Pitman Training have called on graduates to embrace a unique opportunity to participate on the National Internship Scheme whilst gaining highly practical, employer-friendly skills through flexible training programmes.

Pitman Training have come out in firm support of the new National Internship Scheme, and are encouraging graduates to take the unique opportunity the programme presents to gain valuable experience. The nationwide training organisation recently called on the government to support and encourage more practical training programmes that can deliver the real skills they claim employers are still finding difficult to find. The organisation are now advising participants of the Internship Scheme to also take a closer look at their skills, not just the qualifications, gained from college.

Spokesperson for Pitman Training in Ireland, Tomás Finneran, explained the benefits of taking this approach. “Many of those who are considering taking up a position with a company through the National Internship Scheme are forgetting to use their time on the programme to maximise their employability.”

“Employers will make their decision to hire based on three key areas: Attitude, Experience and Skills. Presuming you have the right attitude, and that the Internship will deliver six to nine months relevant industry experience, the obvious gap remains. Employers are crying out for highly practical and productive skills from their new recruits. Centres such as Pitman Training have a range of relevant courses which are run in part-time, full-time and flexible formats that allow individuals to train and gain these skills.”

The economic downturn has resulted in reduced opportunities for employment, and the team at Pitman Training centres located at the Genesis Business College centres in Carlow, Gorey, Kilkenny and Wexford are working closely with those looking to up-skill to help them find employment through training programmes, job seeking skills, as well as CV and Interview skills support.

Sandra Killeen, Senior Course Advisor at the centres explained how choosing the right training course is critical, “We are telling our students that their aim should always be to get their CV to the top of the pile. It’s true that employers are being bombarded with applications as soon as they advertise a vacancy. However, this shouldn’t mean there is less of a chance of getting called for an interview.”

“The vast majority of applicants lack the relevant skills and experience to compose appropriate and effective job applications. We work closely with every student to ensure they get the exact skills employers need whilst providing coaching in job-seeking skills, so that their applications are flawless. Over 69% of our 2010 graduates found employment after finishing their course - that’s higher than any other training institution in Ireland!”

 Over 1,100 students trained at Pitman Training Centres in Ireland last year, and they have delivered some of the most impressive employment statistics in Ireland for their graduates.

 Sandra highlighted the success that Pitman Training has had in the South EAst. “Since opening our first centre in 2001, we have demonstrated that when individuals have the skills employers want, the jobs are there. Employers are calling our centres every week looking for students who can hit the ground running. Good computer skills, the latest Microsoft packages, Irish-specific bookkeeping, Medical Secretary skills - these are the types of skills that local employers still need. Remember, to compete for these jobs, job-seekers need those practical, employer-friendly skills.”

 Pitman Training are currently enrolling for their September training programmes. Over 100 courses are available in Microsoft Office, Administration, Secretarial, Web-Design, Accounts and Business IT as well as a comprehensive range of IT professional training programmes. For more information or to secure your place, contact your local centre in the South EAst at 1800 532632 or online at www.pitman-training.ie

 About Pitman Training

 The Pitman Training name has been synonymous with quality training for generations starting out with one shorthand school in 1870. Today, Pitman Training is unique in being not only the oldest and longest running independent training organisation, but also for having one of the largest networks of training centres in the world. There are more than 100 Pitman Training Centres all over the UK, Ireland and the Middle East, training over 50,000 people every year.

 In fact, Pitman Training is now the largest independent training network in Ireland offering local solutions to businesses and individuals alike. The organisation offers a choice of training options including full and part-time courses both at their centre and from home using their unique home-study system.

 There are currently 15 Pitman Training centres across Ireland; in Dublin and in towns such as Dundalk, Galway, Gorey, Mullingar, Sligo, Kilkenny, Cork and Wexford. In 1992, Pitman Training launched a programme to expand its training network given the demand for highly practical career-based skills, a sector that the Institutes of Technology and Universities were struggling to address. Since then, Pitman Training has grown steadily to a network of over 100 locations throughout Ireland and the UK. The first Pitman Training Centre in Ireland opened its doors in Dublin in 1994.

