UK News

Royal Mail is offering out 1,000 apprenticeships – here’s how to apply

The postal service's initiative is one of the largest single apprenticeship programmes in the UK.

Emily Sergeant Emily Sergeant - 24th June 2021

Royal Mail has announced it is to offer out 1,000 apprenticeships for those keen to become posties across the UK.

As part of the service’s new Postal Apprenticeship Scheme – which is designed to provide participants not only with the required skills for a successful career within Royal Mail, but with a broad range of lasting transferable skills and experience – successful candidates will achieve a Level 2 certification.

While Royal Mail has been running an apprenticeship schemes in other sectors of the service for a good few years now, this new initiative is one of the largest single apprenticeship programmes in the UK.

It comes after the former Postal Cadet Scheme ceased in 1996 – which started the careers of many senior Royal Mail employees.

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Speaking on the launch of the new scheme, Ricky McAulay – Operations Development Director at Royal Mail – said: “We couldn’t be prouder to launch our Postal Apprenticeship Scheme at a time when the pandemic continues to take a heavy toll on career opportunities across the country.

“We’ve placed a real emphasis on ensuring that our scheme has a range of transferable skills so that successful candidates can take what they learn with them for the rest of their careers.”

Keen to find out a little more about the job and what successful applicants will be getting up to?

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Here’s everything you need to know.

What does the apprenticeship entail?

Areas such as customer services, industry knowledge, and lessons in financial budgeting, and health and wellbeing will all be covered in the new Postal Apprenticeship Scheme.

The role will consist of day-to-day duties as a delivery postie, with additional time spent completing learning towards the apprenticeship. 80% of the apprenticeship will take the form of on-the-job training, with the remaining 20% being online learning towards their Level 2 apprenticeship certification.

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What is the application process like?

As part of the application process, those who are shortlisted will have to complete a ‘Situational Judgement Test’, a virtual interview, and will be invited to meet their line manager at the unit where they’ll work.

Applicants who successfully complete the scheme will be offered a permanent role at Royal Mail.

The scheme teaches the required skills for a successful career within Royal Mail / Credit: Royal Mail

What support will I receive?

Apprentices will receive extensive training, local support from their line manager, a designated workplace coach, and a mentor to support their career progression.

Are applications open?

Applications for the Postal Apprenticeship Scheme open on Monday 28 June, and the recruitment programme will run from September 2021, with the initial cohort of 500 apprentices starting then.

Up to a further 500 roles will then be allocated across the business from in the new year.

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In total, Royal Mail is expecting the recruitment process to take up to 13 months, and you can submit your application via the Early Careers section on the Royal Mail website here.

Featured Image – Royal Mail

UK News

Government ditches menu calorie counts after just five months

Georgina Pellant Georgina Pellant

In April calorie labelling on menus became a legal requirement for restaurant groups employing over 250 staff in the UK, but now the government could be looking to drop them altogether.

Under the orders of the Treasury, government ministers have ordered an official review of its anti-obesity strategy. As a result, menu calorie counts could now be scrapped as part of a ‘drive to cut red tape’, reports The Guardian.

First introduced on April 6, new rules currently require larger hospitality businesses to display calorie counts ‘clearly and prominently’ along with the statement ‘adults need around 2000kcal a day’.

But now a new review, described by Whitehall sources as “deregulatory  in focus”, could see the policy ditched entirely, meaning many cafes, takeaways and restaurants thart have invested in printing new menus will now likely find them redundant.

When calorie labelling came into force, it was widely criticised by eating disorder charities, restauranteurs, chefs and food critics alike.

Then Public Health Minister Jo Churchill, said at the time: “Our aim is to make it as easy as possible for people to make healthier food choices for themselves and their families, both in restaurants and at home. That is why we want to make sure everyone has access to accurate information about the food and drink we order.

“These measures form an important building block in our strategy to support and encourage people in achieving and maintaining a healthier weight.”

Masterchef winner Simon Wood, who has a restaurant on First Street, appeared on TV the morning the legislation was introduced to speak out against it.

