The government, TUC, CBI, and two umbrella organisations for the voluntary sector have signed an agreement (PDF format, 238KB) that aims to increase access to skills, trade unions and advice, for employees working under government contracts.

An interesting post from Steve Roesler at All Things Workplace discusses how to prompt behavioural change in "exceedingly intelligent" employees who are vital to an organisation's success but who are "stunted" in some way, lacking key social or leadership skills.

Parents of children up to age 16 are to be given the right to request flexible working from their employer, potentially affecting 4.5 million employees. And under a separate, Education and Skills Bill, all employees will be given the right to request time to train.

Our recent survey (subscription required) looking at line managers’ role in people management shows that employee engagement is a growing part of a line manager’s function.

But, as our survey also shows, one in five HR practitioners responding felt that this was a role that line managers struggle to perform well.

I attended a seminar recently, given by international employee opinion survey ORC (external link), exploring this very topic. Kate Pritchard, ORC director of employee research, discussed practical steps organisations can take to keep engagement levels high among employees. This should help employees to remain committed to the organisation, and be prepared to “go that extra mile” – as outlined by ORC's model of engagement: ‘Say, stay, and strive’.

One thing was clear from the seminar: achieving and sustaining an engaged workforce requires effort, and conducting an employee opinion survey can be no more than a starting point.

It is not really surprising that over half the organisations in the latest CIPD learning and development survey admit to being unmoved by the government’s “post-Leitch skills agenda”. The government has focused its efforts on the development of the most basic skills in the workplace, whereas most employers (87% in the CIPD survey) are of the opinion (surprise, surprise) that they should not be the ones responsible for educating young people up to a decent standard of literacy and numeracy.

Throughout March, issues on which XpertHR subscribers were looking for answers included the use of words such as "senior" and "junior" in job titles, recouping training costs where an employee subsequently leaves the organisation, and the difference between wrongful dismissal and unfair dismissal.

The shambles of Heathrow Terminal 5’s first few days will doubtless crop up in every change management training programme for years to come.

By all accounts, staff were expected to move into the massive new building with little real idea how to find their way round, let alone how to operate the complex and sophisticated new equipment within it.

So it's farewell to the Learning and Skills Council, which got the news today that it had apparently been dreading for some time: it's going to be abolished.

Employers across Europe are missing out on potential talent because line managers fail to engage poorer performing employees, according to a survey by Watson Wyatt.

The research, which covers 175 companies and 5,500 employees, finds that managers are far too preoccupied with top performers and fail to communicate effectively with those that show less promise. As a result, those that need to have their skills or motivation boosted are left high and dry.

I like a good country walk and was therefore intrigued to see that the Campaign for Learning recommends this outdoor activity – during the lunch break – as a “quick win” learning opportunity for the 2008 National Learning at Work Day.

It’s certainly a cheap option for employers and would help train staff to … well, to get out of the office..

There can also be a competitive aspect to this activity. If the training department’s budget can stretch to include the cost of pedometers, businesses can “challenge colleagues to walk the most steps in a day”.

Teambuilding events have come a long way since the era when they basically involved compulsory paintballing or spending the day up to your waist in cold water attempting for no adequately explained reason to cross a river without the aid of a bridge.

Are you keen to learn how other employers are tackling the issue of workplace training?

Talent management is a hot issue for HR practitioners as new business models, changing labour market demographics and international competition make the task of recruiting, developing and retaining key employees all the more difficult.

Does vocational training dampen the ambitions of schoolchildren? According to a representative from the National Union of Teachers (NUT) it does.

We've all come across the skills gap. But research published today suggests there may also be something of a talent shortage as well.

The survey of more than 600 employers by Capital Consulting and Cranfield School of Management found that just over half thought the word "talent" could be applied to their whole workforce, and that some rather alarmingly thought that no-one in their organisation qualified.

Looks like all those stories we hear from Unison, about local government employees being increasingly fed up with the way they are treated at work, may be true.

During a telephone interview for a case study, soon to be published in Employment Review, an innovating Training and Recruitment manager told me that one of the pilot courses he and his team were asked to run last year was on anger management. 'I was a bit dubious when I got the request' he told me, 'but within two hours of advertising it on the Council's intranet we had 30 people sign up.'

So the next time you decide to wag your finger disapprovingly in the face of a local official, just think twice.