Research-academy.co.uk is offering both face-to-face and online courses for the Market Research Society (MRS) Advanced Certificate and MRS Diploma in Market and Social Research.

The UK has the second largest research market on the planet, with many of the jobs in London. This makes it a highly competitive market to find work in. Head of research at eBay Europe, Barbara Langer, says that in order to succeed training is key.

“Making the right decision about which approaches offer the best insight can be a challenge for researchers, both agency-side and client-side. Good training and qualifications are thus ever more essential for researchers”, she explained.

The new academy aims to plug the knowledge gap by offering MRS accredited courses.

“MRS is delighted to welcome a new high-quality provider of tuition for the MRS Advanced Certificate and Diploma,” said MRS Chief Operating Officer, Deborah Harding.

“We are confident that the Research Academy’s high standards…will help students become astute researchers who can apply evidence to business problems,” she added.

According to mrs.org.uk, the society has members in more than 60 different countries and represents 80 per cent of all research agencies.

According to the latest ‘Commercial Consumer Barometer’ from high street bank Lloyds, job prospects took a positive turn in May, with the overall employment confident indicator growing by four points. This was made up of a two point rise in optimism and a two point drop in pessimism.

Job security, meanwhile, continued at its three year high, although the number of respondents expecting interest to rise next year fell by two points.

Regionally, it was the South East which proved most popular, thanks to an increase of jobs in London, as well as other recruitment hotspots such as Brighton. Conversely, cityam.com claims, the north east, Wales and Yorkshire reported some of the worst figures, as the ever-present North-South divide proved to be largely unchanged. Despite the poor recruitment levels, however, Wales and the North East had the best levels of job security, as those who manage to find jobs reported remaining comfortable and confident within them.

Lloyds’s barometer saw 2,000 respondents for their opinions on job security and prospects over the coming year. It aims to discovered whether conditions have improved, not changed or declined in the past 12 months, whilst also garnering anticipation of upcoming spending and interest rates.

Commuting is a big part of working in the capital, as many people will attest. However, those with jobs in London could in the near future see the name of their favourite stations change, should TfL adopt the suggestions made in a new report.  

Devised by the Conservative London Assembly, the report claims that by sponsoring parts of the network, TfL could not only earn lots of money, but this money could be used to keep fares fixed for several years and fund infrastructure works.

The ‘Untapped Resource: Bearing Down of Fares Through Sponsorship’ report claimed that 82 per cent of those travelling across the network were in support of some sponsorship if it meant that fares would not rise.

Report author, Gareth Bacon said: “We have the potential to command tens, if not hundreds of millions of pounds through sponsorship deals on stations, lines, trains and bus routes.

“Sponsorship is already used on metro systems across the [world] in places like Madrid, Dubai and New York. TfL must follow in these footsteps if London’s transport network is to remain one of the best, too.”

Commuters could possibly see their routes changed to incorporate ‘Burberry by Bond Street’ or ‘Virgin Euston’, the report suggested. 

TfL doesn’t seem so keen, according to ft.com. Director of commercial development, Graeme Craig, said that he thought even the sponsors would be reluctant to change the names of stations which have been in existence for many years. He thought the idea “is in danger of looking tacky”. 

The results show that the sector is now the most popular with people trying to get into the industry through an apprenticeship. The figures were released by The National Apprenticeship Service (NAS) today. In total, a record number of apprenticeship applications were made, with 370,000 being submitted over the three months.

Talking about the findings, skills minister Matthew Hancock, told hrmagazine.co.uk that many students were preferring the route of an apprenticeship in order to get jobs in London and the rest of the UK, rather than studying for a university degree.

He said: “With more vacancies than ever before, apprenticeships are fast becoming the norm for young people who want to achieve their career goals through an alternative route to university.”

Mr Hancock continued: “We want more employers to take advantage of the advice and support available from the NAS and consider how hiring an apprentice could benefit their business.”

David Way, executive director of the NAS also said that the figures show the popularity of apprenticeships are rising in a greater range of occupations that ever before, according to bbc.co.uk.

According to report by Trademark Productions, 65 per cent of these employers are looking to find out whether the candidates are professional, while others are looking to see if they would fit with the company. Social media vetting is happening across a range of industries from low paid positions to professional jobs in London.  

Social media is also becoming an issue for current employees, reports onrec.com, with the instances of employees being fired over social media interactions. Liz Strama of HRProtected.co.uk says that organisations need to have properly defined policies for this reason. 

“[Social media] affects employers in every type of industry and has become a grey area in employment law. For that reason, it is absolutely vital that every company has a policy on social media that is clearly defined and understood,” says Strama.

While there have been several high profile cases of people being dismissed over social media posts such as metropolitan police posting ‘unacceptable’ content, Strama believes that there is a wider issue that needs to be addressed.

“Where the real issue lies is with the younger generation who miss out on entire careers through poorly censored social profiles,” she explains.

Strama concludes that the only way to ensure that employers and employees don’t run into problems is to clearly define what is and is not acceptable.

James Lazou, researcher officer at Unite (the UK’s largest union), said that the job insecurity which comes with the contracts can be the cause of the bullying – as well as other issues, such as stress and harassment.

