Attempts to plug the skills gap, announced in the Queen's Speech last week, could backfire and make things harder for employers and recruiters, according to business and employee groups.
The UK voluntary sector has grown 26% in the past 10 years, outpacing both the public and private sector, and resulting in a massive skills shortage, according to the National Council for Voluntary Organisations.
Recruiters can place their job advertisements for free on a new community website call TapThat.co.uk, which aims to encourage local residents to interact online and focuses on supporting charities rather than generating revenue for itself.
The Wynnwith Group, which specialises in the aerospace, defence, aviation and rail sectors, is hoping to emulate the improved high levels of traffic achieved through search engine marketing and optimisation in its new search and selection portal for permanent staffing at www.wynnwith-perm.com.
Members of the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) board are to act as headhunters after its three-month search for a new chief executive ended unsuccessfully.
The executive chairman of the Reed group of companies said he wants fellow recruitment businesses to "do well" as a result of reed.co.uk's decision to sell access to its sizeable CV database.
Media recruitment firm Steppingstone Associates floated on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) last week.
External recruiters who want to do business with PricewaterhouseCoopers should focus on "value-added services that we can't provide for ourselves" instead of "simply interfering in the natural union of candidates and clients", advises the accountancy firm's director of resourcing and people engagement.
Nearly 60 recruitment enterprises have been shortlisted across 23 categories in Recruiter's Awards for Excellence 2008, supported by Thomas International.