We don't know what's ahead of us for 2009. One thing is for sure, work-wise for me, there will be a bit of a shake-up! So what's new about that...
All my working life, the industry I'm in has been subject to change. Sometimes politically driven, sometimes, perhaps, driven by an ego or two wanting to build empires.
Being public servants, we just have to grit what few teeth we might have left and get on with it.
And yet nothing really changes. Or does it?
Right now it feels like 1981 revisited. At that time there was rising unemployment, a recession ahead, special work schemes and training programmes for the unemployed and precious little real work for them at the end.
I was working with youngsters on the Youth Opportunities Programme - which metamorphosed into the Youth Training Scheme (with a new logo) a year or two later. The youngsters did good work, gardening and painting for the elderly, helping in care homes and other community based work. They really benefitted from this, as did the Supervisors who had also been lacking in direction and needed a secure foothold in the world of work.
Those were the days!
Thatcher was in power, but she was decidedly unpopular by 1982, especially in Scotland. Coupled with the rise in unemployment was the massive inflation rate and Thatcher needed a miracle to boost her popularity. Along comes Argentina to the rescue. Invasion of the Falklands took everyone's eye off the ball and swept her to re-election.
TVEI was on the go in schools - remember that? The Technical and Vocational Education Initiative - nice simple name that tripped off the tongue. It was supposed to stimulate the vocational education of pupils (as opposed to the academic). Revolutionary! And was supposed to help prepare them for the real world of work - because employers did not think schools prepared them well enough...
There were so many Acts and White Papers flying about then - at one time I knew them all - and could probably quote some apt words or two (sad I know). Now, I read them and think - more of the same.
Is it an age thing? There is probably a stage and age in everyone's working life when it's difficult to spot the original thinking in the younger generation. The thinking is only original to that age group - but was 'thunk' by their elders a decade or two before!
But now we have technology - which has transformed the work we do - for the better. It means that knowledge is owned by everyone - not just those and such as those. It's fantastic.
In the olden days of the '80s, things took longer to do and get done. Memos were written, passed round, signed off, eventually instructions were carried out. Meetings were held with real people (no online, videocon or telecon then) files were kept in filing cabinets and notes were kept hand written inside them.
Typewriters were noisily battered in every office with the regular 'ting' of the carriage return. Tippex was a standard item in stationery orders and cupboards were full of different sizes and shapes of envelopes to stuff with letters, sometimes hand written, to clients who couldn't read anyway or who had moved on several times since last contact.
We have e-mail, blogs and wikis now. We don't need envelopes - not that many anyway. Even Christmas cards seem to be on the wane with the tinkly and sparkly electonic varieties becoming ever more naff and insane.
So as I plunge into 2009 and think back to 1979, 89 and 99 and before - I am optimistic that things will ultimately improve for most folks on the jobs front, albeit after a tricky time ahead. I will continue to do what I do to help the cause. I hope I keep my sanity and avoid senility for the foreseeable future and wish everyone who might read this a happy and contended year ahead.