 As well as an ever-expanding range of courses for business, ICT and professionals, Pitman Training have developed their services further having gained FETAC accreditation for Quality Assured programme delivery. Another expanding market for Pitman Training is the move towards online and home-study training with more and more Pitman Training courses available online. Training Centres can therefore continue to deliver courses to individuals no matter where they are located.

About National Internship Scheme

 JobBridge is a new National Internship Scheme that will provide work experience placements for interns for a 6 or 9 month period.

 The aim of the National Internship Scheme is to assist in breaking the cycle where jobseekers are unable to get a job without experience, either as new entrants to the labour market after education or training or as unemployed workers wishing to learn new skills. The scheme will also give people a real opportunity to gain valuable experience to bridge the gap between study and the beginning of their working lives.

 The scheme will provide for up to 5,000 work experience placements in the private, public and voluntary sectors. This will be a time-limited scheme. Interns will receive an allowance of €50 per week on top of their existing social welfare entitlement. This will be payable for the period of the internship.

The following are details of the Budget Statement of 7 December 2010, as made by the Minister for Finance.

2.1 Income Tax

2.11 Tax Credits

The tables below outline the position for 2010.

Marginal Rate Reliefs

 Standard Rated Reliefs

(Allowed at 20% rate band)

 Trade Union Subscriptions

Relief for trade union subscriptions paid is being abolished for 2011 and subsequent years.

Service Charges

Relief on service charges remains unchanged. A maximum of €400 tax relief is granted (at 20% tax rate) in 2011 for service charges paid in the year 2010. This relief is being abolished for tax year 2010 and subsequent years.

Rent Tax Relief

Relief for rent credit will be withdrawn on a phased basis over the next 7 years by reducing the amount of rent that can be relieved at the standard rate of income tax as indicated in the following table.

Claimants who were not renting at 7 December 2010 and who subsequently enter into a rental agreement will not be able to claim relief.
2.12 Tax Rates and Tax Bands

The tax rates remain unchanged at 20% (standard rate) and 41% (higher rate).

The table below sets out the tax rates and bands.

Exemption Limits

There is no change to the exemption limits for persons aged 65 years and over:

Marginal Relief may apply, subject to an income limit of twice the relevant exemption limit.

The above exemption limits are increased by €575 for each of the first two dependent children and by €830 for the third and subsequent children.

Tax Relief at Source - Mortgage Interest Relief

The measures announced in Budget 2010 are unchanged:

Qualifying loans taken out before 1 July 2011 will continue to get relief for 7 years. Transitional measures will be provided for qualifying loans taken out between 1 July 2011 and the end of 2013.

Those whose entitlement to relief would, in the absence of this change, expire in 2010 or after, will continue to qualify for relief at the applicable rate up until the end of 2017. The relief will be abolished completely by the end of 2017.
2.13 Levies

UNIVERSAL SOCIAL CHARGE (USC)

The Universal Social Charge (USC), which comes into effect on 1 January 2011, is a tax payable on gross income, including notional pay, after any relief for certain capital allowances, but before pension contributions.

All individuals are liable to pay the Universal Social Charge if their gross income exceeds the threshold of €4004 per annum (€77 per week).

The rates and thresholds of the Universal Social Charge are as follows:

The Income Levy and Health Levy are abolished with effect from 1 January 2011.

The Health Levy used to be part of the PRSI calculations.

Significant PRSI changes were announced in the December 2010 Budget. The following changes are effective from 1 January 2011:

•·         The employee PRSI ceiling of €75,036 is abolished. Employee PRSI is now payable (where appropriate) on all income

•·         The threshold for employee PRSI remains at €352 a week.

•·         Office holders will pay PRSI at a rate of 4% on all income, where their income is over €5,200 per annum. They should be returned at Class K.

