Must have Skills

Wall Street Journal, 17th Nov 2012

Even as employers remain cautious next year about every dollar spent on employees, they'll also want workers to show greater skills and results.

For employees who want to get ahead, basic competency won't be enough.

To win a promotion or land a job next year, experts say there are four must-have job skills:

1. Clear communications

Whatever their level, communication is key for workers to advance.

"This is really the ability to clearly articulate your point of view and the ability to create a connection through communication," says Holly Paul, U.S. recruiting leader at PricewaterhouseCoopers, the accounting and consulting firm based in New York.

It’s OK to not score straight ‘As’

Samir Parikh, Hindustan Times

New Delhi, November 20, 2012

Society places a very high premium on academic performance. The scenario today is that the marks your child gets defines not just who she or he is but also who you are. It is, however, not possible for every child to get a distinction, and it is important to remember that there is a world outside academics as well. There are a few points we need to keep in mind.

1 Understand your child’s difficulty: There are many reasons for children to not do well academically. Rather than dismissing them as being disinterested, understand what it is that is causing these academic difficulties. Is it attention problem, processing difficulty or some emotional distress?.

2 Accept limitations: Every child can’t get 95% in every subject every time. We all have our strengths and weaknesses. Accept your children’s limitations, identify their strengths and help them reach their potential.

3 Invest additional time to help your child: For some teens, having a parent around can help them study. Do not hover but be around for them. Help them understand concepts they might be having difficulties with. Also set some rules and boundaries.

4 Explore other avenues of interest: For teenagers with academic difficulties, their sense of self-worth often takes a beating amidst all the negative criticism. It is important for them to take up other activities they can excel in and be recognised for.

5 Give positive strokes: Due to the feedback they receive, teens often get de-motivated and avoid studies altogether. As a parent, acknowledge the efforts your child is putting in.

6 Talk to your child about his or her difficulties: Academic problems can have social and emotional consequences. Be a friend to your children and talk to them about the difficulties they are facing, without judgement or reprimand.

Yes to Blended, But Maine Should Authorize Virtual Schools - Vander Ark on Innovation - Education Week

Yes to Blended, But Maine Should Authorize Virtual Schools - Vander Ark on Innovation - Education Week

The Fabindia Schools Newsletter Fall 2012

The Foundations of Education

Perfect carriage – the knowledge that you posses a full share of that poetry of movement which we call deport­ment has a wonderful effect upon the mind, and as I hold that it is absolutely necessary in the striving after physi­cal fitness, first to have a regard for your mentality, I would put deportment down as the beginning of the alphabet of physical culture. Having learned to walk correctly, you have mastered one of the hardest and most exacting lessons of your athletic curriculum. You then know all about poise, balance; and awkwardness will not seize hold of you. … Training as training – a species of mechanics I would call it – is as appalling as it is monotonous and soul-destroying. … It is not uncommon to find the average trainer insisting upon his man working full steam until the very eve of a fight. There is nothing in my opinion more harmful to drill into a pugilist that he is just a fighting machine to be wound up and set working at will. 

We shall not dwell any more on physical education, but on mental education. However, whatever Carpentier has said about the body is wholly applicable to the mind also. The education prevalent in our country and all over the world aims at preparing a severely muscular mind and brain as has been observed by Carpentier. What do we do in the existing system of education? We exert ourselves following some faculties of the mind or relying only on certain parts of the brain. We want to make the mind, the brain of the student expert and ingenious in certain branches of knowledge, that is, in certain the trick. 

Georges Carpentier, the famous sportsman of France
Read more
http://nextfuture.aurosociety.org/the-foundations-of-education-two

IPSSC goes the YES Way

YES is happy to be associated with IPSC for skills developement

IPSC is an independent and autonomous entity which functions as the apex body on skill development for the Plumbing industry as well as coordinate the efforts of various agencies in the area of skill development. 

It is responsible for charting and meeting the human resource requirement of the entire value chain of the Plumbing sector. Its task is to ensure that the human resource pool size as well as quality is appropriate and sufficient for the growing & evolving demands of the Industry. The IPSC, to ensure this, will primarily do the following tasks;

• Research and aggregate skill requirements of the Industry. 
• Create skill database, collate and disseminate labour market information. 
• Identify upcoming technologies in the sector and determine technology specific   skills   that may need to be developed in the near future.
• Build Capacity for training delivery and regulate the skill development activities in the Industry sectors including development of the National Occupational Standards, qualifications, training curriculum and assessment criteria. 
• Provide quality assurance via accreditation & certifications of training delivery bodies and awarding certification to trainees. It will work in conjunction with the Government bodies and agencies in formulating and developing the certification framework in India which would extend beyond the current certifications system consisting of ITIs, ATIs, Diploma and Engineering. 

For more please email Sandeep Dutt at sandeep@ipssc.in

How we govern

For business to find its greatest expression and achieve its loftier aims, it must organise and govern itself in a manner that unleashes ... forces in those who join within it.
Why HOW we do anything means Everything - Dov Seidman

What inspires you to go the extra mile!

Really talented people who have lots of opportunities, are not ultimately moved by any incremental difference in their pay cheque. What inspires them to...
1) working in a place that gives them an ample opportunity and resources with which to grow and develop as a person and make meaningful contributions;
2) working for and with people who share their belief systems, their professional aspirations, and their objectives for what the enterprise can accomplish; and
3) working in an enterprise that is somehow making the world a better place in some dimensions that is important to them. 
That is what inspires them to go the extra mile. To create such a place, we need a distinct culture, as distinct character, and a distinct set of values and objectives that resonate against that spectrum of motivations.
 - Jeff Kindler in 'How'