What's going on????

[Monster Munch]

A fixed term contarct does come with some benefits, mainly the holiday entitlement. The position on offer here is the traditioanl contract (ie. no benefits whatsoever) but the rate is that of a permy. Penny and the bun me thinks. I'd rather sell raffle tickets at the oap centre during afternoon bingo

[BolshieBastard]

Last I heard chap I was working with was getting £50 an hour in Wales, boring work though.

Yeah lots of people like your ex colleague exagerate(sp?) their rate when they are on a crap, low one.

[centurian]

Its pathetic. They are asking for skilled people. You would never see an accountant or solicitor working for such low rates.

Mostly because there are high barriers to entry to both of those professions, specifically formal qualifications - you simply can't practice without them.

You can get into IT with no formal qualifications

Also accountancy and legal qualifications usually have to be done in the UK. An accountant qualified in India will still have to pass accountancy exams in the UK to practice here.

[RichardCranium]

Mostly because there are high barriers to entry to both of those professions, specifically formal qualifications - you simply can't practice without them.

You can get into IT with no formal qualifications

Also accountancy and legal qualifications usually have to be done in the UK. An accountant qualified in India will still have to pass accountancy exams in the UK to practice here.

... and every attempt by the British Computer Society to set up the same in the UK gets pooh-poohed on here. Go figure.

[badgerpig]

its disgraceful, they know there are people out there who need the work, so jobs are being advertised at ridiculously low rates, on my last gig the preferred supplier sent an email to all the contractors graciously telling everyone they could keep their jobs but would need a to accept a % cut after 28 days

everyone just accepted it

the gig Im at now had over 40 CVs in 3 hours, luckily it matched exactly what I was previously doing so I got it

it stinks .........but I bet they fill the role!

[expat]

... and every attempt by the British Computer Society to set up the same in the UK gets pooh-poohed on here. Go figure.

1. Contractors like me who have years of experience but no IT qualifications. Of course I think I'm good and I'm not minded to start again at the back of the queue.
2. Employers/clients who think the same way: they don't want to see qualifications, they want to see recent experience in exactly the same kind of work. Ditto in spades for agents.
3. Agents.

[AlfredJPruffock]

its disgraceful, they know there are people out there who need the work, so jobs are being advertised at ridiculously low rates, on my last gig the preferred supplier sent an email to all the contractors graciously telling everyone they could keep their jobs but would need a to accept a % cut after 28 days

But demand will pick up and when that happens rates will climb very rapidly - its all about supply and demand.

[vfr_rider]

on my last gig the preferred supplier sent an email to all the contractors graciously telling everyone they could keep their jobs but would need a to accept a % cut after 28 days

a major agency tried pulling this with a few fellow contractors where I am - they all rejected it and have heard nothing since.

you can bet your bottom dollar that the 'saving' wasn't passed on to the end client....

[mace]

Mostly because there are high barriers to entry to both of those professions, specifically formal qualifications - you simply can't practice without them.

You can get into IT with no formal qualifications

Also accountancy and legal qualifications usually have to be done in the UK. An accountant qualified in India will still have to pass accountancy exams in the UK to practice here.

My wife's ACCA qualified and works for 1 of the big 4 in an executive position. She earns £42k. Her work hours vary between 9:30 to 17:30 (low season) to 9:00 to 21:30 (peak season). In the peak season (January to April), it's very difficult to take a holiday. At the moment, there's pressure on them to send low level admin work to India. She tells me that there's resistance to doing this as that kind of work doesn't take long for her to do whereas if she sends it to India it's assumed that the number of hours she used to spend has been freed up whereas in reality she spends almost the same time talking to somebody who can barely speak English about what to do. The big 4 are also full of foreigners, although the ones that I've met here have a much better command of English and dress sense than the IT transfers that I've met.

So it seems that accountancy, at least, is little if any better off than IT. I don't know any lawyers but an ex-colleague of mine's wife was a consultant doctor and he said she picked her hours and earned a fortune. So, it would seem that medicine is the thing to be doing.