:: PURPLEPASSPORT IS ACQUIRED BY iPROFILE, THE COMPANY REDEFINING THE JOB SEEKING AND CAREER MANAGEMENT PROCESS, CAPITALISING UPON iPROFILE'S ENORMOUS POTENTIAL FOR BUSINESS GROWTH.
London, 30 April, 2008: iProfile (www.iprofile.org) today announced the acquisition of PurplePassport (www.purplepassport.com) in a strategic move that strengthens its position as the company redefining the job seeking and career management process. This acquisition will benefit over 2.3 million people who have already replaced their traditional CV with an iProfile, a dynamic profile for professionals, and the millions more who are set to make the switch. The acquired PurplePassport technology enables recruiters and employers to instantly view candidate's skills, achievements and training history, thus ensuring an even quicker assessment of a candidate's qualifications and suitability for a particular role.
iProfile will incorporate the Purple Passport's flagship 'Skills Passport' product, which has been adopted by five Government appointed Sector Skills Councils who have a combined footprint covering more than 10 million people. Integrating it with its existing offering, employees and jobseekers can create a single, dynamic online profile that now features all their qualifications and training achievements which can be validated by registered verifiers. Many leading recruiters have adopted iProfile as the online CV of choice. With PurplePassport the iProfile will allow candidates to build a powerful, confirmed and validated record of their skill-set and achievements, plan their personal development and share information with employers and training providers.
Rick Bacon, CEO of iProfile, comments: "The acquisition of PurplePassport is an important move for us in capitalising upon iProfile's enormous potential for business growth by giving us access to a larger market. We are gaining valuable insight into important aspects of personal development and the 'learning community', including the Sector Skills Councils. The iProfile is already making waves in the recruitment space and companies are starting to gear up for the next progression in dynamic skills management. Today there is no reason why jobseekers should continue to use a CV template when they can benefit from the iProfile, the dynamic profile for professionals."
Mark Callahan, founder of Purple Passport, added: “We’re delighted to be joining forces with iProfile as there are clear benefits for employees, job seekers and employers in integrating the two products. iProfile has already had huge success in the UK as professionals realise that an online, dynamic profile can put them one step ahead in their job search. Joining this with Purple Passport’s expertise in recording employees’ skills and tracking personal development will further benefit employers and training providers. This will also play a role in tackling our partners’ current skills shortage by helping them identify skills gaps. The Leitch report of December 2006 highlighted that the UK urgently needs to raise achievements at all levels of skills. We can now address this by capturing all training and achievements on their iProfile, and identify areas in which employees require training to fill the skills gaps. It helps avoid unnecessary and often expensive retraining because all achievements are verified by a credited source.”
iProfile (www.iprofile.org) encourages jobseekers to convert their CV to a dynamic professional profile. It is easy to set up and update, with the added benefits of enabling complete control over the job-seeking process and ensuring feedback from recruiters and hiring managers on the relevant job opportunities. The iProfile has been adopted by many of the UK's biggest recruiters, including Hays IT, Reed, Spring and Alexander Mann with the 2005 Key Note IT Recruitment Market Assessment reporting that it "has become the industry standard format for online CVs."
All information held on an Purple Passport is verified by any one of a network of 'registered verifiers', which consist of employers, training providers, awarding bodies, colleges and universities. Both the individual and employer can continue to update it during the period of employment. This added capability for dynamic skills management will help move the recruitment industry forward in effectively assessing and utilising candidates' skills.
28.04.08 . 1
:: Sir Digby Jones – UK Skills Envoy - receives a PathwayCard
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Sir
Digby Jones, (right) the newly appointed Skills Envoy to the UK, was
recently awarded with his own PurplePassport powered Pathway Card at the
recent British Cleaning Exhibition.
Gordon Brown, who appointed Jones, made the announcement of this new post in his pre-budget report in December as part of new drive to improve skills and training.
Sir Digby, 51, who stood down as director-general of the CBI earlier this year after nearly seven years in the post, said of his new job "The job is to really push with the employers the need to skill their employees, We need to be more productive. Getting people skills is the greatest agent for social inclusion. I am very pleased I have been asked to do it."