•·         IMPORTANT: People with a nil liability, such as persons in receipt of occupational pensions should be returned at Class M.

•·         The Health Contribution has been abolished and will now be part of Universal Service Charge.

•·         In 2011, some subclasses (For example: AL and A1) feature identical rates. This reflects the removal of the Health Contribution charge from certain subclasses.

•·         As a result of this change, other subclasses, such as,A2, B2, C2, D2, H2, J2 and S2 no longer exist but they have been retained so that significant changes to payroll systems are not required in moving from 2010 to 2011.

•·         No need to change the PRSI subclass to account for the abolition of the Health Contribution. For example, those paying Subclass A1 in 2010 will continue to pay Subclass A1 in 2011 (assuming their wages remain the same).

•·         PRSI Classes B, C and D will pay PRSI at 0.9% below €1,443 per week and 4% above €1,443 per week.

•·         The Class S rate has increased from 3% to 4% and is payable only on annual income of €5,000 (previously applied to annual income of €3,174 or more). The minimum annual contribution for Class S remains at €253.

Employee PRSI on pension contributions

From 1 January 2011, employee contributions to occupational pension schemes and other pension arrangements will no longer be exempt from employee PRSI. Such contributions will also be subject to the Universal Social Charge which comes into effect on 1 January 2011.

Employers have to pay employer contributions in respect of half of these payments from Jan 1^st 2011.

Civil and public servants will pay PRSI on the ‘Pension levy’ portion of their salaries.

Employer PRSI on pension contributions

Employer contributions to occupational pension schemes and other pension arrangements are exempt from employer PRSI which would otherwise apply at a rate of 10.75%.

Civil and public service employers do not have to pay any employer PRSI on the

‘Pension levy’.

Employee’s PRSI-Free Allowance

The PRSI-Free Allowance for employees in Classes A and H with weekly earnings of more than €352 remains at €127 a week and at €26 a week for all employees in Classes B, C and D.

For employees paid other than weekly, alternatives to the PRSI-Free Allowance are:

• New Year’s Day (1 January)
• St. Patrick’s Day (17 March)
• Easter Monday
• First Monday in May, June, August
• Last Monday in October
• Christmas Day (25 December)
• St. Stephen’s Day (26 December)

Good Friday is not a public holiday. While some schools and businesses close on that day, you have no automatic entitlement to time off work on that day.

Rules

Your entitlement to public holidays is set out in the Organisation of Working Time Act 1997. Most employees are entitled to paid leave on public holidays. One exception is part-time employees who have not worked for their employer at least 40 hours in total in the 5 weeks before the public holiday.

Employees who qualify will be entitled to either the public holiday off as paid leave or one of the following alternatives:

• A paid day off within a month of the public holiday
• An additional day of annual leave
• An additional day’s pay
• The nearest church holiday to the public holiday as a paid day off

The Organisation of Working Time Act provides that you may ask your employer at least 21 days before a public holiday, which of the alternatives will apply. If your employer fails to respond at least 14 days before the public holiday, you are entitled to take the actual public holiday as a paid day off.

Part-time employees

If you have worked for your employer at least 40 hours in the 5 weeks before the public holiday and you are due to work on a public holiday you are entitled to that day off as paid leave or one of the alternatives as listed above. If you are not required to work on that particular day you should receive one-fifth of your weekly pay instead of the actual day’s leave. Even if you may never be rostered to work on a public holiday you are entitled to one-fifth of your weekly pay as compensation for the public holiday.

You can find out more about public holidays in this explanatory booklet on holidays and public holidays (pdf) or from the Information Services of the National Employment Rights Authority.

Most importantly everyone have a safe break over the holiday period.

Week 53 occurs in a weekly payroll when there are 53 pay days in the tax year. There are normally 52 pay periods in a weekly payroll, but in some years the dates fall in a way that gives rise to an ‘extra’ pay period’.

