In the article ‘Why all our kids should be taught code’ John Naughton at The Guardian recognises that “Instead of educating children about the most revolutionary technology of their young lifetimes, we have focused on training them to use obsolescent software products.” The aim of Code Club is to directly combat these issues and save the future of digital.

With the mission to inspire kids to learn code, Clare and Linda launched Code Club in April of this year as a cool and fun after school coding club for children aged between 10-11. The clubs will sit alongside a broader national push to reform current computer lessons. These are based around children learning to use software found in offices and businesses, Clare Sutcliffe who, with Linda Sandvik, dreamed up the Code Club project said:

“We’re teaching our kids to be secretaries rather than programmers”

With a typical code club lesson consisting of practical hands-on tasks that include making games, Clare Sutcliffe is determined to change this approach. Clare went on to say that club sessions would be based around Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Scratch tool which lets children try their hand at programming by dragging and dropping code elements instead of typing them. Scratch is already used in many schools as an aid to computer lessons for children aged 12 and above.

A-list collaborators

Although in its early stages Code Club has developed an A-list of collaborators including: Neil Smith a lecturer at The Open University in the computing department, Adam Onishi a front end developer at One in Oxford, Alex Rosen an ex computer science student, developer and co-founder of Breed and Craft and Josh Emerson a front end developer at Clearleft in Brighton. Consulting remotely will also be Aral Balkan, Seb Lee-Delisle and Dr Sue Black as they reach critical stages in the development of the curriculum.

A bit about Clare and Linda

Linda is currently at Last.fm, has a residency at Spike Island in Bristol as part of the Happenstance initiative and plans to ride semi-wild horses across Mongolia in August for the Mongol Derby. Clare is a user experience designer at Albion London, a keen typographer and has never been to Mongolia.

Designed by Jump Studios, Campus, offers seven floors of flexible work spaces, free high speed internet, onsite Google mentoring and an environment designed so people can meet, collaborate and inspire each other.

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Visit the Campus London website.

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Discover which music playlists are best for your profession…

Incase you are unaware, Dyson are known to organise the odd challenge (rockets and helicopters normally feature), this time they race toy cars built from spare vacuum parts.

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Given a week or so Dyson Engineers built and then raced vehicles made solely from spare parts and fueled by the power of a single handheld vacuum…

Great talent attraction exercise, and guess what, they also have jobs in their motors team… Careers at Dyson

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Much has changed since Google earned a reputation for fattening its staffers with food on demand. These days, the company is focused on advancing its healthy-eating initiatives…

With a PhD in organisational behaviour and heading up Google’s HR department called People Analytics, Jennifer Kurkoski explains: “When employees are healthy, they’re happy. When they’re happy, they’re innovative.” In pursuit of that healthiness, happiness, and innovation, Google has turned to “nudges”: simple, subtle cues that prompt people to make better decisions.

Behavioural economists have shown the idea works, but Google has taken it out of the lab and into the lunchroom. This is a sampling of the encouragement you’d get during trips through the company’s eateries–and naturally, Google is measuring the results.

1 – HARD CANDY No longer are M&Ms in clear hanging dispensers. If you’re in Google’s New York office, you now have to reach into opaque bins. The grab takes effort; the obscuring vessel quells enticement. The switch led to a 9% drop in caloric intake from candy in just one week.

2 – SALAD GAZE Waiting for you as you enter the cafeteria is the salad bar. According to Jessica Wisdom, a member of the People Analytics team, studies show that people tend to fill their plates with whatever they see first. Thus, leafy greens get the most visible real estate. Desserts, meanwhile, are down another line of sight.

3 – SIZING DOWN While grabbing a plate to load up on grub, you see a sign informing you that people with bigger dishes are inclined to eat more. It doesn’t tell you what to do, but it affects your behavior. This simple “meta nudge” caused small-plate usage to increase by half, to 32% of all plate traffic.

4 – COLORING OPINIONS Harvard recently revamped its food pyramid, and those lessons in metered portions have translated into a colored-tag system in the cafeterias. You see green labels paired with veggies, giving you liberty to dig in. Most desserts have red ones, warning potential gluttons to proceed in moderation.