17.12.06 - 1
:: First Meeting of PurplePassport Network Forum
The
first meeting of the newly named PPN Forum took place in November at the
SkillSmart Retail Offices in London . The forum is exclusive to Sector
Skills Council’s operating skills passport schemes powered by
PurplePassport. Many key issues were discussed including pricing,
verification procedures and routes to market.
The principle objective of the forum is to jointly progress the development of the network of skills passport schemes to benefit skills passport holders and employers through the collaborative effort of the forum members.
The forum agreed to a series of joint initiatives and objectives to help consolidate the strength of the PurplePassport Network during 2007.
It was agreed that the forum would meet on a bi-monthly basis. A list of invited guest and speakers was compiled and it is expected that the first guest speaker will attend the next meeting scheduled for February 2007.
17.12.06 - 2
:: NEW!! SkillsPassport User Support Centre
PurplePassport
are delighted to report the long awaited launch of their User Support
Centre for skills passport holders and registered verifiers. The Skills
Passport User Support Centre will be accessible from all PurplePassport
Powered schemes and incorporates real time on-line response, a dynamic
knowledge base and user feedback facility.
James Woodley, Senior Technician for PurplePassport, who has been instrumental in the introduction of the new ‘Kayako’ support centre, said, “This is a great new tool for both passport holders and registered verifiers. It provides them with immediate on-line access to technical and user help. If you have any kind of problem with the site or your skills record, you can get straight through to real time first line support without even picking up the phone.”
Initially, the Support Centre will be manned during normal working hours but those hours will be extended during 2007 as volumes increase.
Check out the new Support Centre now at http://support.purplepassport.com/
17.12.06 - 3
:: The Risk Advisory Group Report underlines need for Skills Passports
The
Risk Advisory Group has published a damning report on the integrity of CV's.
It states that a more than two thirds of CVs contain incorrect or false
information. This is just one of the problems that skills passports combat.
Employers are being warned to be on their guard as a survey by the Risk Advisory Group has found that most people lie in their job applications,
Research shows two-thirds of more than 3,000 CVs submitted by applicants contained inaccuracies that ranged from gaps in employment to outright lies about qualifications and fraud committed against past bosses.
Women in their early 30s were the worst offenders with 77% of CVs showing discrepancies, while men in their early 20s were the most honest group. However, on even the "most honest" CVs, half of those checked had mistakes.
In response to the report, Mark Callahan, Managing Director of PurplePassport Ltd, an organization, whose main aim is to help combat such discrepancies, said,
“This is precisely the problem that our on-line skills passport overcomes. We firmly believe that most people don’t intentionally mislead, but are simply economical with the truth because that can’t recall the detail. By maintaining an on-line record throughout your working life that is continually monitored by a network of verifiers prevents this and helps the individual keep a more precise and more reliable record of their achievements.”
High-profile cases
Corporate investigations agency The Risk Advisory Group said the problem is worsening, with 2003 figures up 16% on the previous year.
The study comes in the wake of a number of high-profile cases of application fraud.
Ian Huntley's former girlfriend Maxine Carr was given a three-year community rehabilitation order for deception offences, including lying on job applications.
And Buckingham Palace has reviewed security after Daily Mirror journalist Ryan Parry was able to get a job as a royal footman.
The group scrutinises candidates' applications for employers - including banks and other financial institutions where regulators require a high level of checks.
Director of Business Development Alan Beazley said researchers have a well-honed feeling to detect when something on the CV is amiss.
Because people are asked for five to 10 years of employment, university, schooling and address records it is "inevitable that people are going to make some mistakes and in education, there is a great temptation to inflate their academic record". ", he said.
This report has been adapted from a report published on the BBC News website. ©2006 BBC News Corporation
17.12.06 - 4
:: eLearning option added to PathwayCard
The Pathway Consortium have teamed up with iClean to add an optional e-learning function to the PathwayCard process. iClean have developed a basic eLearning module which meets the requirements of the Pathway Induction Training criteria.
It is felt that the scheme is ideally suited to large facilities such as airports, hospitals and universities, where cleaning operatives can run through a simple and easy to understand e-training module on basic induction and health & safety in order to obtain a basic cleaning qualification.
:: Skills for Logisitcs join the PurplePassport Network
Skills for Logistics have confirmed their intention to launch a PurplePassport powered skill passport scheme in the new year. Following a year of deliberation and investigation into the merits of introducing a skill passport into their sector, they are now planning to start the project during the first quarter 2007. This
decision is supported by the forthcoming changes to European legislation requiring hgv drivers to record CPC training over a five year period.
