Comments (0)

By Fred, November 28, 2011 4:03 pm

With A-level results out this morning, hundreds of school leavers are planning impromptu gap years after missing out on places at uni.

While it may seem like a catastrophe at the time, having to take a gap year can be a great opportunity to broaden your horizons and develop new skills.  Even if you’ve made the grade you may want to defer your place at uni until next year to avoid burnout after three solid years of exams. Either way, if you take an impromptu gap year you can:

Improve your skills

Taking a gap year isn’t just about having a good time: volunteering abroad and teaching English abroad can both help you boost some of the ‘soft skills’ that university admissions tutors and potential employers are so desperate to see. Work on your leadership skills as you teach a class of rowdy teenagers in China about the present continuous. Boost your teamwork as you work with other volunteers to build homes for families in Honduras. Improve your interpersonal skills as you bridge cultural and language barriers to work with others on a community development project in Kenya. By taking the plunge and going abroad you’ll also see your confidence soar and all that booking of flights and getting sorted will do wonders for your organizational skills!

Gain some perspective

Sometimes it’s difficult to see how lucky we are with our lot in life. The best cure? Spend some time volunteering with people who are less well-off than you and you’ll find yourself feeling a lot better about the cards you’ve been dealt! Hannah Wright, who went to build homes for underprivileged communities in Kenya, said: “The slum where we would be building was probably the worst thing I’ve ever seen in my life, all those people living off a dump site just made me realise how much we take things for granted and think we have problems but they’re nothing compared to what these people live in everyday!”

Avoid burnout

Cases of depression and mental illness at universities around the UK are rising fast. After Sats in Year 9, GCSEs in Year 11, AS levels in Year 12 and A-levels in Year 13, it’s no wonder today’s school leavers are feeling a tad overworked. If you’re feeling a bit overwhelmed by all that studying, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t take some time out before starting uni refreshed and raring to go next September.

Earn some cash

While you’ll need to save your pennies if you want to head abroad to volunteer, there are some gap year options that can see you earning some cold, hard cash! For example, the massive demand for qualified TEFL teachers means that fluent English speakers are able to get TEFL qualified and pick up work around the world quickly and easily using i-to-i’s hassle-free TEFL courses and job placement service. Courses cost from as little as £175 and the earning potential is pretty decent. Or, if you want a little extra support, i-to-i’s China Teaching Internship (http://www.onlinetefl.com/teaching-internships/china/) is a fantastic option: you can get TEFL qualified, gain valuable teaching experience AND get paid for your efforts. So, not only do you get to live in an amazing country, you could also come home with money in the bank! Or take a working holiday with i-to-i in Australia and earn as you travel – check it out on our site i-to-i.com for more information.

Have some fun!

While you probably don’t need any pointers on how to have a good time, taking a gap year and going abroad is one hell of an adventure! Maxine Campion, who went to teach English in Honduras, described the experience in four words: “Amazing. Exciting. Liberating. Fun.”

For some ideas of where to go on your gap year check out our travel guides: http://www.i-to-i.com/campfire/travel-guides/categories/1-Gap-Year, take the volunteer test or check out http://www.onlinetefl.com for information about TEFL courses and jobs abroad.

I’m totally passionate about travel, it’s been my life and work for a good few years! My travel adventures haven’t really been about seeing monuments etc but far more about people and getting off the beaten track. Even in a country that has large numbers of tourists you can still find hidden places if you look hard enough, living and working in country gives you such a different perception of it and more of a chance to absorb the local culture. I would like to share my many experiences and offer a little advice if I can to fellow travellers or anyone who is just about to set off on a life changing trip!

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/college-and-university-articles/how-an-unexpected-gap-year-can-offer-unexpected-bonuses-1143153.html

Comments (0)

By Fred, November 14, 2011 1:19 am

Eight Reasons Why College Girls Choose Pepper Sprays For Self Defense

Self Defense Pepper Sprays are a very humane way to protect oneself. They do not cause any kind of long term harm or damage to the attacker who gets sprayed in the face.