5 – DESERTING DESSERTS So you’ve had a bad day, and even a glaring red tag isn’t enough to discourage you from indulging in a treat. Fortunately, desserts are designed to be downed in just three bites. By making people think about having to take a second dessert plate, Google is nixing potential binges.

6 – WATERWORKS You’re back at your desk and thirst is setting in. You head to the kitchen. In the past, water was on tap and soda was in the fridge. Now bottled water is at eye level in the cooler, while soda has been moved to the bottom. That shift in placement increased water intake by 47%, while calories from drinks fell by 7%. Taking a sip of agua, you feel better already.

Source: In the cafeteria, Google Gets Healthy, first appeared in April 2012′s issue of Fast Company

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If you ever wondered whether that daily pick me up was producing those desired “perk” results then this is for you. Guru have discovered a neat little infographic designed to measure productivity against your favourite mid morning mocha.

Lost productivity due to wrong coffee choice will never be a problem again…

Digest in full here: In Caffeine We Trust

Know a job title that rivals this, tweet us @GuruCareers

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Alex Shirley-Smith – Architect & Treehouse Designer…
http://alexshirleysmith.com/

With an aerial walkway covered in blue padding (resembling puffy clouds), a slide between floors, a cartoonishly oversized wall graphics, including one of the Lego man and lush bonsai gardens built into the tables. The office is state of the art and incorporates block-like display stands, model-building tables and a library of Lego pieces…

Read more about Lego PMD and more interior design stuff atDezeen

Available from Knock Knock… Office Speak Rotating Stamp

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1. R. Wilkins – Vote

I have a reasonable fashion sense and know that no matter how hard it rains at wembley I must not use a ‘brolly’.

2. Joe Fernando – Vote

I am currently a postman and while that may not seem the ideal background for this job my wife regularly points out that I shout things at the games on TV seconds before the so-called experts. I also done reasonably well managing Coventry City in CM02 or possibly 01. In any case I got into Europe and got Gary McSheffrey scoring – no mean feat.

As a player I was an unused sub for Southgate Panthers under 12s back in the 70s. I nearly got a game once but the kid coming off cried when he realised I was replacing him. The manager relented, I never got on. I can assure you that I would have no hesitation in replacing an under-performing player with my modern day equivalent.

My salary expectations are modest. A decimal point behind the last bloke would be fine. I have my own trainers.

3. Gaby Weidlich – Vote

Please find attached my football CV… Football_CV.PDF

4. Rowena Johnson – Vote

As the Iron Lady, Baroness Thatcher, once said “…if you want anything said, ask a man. If you want anything done, ask a woman.”

It’s time for a change. I am that change.

5. Steven Barlow – Vote

I have extensive experience in playing Football Manager and watching West Ham United. My aim is to incoporate a fluid, attacking style to the national team utilising the cream of young talent currently playing. If appointed I would like to appoint a backroom staff made up of Ian Holloway, Paolo Di Canio, Matt Le Tissier, Ludo Miklosko and the ghost of Bobby Moore.

I can confirm that I have no tax issues. Though I did once inadvertently forget to scan a bar of galaxy through the self checkout at Sainsburys.

6. Steve Grass – Vote

I am applying for the position of England Football Manager. Whilst not the obvious fans choice and my appointment would probably seem as bemusing to England fans as did Christian Gross’ appointment at Tottenham.

Under my guidance, this England team will be feared, they will be respected and ultimately…. they will be winners!! As my coaching staff, I would bring in a couple of blokes from my local pub who know more about football than Jeff Stelling and John Motson combined. Using beer mats and salted nuts, they can recreate any set piece and dissect where improvements are needed.

I will be available for interviews and will provide screenshot captures of my Champions League win over Barcelona with minnows Barrow F.C. in the year 2018 and also a photograph of me using a colander as a make-shift trophy that I presented to myself.

7. Garry Byrne – Vote

After years of armchair and pub seat football management at all levels and for many national and international football teams, I have found that my (sometimes slurred) analysis of what would have been the right decision to make at the time has been proven correct time and time again.