An extra pay period can also occur in fortnightly and four-weekly pay frequencies:

Fortnightly payrolls normally have 26 pay periods, but can occasionally have 27.

Four-weekly payrolls normally have 13 pay periods, but can occasionally have 14.

Employees are entitled to tax credits for the extra pay period, but only on a Week 1 basis.

This means that the employee receives more than the year’s total tax credits. The Inspector of Taxes will take this into consideration when issuing the next year’s tax credits.

An employee receives an insurance week for the extra pay period only if they have not already received the maximum 52 insurance weeks. You need to enter this insurance week in the Timesheet Entry screen if necessary.

Q. Do I have an extra pay period?

After you have fully completed Week 52 (or Fortnight 26, or Four-Weekly Period 13), check the date on which the next payday occurs.

If the next payday falls on the 31st December, you have an extra pay period.

If the next payday occurs on or after the 1st January, you DO NOT have an extra pay period. This pay period must be processed as Period 1 of the new tax year.

Incorrect processing of an extra pay period may result in inaccurate returns for that tax year.

Only the date of payment (not the date of work) determines whether a pay period is ’extra’ in the current year. So if you have a pay date of 03/01/2011, this must be processed as Period 1 of 2011, regardless of when the actual work for this period was done.

Q. Should I run a week 53 over the christmas period?

Generally, the answer to this question is ’No’. You only run a Week 53 when there is an extra pay period to be processed in the tax year, regardless of any other circumstances.

Q. My employees are on holiday over the Christmas period. Should I run a Week 53 to ensure they get their holiday pay before their holiday begins?

If the pay date for the holiday week falls in January rather than December, the holiday week is not an extra pay period, and must be processed as a normal week in period 1 of the new tax year.

If Week 1 of the new year is a holiday week, and you still want to pay your employees for this week in advance of their holidays, carry out the following steps:

· complete the current tax year

· run the Payroll Year End in full

· set Period 1 of the new year

This can be done at any time after you have installed the Payroll Year End Update.

Basically companies have spent their reserves in order to survive the down turn! Now they are faced with the same cashflow and debt collection issues but no longer have reserves to fall back on. Revenue has proved to be very agreeable with many companies in trouble; they have negotiated and agreed workable payment plans. So why are County Councils and Banks not following suit?

Most companies I have spoken to are not against the concept of Commercial Rates, we all have to make a contribution to the local economy, there may be a separate argument and debate for a reduction in the rate but the most important point is that payment plans need to be put in place. County Councils should put a three year plan in place where a monthly payment would result in accounts being brought up to date at the end of the three year period.

Companies do not have reserves, banks are not willing to extend overdrafts and non core Irish banks in particular are putting the pressure for companies to pay full capital on loans despite the fact that it drains cashflow and puts recovery and jobs at risk!!

Companies can survive and recover but not unless we all work together ….they cannot survive a big squeeze! There is no point in County Councils bringing people to court for money they don’t have! Think of the Jobs! The government also need to establish some organisation to police the banks. We had one employee due to start with us for a 20 hour a week contract, the morning she was due to start she said she couldn’t as the bank would end her current mortgage moratorium and insist on her paying full capital and interest, she couldn’t afford the job, where is the sense in that? The system is broke! People should not loose their homes if they can afford to pay the interest and they should not be refusing a job because of their mortgage.

Our HR and Employment law Course is designed for anyone who either have an interest in or are already embracing a Human Resources role in the workplace. It is intended to equip candidates with an understanding of the industry techniques and trends in Human Resources Management as well as an understanding of the relevant Irish Employment Legislation. It is an 18 week course run 1 night a week. Students who previously undertook the course found that it helped them in their current career or enhanced their job prospects in these current challenging times. Jelena Milailuka was one of these students and this is what she had to say -

 ‘Genesis Business College opened many doors for me. Not only did I learn the skills to make myself successful in the work place, but I also experienced an amazing support from tutors and staff in Wexford Centre. Genesis Business College gave me the flexibility I needed by offering night time courses. That helped me gain qualification I needed without interfering with my job. I always recommend Genesis Business College to people I meet, and suggest that they should continue their education..’ Jelena Milailuka

