Is your household caught up in the whole ‘back-to-school’ pandemonium/excitement? Your kids, grandkids, siblings? Running around for books, uniforms, schoolbags (must be ‘cool!’), lunchboxes etc. On that note, here is a great website for school lunch ideas, some are v fancy but others put a nice twist on the staples - I heard Sushi is the new lunchbox filling craze!
A potential plus for the back-to-school season is that it often heralds the start of our ‘Indian Summer’ which will hopefully see us right through into November before we have to turn on the home heating!
This story caught our eye while putting together the newsletter intro on the 'back to school' theme, together - makes us wonder if the days of the single-sex school are coming to an end? Oh and even Enoch Burke is going back to school!
Also in August, it seems the age of impunity continues as Putin escapes blame for the death of Prigozhin and Trump’s ratings rise the more indictments he gathers. The Leaving Cert results were out. All in all a busy month for news this August.
It's nice to see some tentative first steps in the market to reduce electricity prices, let’s hope that the trend continues and is followed by the price of natural gas! Likewise, another small piece of good news for Joe Public is the long overdue deposit interest rates. Now, where else can we save money? This Guardian article from March 2023, tells us how influencer save money! Read it here!
We are delighted to see the announcement by Bord Gais Eireann of 300 new jobs including a significant number of apprenticeships – that’s a theme we take up below in our ‘Hot Topic’.
Isn’t it ironic that the better systems become, the bigger the problems they create when they go wrong? Witness the travel chaos that ensued around Europe after a three hour ‘glitch’ in one country’s (UK) Air Traffic Control system. The glitch (or were they hacked?) left thousands stranded across Europe (including me!), left airplanes in the wrong places, helpdesks overwhelmed, resulting in already disgruntled customers even more disgruntled. A three hour glitch looks set to cost over €116m and took almost three days to 'get back on track'. It's pretty impressive, how quickly things got back to normal. How would your company survive a significant IT outage?
An amusing little story caught our eye this month, normally we’re very skeptical of people taking lawsuits against companies, but the back-story of this one just tickles our funny-bone – see for yourself... here.
Pat Kenny's Newstalk interviews one of our competitors (grrrr) on the shortage of newly qualified candidates! The interview focuses solely on Big 4 ACA candidates which we (pettily) feel is missing a trick considering the apprenticeship routes also available! 21 of 25 candidates met were going overseas post qualification. Check it out at the 2hr 18min mark
We have to start with the Women’s World Cup. Congratulations to Spain. Excellent attendance & viewing numbers. It’s unfortunate that rather than focusing on skills and achievements the headlines are given to Luis Rubialies and the non renewal of Vera’s contract.
Rugby World Cup up next with Ireland going in with a real chance (albeit in the tough half of the draw – seedings done three years in advance? Big mistake!). Having given everyone a chance to shine, Ireland came away with three wins from their warm-up matches to extend their winning run to 13 (unthinkable a few short years ago!). The squad looks balanced and exciting. Headlines belong to two old warriors with Keith Earls sneaking in for his 5th world cup and poor Cian Healy missing out at the death with a calf injury – devastating.
The men’s footie is up-and-running although it’s too early to draw any conclusions, so we won’t!
Instead, check out some of the reactions from the great performances at the World Athletics Championships, by Ireland’s women,
The 4x400m relay team reaction to being 8th in the world - here
Sarah Lavin - here
Ciara Mageean - here
and the very exciting prospect, Rhasidat Adeleke - here – roll on the 2024 Olympics!!
In golf, Viktor Hovland picked up a modest $18m (yes, that’s eighteen million dollars) for winning the season finale Fedex Cup. All eyes will turn now to the Ryder Cup and the big appeal is the effort and stress the players go through with not a penny at stake – refreshing. If the Ryder Cup is a must watch for you, why not play fantasy Ryder Cup with your friends.
Max Verstappen has now won 20 of the last 24 Grand Prix and completed a 9-in-a-row in Holland, the only question that springs to mind now is; is anyone watching anymore??
Let’s start with some good news – National Cinema Day is on this weekend (2nd September), find yourself a participating cinema here and bag your €4 tickets now!
We like the look of a couple of action thrillers coming out in September starring two firm favourites here at PeopleSource. First up we have our own Michael Fassbender in The Killer which premiers at the Venice film festival next week and (presumably after a theatre release) will hit Netflix in November. Then everybody’s favourite actor, Denzel Washington returns for the third instalment of The Equalizer – we’ll be getting along to both. How much do you like/know about Denzel Washington? Take the Ultimate Denzel Washington quiz - here.
We have a New York Rose of Tralee now; cultural phenomenon or dinosaur TV? It still pulls in the viewers, that’s all we know and we love it!
The Bord Gais announcement of 300 new hires including at least 75 apprenticeships reminded us of the debate that has been raging for a few years now about the value of apprenticeships. Many people believe that there are far too many people in university pursuing degrees they have no interest in, and no real use for. How much better would it be for industry to set up a broad range of apprenticeships across a host of corporate functions – procurement, HR, sales, credit management, logistics. Here are a host of crucial business areas where many people ‘find themselves’ rather than train themselves for. Let’s get people with an interest in a diverse range of functions and train them in the workplace, backed up with targeted diplomas!
You may be very happy at work, which is great, but also you may know friends, family and maybe even colleagues who are ready to make a move, for whatever reason. Maybe suggest to them to check out the range of finance roles we’re working on at PeopleSource right now or pass on our contact details. We run a €250 Refer a Friend scheme. An initial call will often help decide if the grass could be greener or not! Contact rtubridy@peoplesource.ie.
Each month we ask our readers to answer a question for a chance to win €100 One4all voucher.
Our question for the June newsletter was:
Networking is a key part of both career and personal development, yet very few people enjoy it.
How many in-person events do you attend each month?
A. None - 72%
B. 1 - 2 - 22%
C. 3 and more - 4%
D. Other (please add comment!)
We firmly believe in the power of networking. Here's a good article on why networking should be at the core of your career!
And the winner of our voucher is – Rachel Brown – we’ll be in touch!
Our question for the August newsletter is:
Would your company face a significant struggle if the finance system failed?
A: Yes
B: No
The winner will be chosen at random and will receive €100 One4All voucher. Enter here (rtubridy@peoplesource.ie) to be in with a chance to win.
If you would like regular updates follow our LinkedIn company page - https://www.linkedin.com/company/peoplesource-ie/
PeopleSource is a specialist finance & accounting recruitment firm.