I am a team player yet able to operate on my own. I am capable of making decisions quickly and with confidence, and able to explain with confidence why decisions I may make did not pan out.

My many years of travelling with budget airlines have given me what I feel is a big USP for this role – the ability to negotiate my way out of cancellation fees when I need to go home much earlier than I would otherwise have expected. Coupled with this, I am able to easily brush off the disappointment of my friends and family when they find out that I am enroute prematurely.

Lastly, after years of practice in both the private and public sector, I am able to mouth ‘for f’s sake’ without it being decipherable to lip readers.

I therefore put forward my application for the position of ENGLAND FOOTBALL MANAGER confident that I have the attitude, mentality and experience required to take this role to the next level.

8. Mike Bassett – Vote

The real Mike Bassett – Mike_Bassett.PDF

9. Kayleigh Ellaway – Vote

I will take david beckham on to be my PA and request that lycra boxers shorts is the training dress code. Players will all be allowed to eat turkey at xmas. I will also halve thier salaries and put the money back into society. I think football players get paid too much anyway. my motivational skills are so good I will only call up 9 players to the squad and remove the goalkeeper. I will play in goal myself. I am not a dictator, I have an autocratic style of leadership. I will re-introduce oranges at half time, and bring in adam snadler as the water boy.

10. Jason Thomas Michael – Vote

I’m excellent at Football Manager 2009:

LED Blackburn Rovers to 9 Premiership titles, 4 Champions Leagues, 4 FA Cups, 3 Carling Cup titles in 11 years.
ENDED my career at Real Madrid, where I was top at Christmas when the game crashed and lost that seasons data.

And… Premiership Fantasy Football:

WON The Copa Del Shrew league in 2009/10 season.
RUNNER UP in 2010/11 season.
CURRENTLY I am 9th in Copa Del Shrew, and 5th in Copa Del Gyro.

I have great experience of 5 a-side in 2011/12 on a run of 7 games without defeat. I also won the Surrey Intermediate League (11-a-side) receiving Player of the Year when I was 16. Played with Keepy-up king Dan Magness. And played against Freddy Eastwood & Bradley Wright-Phillips on several occasions.

Other: I am good at predicting results and have won a few bets recently, so I know my stuff. I’m ENGLISH, with no criminal offences to my name. I do have a couple of SP30′s on my DL though.

The winner will be announced to coincide with Sport Relief (23rd-25th March) when we will be making a donation to Sport Relief and awarding the England Manager with the most unique votes a prize.

Read the advert here: England Football Manager – Guru Ad Copy

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This house of hierarchy concept is the creation of Mortierbrigade, an independent advertising agency based in the heart of Europe. Aiming to attract the best global creative talent the “Mortierbrigade Hotel” has three magnificent suites, and instead of booking them creative interns have to earn them. Everyone starts out in the “Tent For Two” on the ground floor and in order to move up to “The Cabin in the Woods” on the first, or the luxurious “Royal Suite” on the second you’ll have to convince the management.

This is what Jens Mortier, partner and creative director at Mortierbrigade had to say:

“A lot of talent from all over the world wants to do an internship at our agency. But often the paperwork is a lot of hassle and they can’t afford a place to stay. With our own hotel, we can get great international input from the new creative generation, which is great for us, and our clients. And the trainees have a nice place to stay, night and day.”

Level 0 – The Tent

The Tent For Two has all the latest in outdoor luxury: sleeping bags, bugs and a malfunctioning shower. And like that’s not enough, there’s even free wifi from a neighbours house (password: samuraiblanche) and for all you divas: a laundromat within 30 minutes walking distance.

Level 1 – The Cabin

The Cabin in the Woods provides all modern comfort, in wood! Relax in your wooden beds after a hard day’s work. Have dinner at your wooden table from your wooden plates or watch a movie from the collection of James Woods DVDs. Just watch out for splinters.

Level 2 – The Suite

The Royal Suite: the accomodation worthy of a Creative Director from a small start-up agency. In here you’ll find a bathroom with cold and hot water, food that actually has taste and the power to reign over the other floors.