These non-lethal self defense items will effectively stop an attacker so the girl can get away to safety! They also give the college girl some “peace of mind” just to carry one around.

Self Defense Pepper Sprays a very small and lightweight object that can be carried in pocket, purse, book bag, and so forth, and no one even has to know that a gal has it.

Self defense pepper spray is perfectly legal in all of the US although very few places have specific laws as to where you may purchase one, so check your local laws.

They are extremely effective in stopping an assailant! Most models shoot a stream of at least 6 feet, and the larger models can shoot a stream even farther. Usually a one or two second burst is enough to stop the attacker.

Usually the solution contains ten percent Oleo Resin Capsicum, but sometimes an even higher percentage is available, plus the solution is normally also enhanced with an Identifying Vegetable Dye that can aid law enforcement in picking up the attacker later on. He will have a big stain on his face and clothing.

The assailant will have eyes closed and burning, trouble breathing and seeing, will cough and choke, and this huge distraction will allow the gal who almost got attacked, to get away and get to safety.

The cost of a pepper spray is extremely reasonable compared to many other self defense items. There are key chain sized models in the ten to fifteen dollar range.

My name is Father Time and my fabulous Online SuperStore specializes in self defense products that are ideal for College Girls! Please Click Here To See Them!

Please be Safe, Girls, and Many Blessings to You!

Father Time has been a published writer for over thirty years and particularly focuses on motivational and self-help writing and speaking! He also has many years of sales experience and writes sales & marketing training and materials. His first love is poetry and greeting card verses!

He currently does a lot of writing for hire, especially article marketing pieces for folks who have their own websites to promote. IF you have a website, you should contact him for some good writing to promote your site; right away! You will be glad that you did!

Father Time deals in wholesale merchandise of a wide variety, and is especially fond of helping college students and anyone else who needs to earn extra cash, by allowing them to buy a dozen or other small quantity of “this or that” for the purposes of reselling the items, for a cash profit. You don’t have to go through the hassles of opening a business, you can just buy a batch of something that appeals to you, and then sell them to your friends. It is easy and fun, and very profitable!

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/college-and-university-articles/eight-reasons-why-college-girls-choose-pepper-sprays-for-self-defense-1303388.html

Comments (0)

By Fred, September 25, 2011 3:25 pm

The new crop of parents is beginning to check in with the daycare administrative staff. First question How much does it cost Since often they are first time parents they do not have a clue about costs availability or wait lists.
So armed with the usual list of questions from the professionals baby books they seek information about costs fill out applications pay application fees and make personal visits to the daycares they are interested in. Most of the time they will assume there will be space for their child whenever they want it. Most of the time they will expect to pay for child care only when they use it. Most of the time they are surprised to learn that they are purchasing a child care slot which they will pay for whether their child uses that spot or not. Purchasing a slot is a lot like getting married in sickness and in health This will be one of the first lessons they will be introduced to regarding childcare.
Comparison shopping for childcare produces some very interesting questions. Exactly what is included in the fee Parents voice their wish list. Most parents whether they can verbalize it or not sincerely hope their child will have a one on one situation. Of course intellectually parents realize a class size will be set by the appropriate licensing agency. They are told it may be four babies to one caregiver. They visit the classroom and see the caregiver with four babies but the heart understands things differently. The heart does not want the baby to cry or wait ever
Leaving a child in daycare often brings feelings of sadness and guilt for parents. Perhaps a relative has expressed displeasure however slight over their decision to use daycare. Pointing to the high fees involved may be used as a scapegoat argument.
Parents know if they employee a nanny their child could have a one on one relationship. They also worry about the horror stories they have heard when the nanny is alone with the child. And they worry about the days the nanny will call in sick and leave them stranded for child care no doubt on the day of the big meeting at the office.
These topics provide us with the opportunity to discuss the meaning of group living. Daycare is far from perfect. However the first thing it offers for the high tuition fees is submission to a licensing agency which monitors its staff policies and space. This license promises that professionals will routinely make visits both announced and unannounced to the facility to maintain a high standard of care. Such reports are public knowledge and parents are able to contact their local licensing agency to an up to date review of a particular daycare.
Daycare can also provide caregivers who will be expected to have minimum skills in caring for children. Among those skills are CPR first aid medication administration and a general understanding of early childhood development and education. Centers that are dedicated to the well being of young children demand their staff have professional days to upgrade their skills.
In the end parents will find a comfort level for themselves and their children. And while the cost of childcare is for many families the largest portion of their family budget they often decide it is worth every penny to know that a daycare program is vigorously monitored.