PurplePassport would like to welcome Skills to Logistics to the fray. Mark Callahan, Managing Director for PurplePassport said “We are very excited about the addition of Skills for Logisitcs to our network. There is clearly a requirement for a skills passport in their sector and the team at Skills for Logistics have a sensible yet forward thinking and refreshing approach to how this going to work. We look forward to working with them.”
:: Leitch Report – Response from the SSDA
Lord Leitch published his report on the state of skills in the UK, which calls on employers to drive the promotion of skills to ensure that the UK remains economically competitive.
You can download a full copy of the report can be found at
A summary of the principle recommendations
Commenting on the newly-published Leitch Review of Skills, Margaret Salmon, Chair of the Sector Skills Development Agency (SSDA), said:
"Lord Leitch is absolutely right to point out not just the challenges to the UK economy but also the importance of world class skills in increasing productivity to meet those challenges.
"These stretching targets simply cannot be reached without the kind of radical change across the whole skills system that he is proposing. His employer-led approach means moving the current system from rhetoric to reality. Employers will welcome these moves towards increased skills development at all levels and at all ages because different sectors have different requirements.
"Employers have stepped up to the mark in supporting their Sector Skills Councils. They are now looking for 'a deal for a deal' as they increase their investment in skills in the knowledge that education and training at last looks like being better aligned with the development needs of the UK workforce."
17.12.06 - 5
Sept 2006
:: UK SKILLS PASSPORT LAUNCHES TO SCOTLAND
People 1st, the sector skills council for the hospitality, leisure, travel and tourism industries launched UK Skills Passport to Scotland together with Patricia Ferguson, minister for tourism and culture on August 8 2006.
The PurplePassport powered scheme is expected to revolutionise the way individuals and employers working in the Scottish tourism industry keep logs of completed training and qualifications.
Not only will it reinforce continuous personal development, but also avoid unnecessary repetition of training within employment, which costs Scottish businesses millions as individuals’ skills, qualifications and training are not recorded efficiently by previous employers.
Peter Lederer CBE, chairman of VisitScotland, managing director of the award-winning Gleneagles Hotels and council member on the board of People 1st , spearheaded the launch. He said: “It’s very exciting to be launching the UK Skills Passport. Scotland has a rich culture and history of hospitality, and it’s only with fully trained, competent employees that we can improve an already enviable tourist destination. The Passport is a unique tool to help improve the hospitality, leisure, travel and tourism sectors in retaining staff, improving on-the-job training and giving employers an accurate idea of what a member of staff will bring to a position, and how best to develop them.”
Tourism Minister Patricia Ferguson said: "People who work in the tourism and hospitality industries play an important role in driving Scotland's economy. "The UK Skills Passport will, I am sure, encourage more young people to follow a career path into these already thriving sectors."
Brian Wisdom, chief executive officer of People 1st comments: “We’re very pleased to have two exceptionally prominent people from hospitality and tourism introducing the UK Skills Passport to Scotland. It demonstrates just how important this new record of achievement is to the industries we represent, and it will stand us in good stead as we continue to tackle the issues that face companies in the leisure, travel, tourism and hospitality sectors.”
The official launch of UK Skills Passport into the UK is scheduled for November 2006.
In line with our strategy for the rapid development of the PurplePassport
concept, we have recently amalgamated PurplePassport Ltd with Drive Fields
Ltd, a privately owned investment group comprising of contract engineering,
on-line recruitment and property businesses.
This move provides long term financial security in the form of new investment capital and provides access to significant development resource, a larger call centre and sales force and easier access to new markets. The principles of the Drive Fields business will join the board of PurplePassport Ltd with immediate effect as executive
directors. The new executive board will be: Mark Callahan – Managing Director, Clive Foster – Finance Director, Adam Judge – Technical Director and Debbie Foster – Development Director.
:: GOSKILLS SIGN UP FOR PUBLIC TRANSPORT
GoSkills, the sector skills council for the Public transport sector has committed to the launch of its own PurplePassport powered skills passport scheme scheduled for October this year. The scheme, which will be called GoSkills Plus will be part of a much larger membership scheme currently being developed by GoSkills.
