Lord Hunt, the Minister for Sustainable Development and Energy Innovation has applauded the University of Bath and their management training initiative to teach businesses how to calculate and reduce their carbon footprint.

The initiative includes a conference and an online course available to businesses of all sizes. It focuses on not only the environmental but also the financial benefits of good carbon management. It also points to the way in which consumers’ buying decisions are increasingly influenced by ecological considerations.

The course has been designed, in part, to assist businesses in ensuring that the government’s ambitious target of an eventual 80 per cent cut in greenhouse gas emissions can be met. It is intended to help fill the knowledge gap that exists. Understanding carbon accounting will eventually become as important as the more traditional measures of business results.

The online course has been designed in lots of small, self-contained units so that it can be done by busy executives. The one day conference in April will bring together industry experts in this area from around the world. The conference will be accessible online which will reduce its own carbon footprint as it will not be necessary for delegates to travel there.

The course uses the recently announced PAS 20 guidelines on carbon emissions.

The days when professionals could get away with no personality, but an assurance that they “knew their stuff” are long gone. Nowadays soft skills training for accountants, solicitors, surveyors and the like are not a luxury. They are a necessity.

More and more clients are voting with their feet and not accepting anything less than excellent service. Similarly, they are not prepared to accept obscenely high hourly rates. It is not only vital that the partners or managers who deal directly with the client are able to demonstrate what good value they offer the client, but also that they take the opportunity to maximise fees from all clients.

In short, the way forward is to sell. Professionals seem to fall into three groups. Unfortunately, some professionals think selling is a dirty word. Even those individuals who accept the need for sales don’t know how to. The final group is those who see why they should sell, and do, but in a rather hap hazard way. In other words, there is no sales process in place.

Once professionals realise how essential sales processes are they can be helped. Unfortunately many would sooner go out of business than change their ways and, unfortunately, they probably will.

Perhaps you are starting out on your career with a pocketful of qualifications and a great deal of hope, or perhaps you are a more seasoned individual, with an eye to your personal development, looking for the next step. Either way, as you search for a new job, your CV is vitally important. Everything about it including the paper, the language, and the presentation will describe you to your prospective employer. Here are a few things to bear in mind.

When you are sending a hard copy, the paper needs to be of a decent, but not gaudy quality. Think tasteful and quality. Use only black or blue ink. Make sure the font size and type is comfortable to read. Ideally the CV should be one side, but certainly no more than two. If you cannot fit your CV into the space, then it needs editing.
Particularly clear fonts include Arial or Times New Roman. Do not use handwriting based or other fussy fonts. The font size should not be smaller than 11.

Ensure that any covering letter uses the same ink, paper, and typeface as the CV.

Use spell check as well as manually checking the text. Better still, ask literate friends to read it for you. Do not use words you are unfamiliar with to try impressing people. You will be found out.

When preparing a CV, the general presentation is vital, but it can only do so much. Ultimately, it is the contents that are vital. So, what are the must haves?

First of all, you should start with an overview of two to three sentences. These can include your skills or exceptional qualities and your future hopes or plans should act as a way of making the employer want to read on.

You should include your educational qualifications and any additional training you have undertaken either on your own initiative or as a part of previous employment. This should include general courses such as soft skills training.

Your work experience should be in reverse order starting with your most recent job. You do not need to list every job you ever had but you should include the four or five most relevant. If it is not obvious from the job title, list any additional responsibilities you had.

Your personal details should be listed and these need to include your name, address, sex, phone numbers, date of birth, and email address etc.

List your interests, but don’t get carried away unless they are relevant to the job you are applying for.

Provide two references and let those people know that you are providing their details and make sure they are happy to provide a reference.