Speaking on BBC Breakfast, the Oldham-based chef said that although the rules didn’t currently apply to him, he wouldn’t consider following suit unless forced.

He told viewers: “Sometimes given the current situation with hospitality and the supply chain things aren’t there, you have to adapt your menu on the fly, what are you going to do? Rewrite it every day? 

“What if things don’t turn up? What if you’re making a sauce and you need four bottles of wine but you’ve only got two?

“What if someone adds too much salt, sodium, things like that that aren’t considered in calories, I think there’s a bigger approach to what people should be looking at than just a number.”

A week later, Manchester restaurant Dishoom made headlines for scribbling calories off its menu at a customer’s request. Soon after, it added a calorie free option.

Many others have since followed suit, suggesting the move to ditch calorie labelling could prove popular with business owners.

Read more: ‘Until I’m forced to do it, I wouldn’t’ says Simon Wood as calorie counts added to UK menus

However, the review may also look to ditch the 2018 sugar tax, a measure hailed by experts for helping to make soft drinks less unhealthy.

It is also likely to reverse bans on displaying sugary products at checkouts and multi-buy deals, as well as scrap restrictions on advertising before the 9pm watershed.

Health officials are said to be ‘aghast’ at the idea that the new Prime Minister could potentially scrap the new anti-obesity strategies, which were agreed upon and approved by parliament just this year.

The Obesity Health Alliance, a grouping of 50 health charities and medical organisations, has described it as “a kick in the teeth”.

“We are deeply concerned. It would be reckless to waste government and business time and money rowing back on these obesity policies, which are evidence-based and already in law. These policies are popular with the public, who want it to be easier to make healthier choices,” Katharine Jenner, the alliance’s director, told The Guardian.

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Read more: Manchester restaurant Dishoom scribbles calories off menu at customer’s request

There has also been criticism of the move from within the Conservative party, with one Tory peer telling the paper: “Improving the nation’s health is one of the best ways we can increase productivity and workforce capacity and thereby drive growth. So I would be very surprised by any decisions that actually strive to make the UK less healthy.”

Liz Truss said in a recent newspaper interview: “Those taxes are over.

“Talking about whether or not somebody should buy a two-for-one offer? No. There is definitely enough of that.”

She added Brits “don’t want the government telling them what to eat”.

Feature image – Dishoom

UK News

Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng wants to scrap the cap on bankers’ bonuses

Georgina Pellant Georgina Pellant

The new UK chancellor may have only been in post for ten days, but he’s already causing a stir in the Treasury – first by sacking the department’s top civil servant of thirty years, and now by ditching the cap on banker’s bonuses.

Kwasi Kwarteng, appointed to the position by Liz Truss on 6 September, is said to be considering scrapping the cap on banker’s bonuses in a bid to make the City of London ‘more globally competitive’, reports The Huffington Post.

The cap, introduced in 2014, limits the amount bankers can receive in bonuses to twice their annual salary. So under the current rules, a banker on £165,000 would be able to take home up to £330,000 in bonuses on top of their annual salary.

Prior to the EU’s introduction of the cap, bankers were more likely to take large risks like those which led to the financial crash of 2008 (and a subsequent £500 billion UK taxpayer bailout for those banks considered ‘too big to fail’).

Read more: King Charles III won’t pay 40% inheritance tax on £641 million estate

Considering the government has been advising pay restraint in the public and private sector as essential for tackling inflation, currently at 9.9% according to The Consumer Prices Index, the move is likely to prove unpopular with voters.

Still, the desire to ditch the cap is not new. The Conservative party has been opposed to the policy from the start, with George Osborne attempting to overturn it at the European court of justice when it was first introduced.

According to the Financial Times, Kwarteng has told City bosses: “We need to be decisive and do things differently.”

Read more: Drivers could soon be hit with £70 fines at these seven Manchester junctions

He is expected to reveal a mini-Budget in parliament next week following the national period of mourning for the Queen, in which he will confirm the government is also scrapping the rise in national insurance payments introduced to support the NHS, and ditching plans to increase corporation tax.

Feature image – Flickr / Wikimedia Commons

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