I’d like to think that conversation happened, but stalled because neither team could argue whose branding should take priority for the MON.

And given the squeezes on NI and other rising costs, businesses are more sceptical of hiring and growing.

It’s no coincidence that as more businesses feel the pinch the number of people doing apprenticeships drops.

And if they do hire they need immediate impact.

Unfortunately too many employers still see it as cheap labour. And not enough buy in to the fact they’re designed to develop someone.

So they recognise it’s employment, but expect a ready-to-go staff member. It’s actually an investment. But the problem is it costs them 18ish months of wages.

It feeds the narrative I always have to battle that an apprenticeship is an option for young people.

They are. But they’re *jobs*. You work somewhere full time. They pay you a wage. You don’t just decide to “do an apprenticeship”.

There are loads of training providers and it’s well funded.

Since leaving the EU we’re free to decide on a journey by journey basis.

There is a 4-month sleep regression. Hit us like a ton of bricks at the time. It’s clearly designed to kick in just when you think you’re getting the hang of it.

Substack might be your best bet for a free one.

Ghost is the ideal in my opinion. But you’d expect to pay around £20pm to self-host it or maybe more if you use their hosting options (and it increases based on subscriber numbers).

Thank you for writing it!

I really like the three approaches you highlight for new social. And the more evidence I can gather from clever people to convince businesses to invest in communities the better.

Yeah, definitely looking at it. Keep trying to keep dates/times free to do these things but then someone offers me money for work…

I’m with you completely. I’ve toyed with it for a while - tried partnering with The Marketing Meetup to launch a local one.

I’d attend them, but I do the school run and a lot of my work is mornings (nobody wants to be taught after lunch) so it makes it difficult. As ever, it’s lack of time!

I’m about to hit six years of self employment mainly from home. And this has been my mood at various times this year.

Desperately trying to adapt things so that I’m doing more stuff in person. I teach but it’s all online now and you don’t get the same connections. And networking makes me shudder.

I look at typos like first impressions.

If this is the level of attention paid here, what else gets overlooked? Or the level of the people supposed to be teaching him these things?

You too!

“I think I would be a good fit for this job because I have been doing it for the past five years” just doesn’t feel right.

This is the problem with processes.

I’ve got an interview on Thursday to go into the ‘official’ talent pool for somewhere I’ve been teaching at on an ad hoc basis recently.

Asked to apply by the person who’s been contacting me, and being interviewed by them. The social dynamics of how this will work are hurting my brain.

I’m only here to say how much I love your cat’s name.

It’s so sad. It’s all just regurgitating stuff they’ve read online about who’s to blame without any scrutiny of the actual facts.