adult women. Some forms of medical help are more invasive than others.

Portfolio Assessment

Portfolio assessment is a multi-faceted process characterized by the following recurrent qualities: * It is continuous and ongoing, providing both formative (i. e. , ongoing) and summative (i. e. , culminating) opportunities for monitoring students' progress toward achieving essential outcomes. * It is multidimensional, i. e. , reflecting a wide variety of artifacts and processes reflecting various aspects of students' learning process(es). It provides for collaborative reflection, including ways for students to reflect about their own thinking processes and metacognitive introspection as they monitor their own comprehension, reflect upon their approaches to problem-solving and decision-making, and observe their emerging understanding of subjects and skills. * They clearly reflect stated learner outcomes identified in the core or essential curriculum that students are expected to study. * They focus upon students' performance-based learning experiences as well as their acquisition of key knowledge, skills, and attitudes. They contain samples of work that stretch over an entire marking period, rather than single points in time. * They contain works that represent a variety of different assessment tools. * They contain a variety of work samples and evaluations of that work by the student, peers, and teachers, possible even parents' reactions. Source: Paul S. George, (1995). What Is Portfolio Assessment Really and How Can I Use It in My Classroom? Gainesville, FL: Teacher Education Resources. Purposes of the Portfolio The Professional Portfolio we describe at PortfolioMaker. a differs from others you may see elsewhere in that it includes the following two main purposes: * To demonstrate your professional knowledge and skill in what some people call teaching ‘competencies' and which we call ‘Dimensions of Teaching'. * To emphasize your reflections on your entries. Your reflections will prove to be an integral part of the whole portfolio process because without them, the portfolio remains merely a scrapbook, a collection of information — not a portfolio. Our philosophy of the Professional Portfolio builds on the work of Donald Schon (1983). The reflective practitioner: How professionals think in action. Basic Books. * To illustrate your knowledge and skills in interviews or job appraisals. * To make your teaching visible so that you can: * Ensure that your teaching includes practices that reflect the reasons that you chose this profession. * Reflect on your practice and establish learning goals and/or targets. * Reflect on your practice to determine the extent to which you have achieved these goals and/or targets. * Ensure that your teaching reflects your beliefs about what good teaching should be * And, to celebrate your professionalism. Different Types of Portfolios * Documentation Portfolio: This type is also know as the â€Å"working† portfolio. Specifically, this approach involves a collection of work over time showing growth and improvement reflecting students' learning of identified outcomes. The documentation portfolio can include everything from brainstorming activities to drafts to finished products. The collection becomes meaningful when specific items are selected out to focus on particular educational experiences or goals. It can include the bet and weakest of student work. Process Portfolio: This approach documents all facets or phases of the learning process. They are particularly useful in documenting students' overall learning process. It can show how students integrate specific knowledge or skills and progress towards both basic and advanced mastery. Additionally, the process portfolio inevitably emphasizes students' reflection upon their learning process, including the use of reflective journals, think logs, and related forms of metacognitive processing. * Showcase Portfolio: This type of portfolio is best used for summative evaluation of students' mastery of key curriculum outcomes. It should include students' very best work, determined through a combination of student and teacher selection. Only completed work should be included. In addition, this type of portfolio is especially compatible with audio-visual artifact development, including photographs, videotapes, and electronic records of students' completed work. The showcase portfolio should also include written analysis and reflections by the student upon the decision-making process(es) used to determine which works are included.

Its Your First Day Teaching French Class Now What

Its the start of the semester and youre teaching your first French class. If youre wondering where to start, try engaging in warmup exercises, looking at French-English cognates, and explaining simple French grammar to provide a way to ease students into learning a new language.   What Is Your Name? Start by speaking to your students completely in French on the first day. Its a good way to help them understand basic greetings and introductions, starting with  Bonjour, je mappelle ..., which means, Hello, my name is ... Let students mingle and answer and ask each other the same question, which allows them to get to know each other in French. Alternatively, seat students in a circle and throw a ball around. When a student catches a ball, she must say  Bonjour, je mappelle  ...  and throw the ball to someone else.  You could also have students pick a French name  for themselves to facilitate conversations during the semester. Other French-language warmup activities include: Help students become accustomed to the room and acquaint them with lists and maps of French-speaking countries.Have students complete a scavenger hunt where the answers are posted—in French of course—or hidden around the room: This gets students out of their seats, lets them see what might be useful for them in learning French in the room, and gets them involved right away.Use visuals and model  hands-on items like the  numbers  in French. Cognates and Family Trees After a warmup activity or two, ease into easy French-language concepts such as  cognates, words that look and/or are pronounced alike in  French and English. Using cognates is a good way to draw students in. They can also start building simple sentences with conjugated forms of  Ãƒ ªtre  (meaning to be),  such as  Je suis..., Tu es..., Il est..., Elle est.  (I am, you are, he is, and they are.)  Students can then create something with their new vocabulary, such as  a family tree, describing their family using their new French vocabulary words. Simple French Grammar Next, try tackling the futur proche, the near future, as in Je vais, meaning I go.  Show  students several verbs in the infinitive. Students dont need to be confused with verb conjugations at first; just explain the simple meaning of several  French verbs  in the infinitive form, which is the form in which students will initially see most verbs. Theyll feel excited about what they can understand in French after just one lesson. Tips and Ideas Instead of starting with student names, begin by teaching the French alphabet. Help students find a word for each letter of the French alphabet. Afterward, let students tag everything in the room with the names of the objects. Student interaction will start right away at this point. When theyve finished tagging the room, have students move into one of the previously discussed name games. While youre planning for your first day of teaching French class, take the time to peruse French  lessons  as well as a guide for helping students improve their  French reading, writing, and  comprehension.