Only in France - But Why?

One out of ten people are unemployed in France - and forty per cent of those people are considered to be 'long-term unemployed' because they have been out of work for a year or more.

So concerned is the French Government about that state of affairs that France's unemployment office recently launched a small test project designed to rebuild the confidence of the long-term unemployed. The project involves job counselling, and a lot of professional advice - not just from 'human resource specialists', but from make-up artists, hairdressers, manicurists, and image consultants.

The project is a day-long affair, and at the end of the day, participants go home, 'made over', loaded with goodies provided by the sponsors and - like anyone who has gone through a 'makeover' process - looking (and likely feeling!) a lot better for the experience.

Whether the project will ever help any of those people to get a job is moot - although a similar project designed to help 100 homeless women resulted in fifty percent of them getting jobs - but that isn't the point. The real point was more than adequately summed up by the organisers of the project, who emphasised that 'appearance isn't frivolous'.

Unfortunately, it's unlikely that you are going to get a 'makeover' courtesy of Her Majesty's Government any time soon - or, indeed, at any time at all - but you can still take note of the French message, and take it seriously.

You need to spend time on yourself whatever your circumstances - not for someone else, not to get a job, but for you. Spending time on your appearance isn't 'frivolous'.

Emily - http://www.thetherapypartnership.com/

Herbal Remedies are Going to be Licensed - But That Isn't a Good Reason to Buy Outside the UK

As of the 1st of May this year, all alternative remedies must be licensed.

That does not mean that the herbal remedies that have been on the shelves of your local health food shop for years are going to be banned or unavailable.

It simply means that as of May 1st those remedies can only be manufactured by companies that can afford to purchase a licence to produce and label them in accordance with the new guidelines, and that you will only be able to buy those remedies from outlets that are regularly supplied by those specific manufacturers.

Which, sadly, means that you may no longer be able to buy everything you want from your local healthfood store - which likely buys from smaller manufacturers who will be unable to afford to license what they produce - and will have to go elsewhere, or buy on-line.

Buying elsewhere, or buying on-line, need NOT involve shopping outside the UK or EU. Boots Herbal Stores is not going to disappear, and if you can't find what you're looking for there - try Auravita or Vega Nutritionals .

This EU Directive - like many other EU Directives - has not been thought through, and is bound to put some small businesses in the UK out of business and some people in the UK out of work, but there is no need to make bad worse by rebelling against over-regulation by ordering goods on-line from companies based in countries where there is no regulation at all.

Geoffrey - http://www.metlissbarfield.com/

The Redundancy Hub

I discovered The Redundancy Hub when the Facebook Group that's associated with it asked me to join them on Facebook. The website site says that The Redundancy Hub "... is the one stop shop site you can go to if you are facing redundancy or constructive dismissal", and it means it.

If you have been made redundant, or face the risk of redundancy, the Redundancy Hub is going to be useful to you on an emotional level as well as offering career action plans, job hunting advice, training options and - last but not least! - help with debt management.

And you can get a free 28 day redundancy action plan.

Emily - http://www.metlissbarfield.com

Is Self-Employment the Answer to Unemployment?

When we began to write this blog in 2009, we all had great hopes that we wouldn't still need to be writing it in 2011. Unfortunately, things haven't worked out that way, and when Government cuts begin to really take effect later this year large numbers of people will find themselves having to deal with unemployment and all that that entails.

Informed opinion is that a large percentage of those newly out-of-work people will look to become self-employed, and whilst I'm all for that, I also know that self-employment doesn't suit everybody, and that not everyone can make a success of being self-employed simply by using the same skills that they once used for an employer.

There has, for example, been a big fall-out of credit management staff over the last couple of years - and I've lost count of how many of those newly redundant people decided to go it alone and set up as a debt collection agency. Despite the fact that there was (and still is!) and lot of debt around to be collected, few of them lasted beyond the first few months, and for the first time ever I began to see insolvency reports relating to debt collection agencies.

If you think you might want to go it alone,Start Ups is the perfect place to get advice and help on every aspect of starting a business. There's a "Business Idea Evaluation Tool" and a lot of other free tools and resources on the site - and a section that talks about the sort of personality that has what it takes to go it alone!

Posted by Geoffrey Metliss - http://www.metlissbarfield.com