London’s Lord Mayor, Boris Johnson has today used National Apprenticeship Week to call for more London businesses to invest in apprenticeships, and for more to be done to support young apprentices.

Over 80 per cent of businesses that employ apprentices report increased productivity in the workplace. The Mayor is urging companies across the capital to take advantage of the support available from organisations … who can help businesses, particularly smaller firms, through the process of finding and recruiting apprentices.

The Mayor has noted that investment in apprenticeships is essential for the UK capital’s future prosperity. Of course for small businesses taking on apprentices or for people who are part of the Apprenticeship scheme, it can sometimes be difficult for people to find the right help to solve issues of training, getting access to resources and dealing with the business of being an appentice. In these circumstances we hope horsesmouth can help!

On BBC Breakfast this morning, founder of the Bad Mother’s Club, Stephanie Calman, said she felt mentoring for parents was fabulous, because it enabled mothers who didn’t necessarily want to follow their own parents’ practices to access people with experience in parenting, in a non-judgemental manner.

While mentoring also requires parents to seek out support and responses to questions about parenting, it’s potentially a simpler means of accessing information that might otherwise be available in parenting classes, and it’s certainly a more individualised approach to parenting assistance.

At Horsesmouth there are many mentors who specialise in parenting skills as well as a range of Groups, Stories and Pearls of Wisdom.

Our latest research shows that small businesses and entrepreneurs across the UK are turning to horsesmouth in their droves, for mentoring and support. We saw a 74 per cent increase in visits to the business pages and profiles on the site between July to September 2009, compared with the previous three months. Maybe this is a reflection of the economic outlook improving but it’s also an amazing accolade to the value of all the help and advice out there on horsesmouth.co.uk

Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised that the statistics also show that female business mentors on the horsesmouth send 50 per cent more mentoring messages than their male counterparts, isuggesting that they tend to form more ongoing relationships, whereas men may give more quickfire advice.  What do you think? We’d love to have your feedback.

We must first thank Yell.com for coming on board as a partner to horsesmouth.  We look forward to working with the directory service to provide access to advice as well as awards for mentors and stories shared on the horsesmouth site.

We’re also deep in production of the new horsesmouth site, which is due to go live at the end of the year.  We’ll be putting a call for volunteers out to help us test the new site in mid-November.

And horsesmouth continues to grow.  In these economically depressed times, people are looking more and more to each other to help them define their personal and professional paths.  And while we are more connectied and have access to more information than ever before, it’s still extremely hard to know where to turn for the right advice.  What horsesmouth can do is connect you with people who can advise you on any questions you have, and put you in touch with other resources that are tailored for your needs.

In many respects, Horsesmouth is a positive example of the Wisdom of Crowds.  It facilitates the sharing of ideas, experiences and knowledge of extra resources in a caring environment.  Please tell your friends about horsesmouth and keep sharing those pearls of wisdom!