The contracts mean employers can legally not offer employees any working hours per week. Some managers claim this offers flexibility to both the employer and employee, however Mr Lazour argues against this. He told hrmagazine.co.uk: “The assertions that this flexibility benefits both employers and employees equally are at best deeply naive.”

Mr Lazou also claims the contracts can cause exploitation of workers, adding: “In low paying sectors, such as the docks, retail, catering and social care, where such precarious work is increasingly becoming the norm, these arrangements serve to trap workers in poverty and exploitation.”

The statements could persuade some workers who are looking for jobs in London or the rest of the UK to avoid roles which come with such contracts. Former Liberal Democrat treasury spokesman, Lord Oakeshott, also agreed with Mr Lazou’s views, saying that a zero-hours workforce was leading to a zero-rights Britain in the workplace.

Recent figures from the Office for National Statistics found that the number of workers on zero-hour contracts had nearly doubled in the last to years, now nearly reaching 200,000, according to telegraph.co.uk.  

That’s according to research from the Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment and Health, which found that those who work in such spaces are much more likely to fall sick. They can also feel less motivated and not as satisfied with their work.

Plus, productivity levels can drop, medicaldaily.com revealed; potentially inspiring companies currently offering jobs in London or any other place to re-think their office set-up, as they may not be able to hold onto any new recruits if they’re expected to work in an open-plan space.  A separate study from Hong Kong Polytechnic University showed that noise, temperature and loud conversations all work towards a decreased productivity level.

What’s more, employers may not get the best may not get the best out of their teams in an open-plan office, as workers often become a lot more stressed in these than those in sectioned-off spaces. Being stressed, combined with the heightened chance of germs being spread across the desks, can increase the number of sick days taken by staff members too.

All in all, it appears that non-open-plan spaces are best for workers. With medicaldaily.com revealing that on average, people take two additional days off per year when in an office they find uncomfortable, making a change now might be a great short-term decision for long-term gain.

The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development’s (CIPD) annual survey of senior reward and benefits professionals finds pay rises driving the figures, with 84 per cent of UK firms rewarding their employees for good work.

Meanwhile, in a reading likely to excite those looking for jobs in London and other areas, just over half of the companies (51 per cent) said their budgets will increase as they look to take on more staff.   

While some businesses had already taken on enough employees to guarantee their budgets would rise, others were confident about taking on even more workers in 2013.

Cited by freshbusinessthinking.com, the report also showed that many firms would like to see variable pay – like bonuses for good performance - playing a part in their annual budgets.

A total of 26 per cent said variable pay represents between 20-30 per cent of their total pay, but the study revealed that 38 per cent of companies are looking to implement this split.   

Charles Cotton, rewards adviser at the CIPD, spoke in favour of an increase in variable pay.

Writing at cipd.co.uk, he said: “If appropriately designed, variable pay can help align organisational reward practices with the business strategy as well as assisting to communicate what behaviours, skills, values and attitudes the organisation values and how it will reward and recognise these.”

The analyst suggested that there will be an eight per cent increase in graduate roles throughout the second half of 2013, bbc.co.uk reports. After a rise of only 0.1 per cent in 2012, this should be welcome news to all those who have already graduated or who are set to do so this year.

Retailers seemed most keen to take on graduates some time in the coming months, with IDS forecasting a rise of 30 per cent within this sector alone. However it wasn’t all good news, as the firm also revealed that almost three-quarters of employers plan to freeze salaries for graduates, given to their own economical restraints.

Despite this, the average starting salary for a graduate remains steady at £25,000 (or £29,250 for those moving into the financial services sector), meaning graduates on the hunt for jobs in London and other areas can expect to take home a solid wage. What’s more, the median starting wage for graduates working within the legal industry is £36,500.

However this higher wage may be tarred by companies in such sectors feeling reluctant to take on high volumes of graduates.

IDS’ assistant editor, Nasreen Rahman, explained more on hrmagazine.co.uk: “Key graduate recruiters, like the legal and finance industries, are cautious about hiring large numbers of graduates, but are still offering competitive salaries to lure the cream of the crop.”

The report found that the net employment balance – the difference between the proportion of employers who expect an increase in staff and those who anticipate a reduction – has increased from +5 to +9. For the private sector this figure rises to +21, up from +16 in the previous quarter. These figures are not just for jobs in London, but across the UK.

However, the survey found that an average of 45 applicants were applying for every low-skilled job, making the labour market what it called a ‘battleground’, particularly for non-skilled jobs. As onrec.com points out, the results are consistent with reports of employers being inundated with applications.

The survey highlighted certain social groups were being excluded from the recruitment process, with 11 per cent of employers saying that they would not recruit long-term unemployed people and 14 per cent saying they would not consider employing a school leaver.

Gerwyn Davies, a labour market advisor, told cipd.co.uk: “Signs of increasing buoyancy and private sector job prospects is encouraging.”

“However, with the projected increase of half a million people in the UK population over the next 12 months, the number of jobs being created may fail to keep pace with the population growth,” Davies added.