This course is available in all centres (subject to numbers)

Our Supervision in Childcare Fetac Level 6 course offers students who are looking to gain qualifications and knowledge in childcare a comprehensive listing of childcare modules. Whether working within a private or commercial sector this course will enable students to gain theory, practical and legal aspects of training within a childcare environment. This course is run over an 18 month period. The four Core subjects are done over 22 weeks at 2 nights per week .  Electives are delivered as flexible learning options and students have 18 months in total to complete the entire course. Presently the course is only available from our Wexford Centre but we do hope to roll it out over other centre’s subject to demand.

These are only but a few of the courses that will be offering for 2011. Why not call Genesis Business College and see how we can help get you ahead of the rest in these challenging times where the more you can offer to prospective employers the better your chances of securing that all important interview.

“Learning is a treasure that will follow its owner everywhere.”
-Chinese Proverb

Many Payroll professionals are now seeing the benefits of continuing professional development to keep up with the news and legislation in the payroll sector.

Employers need their payroll department to be up to date on the latest developments in law and practice and as such many payroll professionals attend at least one industry update course each year. Examples in the last number of years include the introduction of the income levy, car-parking levy plus the emergency budget in 2009.   

For those looking to enter a career in Payroll, gaining payroll qualifications can help to establish you career. There are a wide range of payroll courses available for you to take. Make sure that the course that you chose is one that will provide you with a recognised payroll qualification, and provides you with course content and useful materials to support your training.

In the first instance, new Payroll workers may require intensive courses to cover all that they need to know with regard to Payroll legislation and practices. However, once you are trained in payroll practices attending conferences and seminars along with a continuing professional development plan will be enough to keep you up to date.

Check out our prospectus or come along to our Wexford Opening evening on September 1^st from 4pm until 9pm , Kilkenny Sept 9^th from 5pm to 9pm ,and I’m sure you will find the course for you that will see off those long dark winter nights.

 Go on, there is a world of knowledge out there waiting for you.

 Well Fantastic news the results overall here at Genesis Business College have been outstanding again this year. The phones here today have been ringing with all your good news stories. Not that we are surprised as you all worked really hard this year .

Congratulations to all, everyone at Genesis Business College is very proud of you all.

Can’t wait to see you all in September to do it all again…….

The vast majority of jobs nowadays require some level of computer skills so it is important that you are computer literate.  This includes keyboard skills as very often people get hung up about   become ‘expert’ in some computer package but forget about the fact that their typing skills will slow down their ability to use the computer package effectively.  

From our perspective whilst there has been a massive slowdown in new employment offers, some skills are still more valuable than others. Computer literacy skills are a must as a foundation level skill. We have found that demand for Accounting skills be in the form of computerised accounts skills such as Sage Accounts or the Accounting Technician (IATI) or the ACCA CAT or Certified Public Accountants (CPA) qualifications has not been affected as much. Why is this? Simply companies out there need to keep a much closer eye on their internal counts and cash flow. Gone are the days when many small businesses relied on the bank statements to tell them how well they are doing. The need to have up-to-date key management information including key performance indicatiors from an accounting perspective has never been more important as companies need to know quickly how well or badly they are doing and react accordingly. Companies that don’t do this may simply not survive.

Another area which is somewhat protected is the role of Medical Secretary.  Again, you may well ask why that is. We still get sick and need the services of Medical Professionals. Whilst we might be cutting back on going out and not spending as much, medical expense fall into the essential spend category. Whilst the HSE has a recruitment ban in some areas, the need for professional Medical Secretaries is still there on a contract or part-time basis. This explains the continuing high demand for graduates of the Pitman Training Medical Secretarial Diploma course.

Hopefully, the thoughts above may be of interest to you. Feel free to give any feedback..