Quest Professional urges Government to relax employment laws to get young people back to work

Feb. 15, 2012 - PRLog -- Leading business training centre, Quest Professional, has urged the Government to relax the stringent employment laws in order to get more young people back to work.

The latest UK unemployment figures rose by 48,000 in the three months to December to 2.67 million, with the number of young people without a job rising to 1.04 million, taking the unemployment rate for 16 to 24-year-olds to 22.2%.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said the unemployment rate increased to 8.4% which stands at a 16 year high, the worst figures since the end of 1995.

Quest Professional Managing Director, Sean Morgan said: “Current employment legislation makes it very scary for small businesses to employ people when otherwise they would simply love to. Employment law is far too complicated and too intimidating and the liabilities are too great. It is easier not to bother employing someone and do the work yourself or simply go without, which also makes it hard for smaller businesses to expand.

“At present there are a number of major hurdles small businesses or sole traders face, including unfair dismissal, maternity leave and discrimination laws. The government claims to be addressing unfair dismissal but it could be up to a year before we see an effect on unemployment rates.

“There are many hundreds of thousands of jobs potentially available if the law were less intimidating for employers. I am sure many would prefer the prospect of having reduced employment rights in exchange for having a job at all. This could change immediately and be reflected in the statistics in six months time.”

Quest Professional runs a range of business courses for young people that offer a complete range of business and personal development skills. Their courses ensure that candidates can undertake a variety of roles, which is so vitally important in the competitive jobs market.

Quest Professional has also recently launched an in-house recruitment consultancy which liaises with large and small businesses, providing tailor-made recruitment services for Quest alumni.
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NOTES TO EDITORS

The brands that underpin Quest have existed since 1912. Originally Queen’s Secretarial College, Quest Professional combines the former well-known businesses of Queen’s Secretarial College, Lucie Clayton, and St James’s and provides tailored training in skills for the modern business environment with an updated and progressive coaching and development approach.

Quest Professional offers a mixture of courses based on terms of up to 36 weeks, focused on the development of essential business skills. In the current environment of increased university fees, employer concern over the quality and relevance of some degrees in the business world, it is seen increasingly as a positive choice to university.

Quest Professional also has specific courses aimed at those who have graduated and are looking for business training following the completion of their degree. It is seen as the first step into committing to a career and taking life more seriously.

Quest Professional assists its graduates on completion of their course through its placement service to find employment in a world where there is fierce competition for jobs. Its reputation with employers in the business and professional job market greatly assist its graduates to gain employment following the completion of their course.

Quest Professional Managing Director Sean Morgan joined BE Limited in 2010, a group within the education sector whose businesses include Quest Professional and the Frances King School of English.

He provides strategic guidance for Quest and also works directly with Quest Professional apprentices on self awareness programmes, career development and explaining the workings of finance.

Quest Professional Director Jo Barnard started working for Sight & Sound Education Ltd in the late 1980s and quickly moved into contract business development for large public sector programmes.

She joined Lucie Clayton in 1997 and played an instrumental role in the merger with St James’s in 2003 and the subsequent sale and merger with Queen’s in 2006 which resulted in the formation of Quest. She was appointed Director of Quest in March 2010.
Quest has a superb record of placing its apprentices in jobs at blue chip companies including PricewaterhouseCoopers, Morgan Stanley, Grant Thornton, Nomura, Goldman Sachs, the Royal Bank of Scotland LK Bennett, and Christian Dior.

For more information, please visit www.questprofessional.co.uk
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