Peter Huntingdon, GoSkill’s chief executive, said “Purple Passport is an intrinsic part of our membership scheme which we will be launching shortly. To judge from the response we have received so far we don’t doubt that Purple Passport will fulfill a long-felt need for easily accessible verifiable qualifications and other employee credentials. We are confident that this something that most passenger transport operators – both large and small – will seriously consider being part of.”
:: MySkillsRecord.com – NEW GENERIC BRAND FOR PURPLE PASSPORT
Due to the growing number of PurplePassport powered schemes, the PurplePassport skills passport has been officially replaced with the new MySkillsRecord generic passport brand. MySkillsRecord.com went live on the 1st August 2006. Whilst PurplePassport Ltd will remain the company name and the ‘Powered by PurplePassport’ brand will continue to be actively marketed, MySkillsRecord will replace the generic ‘PurplePassport’ skills passport available to jobseekers, students and employees in sectors that don’t yet have sector specific skills passport schemes.
As with all PurplePassport powered schemes, MySkillsRecord is seamlessly interchangeable and can be used on any other PurplePassport powered scheme. All owners of PurplePassports will automatically receive a MySkillsRecord card when their passports come up for renewal after 12 months. All registered verifiers qualified under the PurplePassport.com scheme will automatically qualify under the MySkillsRecord scheme.
Go to www.myskillsrecord.com
Following the recent launch of MySkillsRecord.com, the new generic skills passport scheme powered by PurplePassport, the PurplePassport.com website has been extensively revised to reflect the new position of PurplePassport as the provider of a network of SSC endorsed skills passport schemes. The new web site will provide a direct link to all of the PurplePassport powered schemes as well as other company information. It also contains a downloadable presentation of how skills passport scheme works and its benefits to employers and employees.
Go to www.purplepassport.com
5S Consulting, one of the UK's largest specialist consultancies in the vocational education and training field have become reseller partners for PurplePassport.
5S, who develop and advise on occupational standards and on qualifications, assessment and verification systems, have developed an exemplary reputation in their field and have won contracts for more than £20M over the past ten years.
5S have formed a new company, called Skillspassport.org Ltd, through which they plan to market the products and services of PurplePassport Ltd.
Skillspassport.org will offer a one stop shop for organisations to learn about, evaluate, set up and promote a skills passport scheme for their employees or members.
Debbie Foster, Commercial Director for PurplePassport said “We are delighted that 5S have joined the team. Their wealth of experience in vocational training compliments the products and services of PurplePassport. We firmly believe that their network of contacts will enable them to bring PurplePassport business from areas that we would otherwise struggle to penetrate.
PurplePassport has taking the first steps toward to a strategic collaboration with UK NEC (who are responsible for Europass and NARIC) and People1st. The three organizations have formed a working group which is committed to exploring ways that they can work together to enhance their products through collaboration to benefit both employees and employers. Mark Callahan, Managing Director of PurplePassport said “We see this as a very exciting opportunity. There are many synergies between our organizations that were crying out to be explored. We would hope that, at the very least, we can end up with seamless links between Europass, NARIC and our network of skills passport schemes that will make it easier for employees and employers to make use of their overseas qualifications, either in the UK or in Europe. People 1st already have an opportunity to expand their UK Skills Passport into Europe so it made perfect sense to work together on this.”
The working group aim to have a definitive project plan in place before the end of September.
We would like to take this opportunity to welcome the following new members to the PurplePassport technical development team: Simon Norburn, Mayoor Patel
:: OOH LA LA! - GRAHAM PEDDLES TO PARIS
We would like to congratulate Graham Sibley, Marketing & Communications Director of Asset Skills, the sector skills council behind the PurplePassport powered Pathway Card, who recently completed a 300 mile London to Paris cycle ride on behalf of Action Medical Research, a charity that support research into premature births through an campaign called Touching Tiny Lives.
An elated Graham said “ last week proved to be one of the best experiences of my life as I cycled down the Champs Elysees to finish my ride from London to Paris under the majesty of the Eiffel Tower.
Just less than 300 miles over far more hilly terrain than I expected, completed over four days in temperatures of up to 41°C meant it was not an easy journey, but the conditions and environment made the feeling of achievement at the end all the more euphoric.