Comments (0)

By Fred, August 19, 2011 10:18 pm

This is part 3 of 3 of an article written by Owen Stevens

Berthoud (2007) points out that many people who are unemployed choose not to work, for example mothers may choose to stay at home to look after young children, therefore it is important to look at  the family non-employment rate defined as when a single person is unemployed or when a couple has no job between them.  Berthoud finds that the trend in the family unemployment rate rose between 1974 to 2003 despite a trend towards more jobs in this period.  In 2003 the personal non-employment rate was 3% lower than in 1974 but the family non-employment rate was 7% higher.  This is because much of the increase in personal employment rates occurred among families which already had a worker, Berthoud argues that the workforce has been divided into work-rich and work-poor families.  Families with disabled members, those without qualifications, and those without a working partner are more likely to be disadvantaged.  It could be argued that work-poor families with members corresponding with these characteristics are more likely to be concentrated in deprived urban areas.  This highlights the importance of considering the social distribution of unemployment when considering deprived urban areas.
The change in the structure of the economy over the last 30 years has clearly had a profound effect on unemployment in the UK, it is also clear that unemployment increases have occurred at varying rates across the country and affected certain social groups disproportionately.  There has been a strong attempt by the government to improve the employability of the long term unemployed and work on the supply side of the labour market.  It has undoubtedly had an important contribution to make in reducing unemployment among certain social groups in deprived urban areas.  However, it is worth remembering that in an unequal society certain locations, in this case deprived urban areas will always be the places in which problems of unemployment and other social problems are most problematic as those individuals who make the most of the help provided by government programmes and move into sustainable employment are likely to move out of the deprived urban areas concentrating those in long term unemployment in the deprived urban areas.

The flagship New Deal programme has been a good policy for the boom times of the Labour government in which there has been strong and sustained economic growth with steady job creation.  However, the economic situation is changing rapidly and the economy is losing jobs.  In some areas of the south-east there are now 60 job-seekers per vacancy and unemployment is predicted to rise to 2 million (The Observer, 15 March).  It is clear that unemployment policy can no longer be restricted to supply side measures and the government will have to introduce new demand side measures as well as delivering help to businesses, such as promised loans to help liquidity, in order to minimise job loss.

References

• Atkinson, M. (1999) New Deal success ‘inflated’, Guardian, 3rd Dec, pp.26
• Berthoud, R. (2007) Work-rich and work-poor: Three decades of change, The Policy Press, Bristol
• Bivand, P. (1999) Ethnic Inequality in New Deal jobs. Working Brief. October. 8-9
• Buck, N. and Gordon, I. (1987) The Beneficiaries of employment growth: an analysis of the experience of disadvantaged groups in expanding labour markets, in Hausner, V. (ed.) Critical Issues in Urban Economic Development vol ii, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
• Burgess, S. (1989) How does unemployment change? Department of Economics, University of Bristol, Bristol
• Department for Education and Employment (2001) ‘Golden Hellos’ for employers at heart of new, simpler employment drive, press notice 2001/0021, 17 jan
• ESC (1999) Employability and Jobs: Is there a jobs gap?  Fourth report of the education and employment committee, Session 1999-2000, vols 1 and 2, HC 60-I&II, London: Stationery Office
• Finn, D. (2003) The “Employment First” welfare state: Lessons form the New Deal for young people, Social Policy and Administration, 37, 7, pp.709-724
• Layard, R. (1998) Getting people back to work, Centrepiece, Autumn, pp.24-27
• Layard, R., Nickell, S. and Jackman, R. (1991) Unemployment: Macroeconomic performance and the labour market, Oxford University Press, Oxford
• Painter, J. and Goodwin, M. (2000) Local Governance after Fordism, in Stoker, G. (ed.) The New Politics of British Local Governance, Basingstoke, Macmillan Press.
• Peck, J. and Theodore, N. (2000) Beyond ‘Employability’, Cambridge Journal of Economics, 24, pp.729-749
• Stewart, H., Helm, T. and Syal, R. (2009) Job centre crisis as ten bid for each vacancy, The Observer, 15 March, pp.1
• Sunley, P., Martin, R. and Nativel, C. (2001) Mapping the New Deal: local disparities in the performance of welfare to work, Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 26, 4, pp.484-512
• Turok, I. And Edge, N. (1999) The Jobs Gap in Britain’s Cities, employment loss and labour market consequences, Bristol, The Policy Press.