Level -1 – The Basement

The Bottom Floor is the lowest accomodation and in fact an actual floor. Granted there are a few pieces of cardboard lying around which can be used and you may need to fight a few rats for it, but don’t worry, it still beats working at your dad’s insurance company.

Jens Mortier: “After that they might get hired, and make enough to afford their own place”

Website: http://www.mortierbrigadehotel.com/

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Posting across PR Week, Brand Republic, NMA, MAD, Campaign, Marketing Magazine, Media Week and Reed, amongst others, we received 20k views and over 100 applications in just the first 24 hours.

Integrating experienced midfielders, formulating a plan B playing formation and just beating Germany are just a few expectations listed whilst understanding the beautiful game from grass roots level upwards and being at home in the public eye, whether at an official interview or street heckling were just a couple of the required qualifications.

The application deadline is Friday 17th February 2012 (or when Harry Redknapp accepts the job, which ever is sooner) after which we will be publishing the top ten most creative applications for a public vote with the results and charitable donations announced to coincide with Sport Relief (23rd-25th March). Get involved…

Pick Me! I want to be the next England Manager…Read the advert here.

Join the debate on Twitter: #EnglandApps

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Supermachine studio’s projects are extremely diverse, their projects includes small objects like bottle openers to installations & exhibitions and large-scale projects like shopping malls and music festivals. Supermachine studio lead the way in Asia with their creative processes and experimentation in design.

Supermachine is Pitupong Chaowakul with Nuntawat Tasanasangsoon, Suchart Ouypornchaisakul, Santi Sarasuphab, Wattikon Kosolkit and Kamolporn Wiriyachaisang.

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Employees at the UK mobile operator’s Slough HQ will carry out their daily duties as normal, except they’ll be working from home, or another suitable ‘remote’ location, as O2 shuts the doors and switches off the lights at its 200,000 sq ft offices near London.

In an interview with Recruiter magazine last month we predicted that “2012 could well be about the rise in remote working with improved mobile access, cloud services and changes in employer attitudes all playing a part”. It is great to see a large UK company act with such bold intentions. O2′s initiative and attitude sends a clear signal to employees, business customers and other UK organisations on the advantages of working flexibly. Benefits range from improved staff engagement, talent attraction, boosted productivity and a better work/life balances for employees.

Taking 20 people more than 50 hours of meticulous planning the pilot aims to push the boundaries of what is possible through flexible working and will underpin O2’s contingency plans to manage expected travel disruption and delays during the summer’s Olympics games. With one third of the UK’s businesses expected to encourage their staff to work flexibly this summer, O2 will share learnings from the pilot with other organisations, to support them in their plans for managing the impact of a range of events during the summer months.

After the Olympics…

O2 hope that this pilot will showcase a wider economic business case for flexible working, helping to drive efficiency, productivity and innovation. O2 will evaluate reductions to electricity usage, CO2 emissions and travel time as employees swap their usual journey to work in favour of working from a remote location. These learnings will be applied in line with the company’s ambitious three year sustainability plan, in which O2 pledges to help over 125,000 business employees work flexibly, and collectively save over 500,000 miles of travel and over 160,000 thousand tonnes of carbon emissions.

O2 Business Director Ben Dowd, commented “We believe a cultural step-change is underway affecting staff and businesses, as work increasingly becomes something we do, rather than a place that we go”. “We practice what we preach” continues Dowd “we want to show that there are no limits – no matter how big or small your business is. By sharing experiences from across our business, from business divisions to operations, we hope to encourage more organisations to help their workforce become mobile”.

We have asked O2 to share the results with Guru when published.

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Analysing key drivers that are predicted to reshape the work landscape over the next 10 years, the IFTF report aims to not necessarily look at what jobs will be around in the future but to take a look at what skills, proficiencies and abilities will be required across different jobs and work settings.

Global connectivity, smart machines, and new media are just some of the drivers reshaping how we think about work, what constitutes work, and the skills we will need to be productive contributors in the future.

Six Drivers of Change.