This was all in aid of the charity Action Medical Research, and their Touching Tiny Lives campaign to research the causes of premature birth, and provide greater chances of survival to babies born early.
I am on target to raise around £1500 – well above the £1000 I set out to raise – and my thanks go to all those who sponsored me.”
If you would like to pledge money, you can still do so by going on-line to www.action.org.uk/~grahamsib.
:: NEW FUNCTIONALITY – BETTER REPORTING, MORE POWERFUL SKILLS SEARCH
An all new, more powerful skills search facility has been added to all PurplePassport powered sites. This
enables employers to carryout more detailed skills searches within their own workforce.
A new raft of employer reports are scheduled for completion and due to be added before the end of September 2006. This will include employer activity reports which will highlight the extent to which an employer maintains up to date training records.
DfES and DWP Ministers have agreed to extend the LSC led skills coach trials into 2007.
PurplePassport have been the official providers of the on-line skills passport for the scheme since its introduction last year.
An additional £5million of funding was made available to double the number of skills coaching trials to a minimum of 16 Job Centre Plus Districts, with specific emphasis on helping low skilled women and to help deliver Level 3 skills.
Skills Coaching aims to help individuals find the most effective and efficient route to improved employability. It is intended for adults of working age (20 years and over with no upper age limit) for whom lack of skills is the main barrier to sustained employment. It is expected to contribute to raising the employment rate of the lowest qualified, generally those without a first full level 2 qualification, or equivalent. The LSC are working in close partnership with selected Jobcentre Plus districts to trial the Skills Coaching service as part of New Deal for Skills.
Jan 2006
PP AMALGAMATES TO SECURE FASTER DEVELOPMENT
In line with our strategy for the rapid development of the PurplePassport.com concept, we have recently amalgamated PurplePassport Ltd with Drive Fields Ltd, a privately owned investment group comprising of contract engineering, on-line recruitment and property businesses.
This move provides long term financial security in the form of new investment capital and provides access to significant development resource, a larger call centre and sales force and easier access to new markets. The principles of the Drive Fields business will join the board of PurplePassport Ltd with immediate effect as executive directors. The new board will be: Mark Callahan – Managing Director, Clive Foster – Finance Director, Adam Judge – Operations Director and Debbie Foster – Sales Director.
Jan 2006
PEOPLE 1ST – SOON TO LAUNCH UK SKILLS PASSPORT!
People 1st - the sector skills council for the hospitality sector are the latest Sector Skills Council to adopt the PurplePassport technology as the backbone for their own sector specific skills passport scheme which will be branded as ‘UK Skills Passport’. Due to be launched in first
quarter of 2006, the scheme has been
significantly enhanced to include some new features such as a detailed
skills framework allowing employers to analyse more specifically the breakdown of passport holders qualifications.
Mark Callahan, managing director of PurplePassport said “We’ve been working with People 1st for over a year on this project and we’re delighted it’s now nearing completion. They’ve put a lot of thought into how their scheme will work specifically for their sector as a result of which they’ve asked us to add some innovative new functionality. Their approach to branding has also been very original. We’re really looking forward to working with the team at People 1st and feel very confident about their ability to get this scheme off the ground.
PATHWAY CARD GETS OFF TO A FLYING START
Following the successful launch in September of Pathway Card, the PurplePassport supported skills passport for the cleaning and support services sector, over 3,000 Pathway passports have been distributed. Major employers such as Johnson Controls, Compass Group and LCC Support Services have joined the scheme. http://www.pathwaycard.co.uk
SKILLSMART RETAIL GIVE THE GREEN LIGHT
SkillSmart Retail, the SSC for the retail sector have given PurplePassport Ltd the green light to begin the development of their own skills passport scheme. Due for completion during the first quarter of 2006, the scheme will be introduced a period of months to initially major employers in the sector with a view to a formal launch later this year.
PP INVEST IN NEW DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM
Following the injection of new capital, PurplePassport have invested in a new, cutting edge distribution system to speed up the production and distribution of Passports. The bulk of the investment is in new bespoke sorting software as well as faster, larger capacity printers. Adam Judge, Techncial Director said “Card distribution is a huge undertaking for our business and a process which we cannot underestimate. This investment will take us to the next level in terms of distribution volumes, of up to 500,000 cards, beyond which we will be looking to run distribution from new, fit for purpose premises.”
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