Searching for employment can be stressful regardless of whether you are currently out of work or you are employed but want to apply for a new position.

When applying for jobs or completing application forms, you may be asked to provide references. Sometimes you just need to give a work reference, but other times you may also be asked for personal references (sometimes called character references). You need to be sure that the person who is recommending you for employment is willing and able to give you a good reference. A good reference can be the difference between getting the job offered to you or not, so picking the right person is very important. It is also important to have the permission of the person you want to put down as a reference, prior to giving their details out.

Although companies should not give you a bad reference they can refuse to give you one.

When it comes to choosing your reference, previous employers are always a must and although you may be able to give another name for a character reference, employers are the best option for job applications. If you are still employed by your choice of reference then you may be able to ask that they do not contact them unless you are offered the position.

The last 18 months have been so hard for students of all ages. Many of them have had long periods of time when they have had to be home schooled and they may have fallen behind with their learning. This can be a worry for parents and students but at least they can take comfort in the fact that lots of people are in the same position.

Although it may be tempting to try and get your child to carry on with their education throughout the summer holidays, it is really important that they also have plenty of downtime. Even if they did not accomplish much during lockdown, it will probably sill have taken its toll on them mentally. Children’s mental health is very important and sometimes easily overlooked. Allow them some time to switch off completely from education and just be a child. Try and find time to do activities that they enjoy such as painting, playing in the garden or going out for bike rides as this will help them go back to school in September feeling fresh and ready to learn. This is likely to have appositive impact on their learning and help them catch up quicker.

Over the past 15 months, children all over the world have had their education affected by the pandemic and lockdown restrictions. Many children were forced to start at home and be taught remotely through online lessons or by their parents/ carers. This has meant that many students have suffered a massive disruption and may well of fell behind.

Although this is not ideal, it doesn’t mean that students or their parents should panic. As the pandemic was felt across the whole world, there are and will be allowances made for those that have been affected, such as the exam result grading that was changed to make it fairer to those that missed out.

The government are looking at ways in which they can help offer children additional education should they need it. Whether this is going to be optional or mandatory is still up for discussion but it is likely that something will be put in place over the coming months.

Many parents worry about the effects extra education and pressure will have on their child, so it is likely that there will be a need for a lot of different ideas and solutions to find the right one to suit the majority of people.

You may be in a position where you need to find work. It could be that you have been out of work due to the Covid pandemic or that you have been off work for personal reasons, or maybe this is your first job after finishing education.

If you are on the search for a new job and live in a rural area, you may find that you have to be willing to travel as there are not enough job opportunities available to you where you live. This is especially true if the job you are looking for is quite niche and therefore few and far between.

The majority of job vacancies are often located in large towns or cities which can make it tricky if you live in the countryside and do not drive. You may need to rely on public transport to get you to and from work and also factor in the cost of this when working out what you are going to get paid. You may decide instead to relocate to be nearer to your job. This can cut down on travel costs and travel time and allow you to have more time at home or doing things you enjoy.

Often if you live a distance away from where the job will be based, you may be asked at interview how you intend on getting to and from work. If you do not have an answer to this then it could put potential employer off offering you the post.

If you have been considering going self-employed but put it all on hold due to the pandemic, you may be wondering if now is the right time to make the move. The UK seems to slowly be coming out of lockdown but there are concerns as to whether we my be hit by a third wave like we have seen in many other countries. Going self employed can be risky and for some people, more tricky than others. You may have to leave a well-paid employed job to go self employed and you may also need to invest money in to the business to get it off the ground.

You need to weigh up the options you have available and work out what is best for your personal circumstances. It may be that if you are not enjoying your current job and you have the funds to go self-employed, that now would be a good time to do so. You also need to consider the industry in which you will be working. If it is within a sector that can not currently open then you may want to hold fire until you know you will be able to start bringing money in.

If you own a recruitment business then you may have had to adapt your way of working to continue to place members of staff in jobs during the pandemic. Although many businesses have had to put recruitment on hold due to the pandemic, others are thriving and have had to take more staff on. They may also have to take staff on with different skill sets such as online marketing to cope with the new ways of trading.

It is important that you adapt your recruitment business to keep up with the current climate. Many recruitment firms are having to venture out in to different areas to find more jobs that they can advertise. You may also have to start to do more online as face to face appointments are not possible at the moment. Having a good website is key but you may want to also have an app. An app will allow you to communicate with people all over the UK at the click of a button. You can create an app where they can uploaded their CV, you can send them jobs they may be interested in and keep them up to date with jobs applications they have submitted. You can also send out notifications instantly and allow for online chatting or instant messaging if needed.

The maths work that even primary school children must do can be very complex. As an adult you may not of learnt a lot of the maths that your child has to do when you were at school and this can make it difficult for you to help them. If you are struggling with a task it may be worth you looking it up online. This should bring up video tutorials explaining how to do a certain calculation or method. Your child may have already done a lot of work on these types of methods at school so it may be that even if you don’t fully understand it, they do.

Your child’s teacher should be able to help you if you are struggling with the work that has been set. If your child is finding it hard to concentrate then they may be able to suggest easy in which you can help with that. If they are not wanting to engage then their teacher may be able to send them a video explaining what they need to do and giving them some motivation to get their work done. There are a number of other resources available such as BBC bitesize that you can get your child involved in if schoolwork is proving too difficult.