• Extreme Longevity: Lifespans change the nature of careers and learning.
• The Rise of Smart Machines and Systems: Workplace automation nudges human workers out of repetitive tasks.
• Computational World: Massive increases in sensors and processing power makes the world a programmable system.
• New Media Ecology: New communication tools require new media literacy’s beyond text.
• Superstructured Organisations: Social technologies drive new forms of production and value creation.
• Globally Connected World: Increased global interconnectivity puts diversity and adaptability at the centre of organisational operations.

Ten Skills for the Future Workforce.

• Sense-Making: As machine automation takes hold, the ability to make intelligent interpretations and provide true insight will be in demand.
• Social Intelligence: To be able to connect with others in a deep and direct way, to sense and stimulate reactions and desired interactions.
• Novel & Adaptive Thinking: The ability to problem solve, think outside the box and come up with tailored solutions.
• Cross-Cultural Competency: In a globally connected world, the ability to operate in different cultural settings will help candidates stand out.
• Computational Thinking: Good analytical skills will help to translate vast amounts of data into abstract concepts and will come in handy for data-based reasoning.
• New Media Literacy: Everyday life will be a buzz with varying new media types and platforms. The ability to make connections and engage audiences across vast, differing networks will be paramount.
• Transdisciplinarity: The need to understand multifaceted problems and relay them to the wider community to solve will mean complex problems require the facilitation of large scale collaboration.
• Design Mindset: As future workspaces and environments become individually tailored there will be a need to represent and develop tasks and work processes for desired personable outcomes.
• Cognitive Load Management: With a world rich in information being able to use data tools and techniques to disseminate and filter for importance will help gain true insight
• Virtual Collaboration: The need to communicate with and lead remote teams will create a new management style, not necessarily difficult to learn, however team work may need to be re-learned here.

Download the full report here: Future Work Skills 2020

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How Much Hiring will you be doing in 2012? …

So how do employers perceive the coming year, well, sampling nearly 250 votes from dedicated hiring managers & business owners 55% are expecting to be more active in the hiring market in 2012 than last year. OK, not a decisive industry forecast, but an interesting and optimistic snapshot none the less. See the full results below…

Take a look at the results and comments in full: LinkedIn Poll

A small mention also needs to go out to Guru’s Marketing Director, Richard Hamilton who is also up for the “Personality of the Year Award”. Designed to recognise exceptional work done by an individual within the industry.

The video features Joey DeFrancesco, a disgruntled employee of the Renaissance Hotel in Rhode Island, US, handing his manager a resignation letter while his brass marching band buddies strike up a glorious racket in the background.

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Considered a folk hero amongst countless other workers who feel mistreated in their own jobs, Joey has since launched a blog to share similar stories… (http://joeyquits.tumblr.com)

Well, pondering this question over my breakfast this morning it made me realise that 2012 could well be about the rise in remote working with improved mobile access, cloud services and changes in employer attitudes all playing a part.

A recent report by Cisco highlighted that a third of young professionals and students prioritised flexible working over salary, with 7 out of 10 believing that being in an office regularly was unnecessary (source: Is social media access a right? Generation Y think so). These results seem fairly indicative of what I hear first hand, business leaders often say to me that in order to remain competitive they have to offer more than the standard 9-5 work culture if they are to capture the best talent. Changing attitudes and advances in technology such as smart phones, laptops, cloud services and fast remote networks (and not to mention rising travel costs) are certain to result in changes to work trends over 2012.

Positive and progressive thinking also manifests itself in how candidates apply to jobs. Infographics, augmented reality and social media profiles are now all commonplace. 2011 has seen the rise in unconventional applications made possible by outside-the-box thinking candidates, good techniques and new online services such as Job Lander and visual.ly. On one hand they are great but on the other they can provide a real headache for ATS/Recruitment systems, presenting new challenges for employers, recruiters and the technology companies that supply them. With this in mind perhaps the true technological advancements in 2012 will be made by harnessing this candidate information effectively?

Either way, 2012 should be about embracing the unconventional, whether you are hiring or being hired look beyond the traditional 9-5 working hours or 2 page word CV to get noticed and get behind productivity.

Read the full article in: The Recruiter