Owen Stevens is project manager at Skyblu, specialists in digital marketing and website design midlands .

Article Source:why-is-it-so-difficult-to-increase-rates-of-employment-participation-in-deprived-urban-areas-1424047

Comments (0)

By Fred, August 18, 2011 12:06 pm

This is part 2 of 3 of an article written by Owen Stevens

The importance of flows into and out of joblessness when determining unemployment level has been a controversial topic among economists.  Writers such as Layard (see Layard et al, 1991) influential in developing the New Deal argue that high unemployment in the 1980s was caused by reduced numbers of people leaving the ranks of the jobless leading to a rise in the average duration that individuals spend unemployed.  Others, such as Burgess (1989) argued that the reduced outflows and increased duration of unemployment during the 1980s were consequences of increased inflows to unemployment due to lack of availability of employment or ‘jobs gap’.  The two perspectives lead to different policy prescriptions.  For Layard it is necessary to target the long term unemployed and increase their job search effectiveness in the way that the New Deal aims to do, this can be described as increasing the supply of labour.  On the other hand, Burgess would advocate stemming the inflows into unemployment in the first place by operating on the demand side of the labour market as well as the supply side through provision of jobs.  Peck and Theodore (2000) argue that where the local labour market is not strong enough to accomodate the increased supply of labour appropriate demand side measures should be used, they criticise the New Deal for being almost completely passive with respect to the demand side of the labour market and also not recognising that jobs will go to the most employable unemployed, meaning that the most likely to be unemployed will be least likely to find jobs.  The National Institute of Economic and Social Research in 1999 discovered that of the 145,000 people who entered jobs via the New Deal since April 1998 79% would have found employment anyway due to the cyclical expansion in the economy (Atkinson, 1999).  Treasury economists argue there is wide availability of employment opportunities in most parts of the country and that buoyant labour markets exist next to areas of high unemployment meaning that the issue is employability and physical access to jobs rather than job creation (ESC, 1999).

Physical access to jobs could be seen to incorporate many other areas of government policy.  While the New Deal is an important part of broader government strategy to reduce unemployment it does not operate in isolation.  A minimum wage has been introduced to ensure that the jobs the long term unemployed are likely to go into have acceptable rates of pay, there have also been policies such as tax credits which aim to make work more attractive and reduce barriers to finding work for those on the lower levels of the jobs market.  Peck and Theodore (2000) point out that employers participating in programmes to increases employment participation do so in accordance with their already existing practices of recruitment, health and safety, and equal opportunities.  The basic rules of labour market entry remain defined on the employers terms and there is a risk of reproducing labour market inequality and discrimination.  Buck and Gordon (1987) write that inner city residents are long term unemployed largely as a reflection of personal characteristics: age, race,  social class, or employment experience- which affect evaluations of their employability.  Certain groups are much more likely to experience employment discrimination than others, for example the relative odds of unemployment for a black person were 2.5 times as great as for those with the most common characteristics and those in unskilled or unclassified jobs had a chance of being unemployed about 80% greater.  These sources of disadvantage are cumulative, so that for an unmarried and unqualified black worker, aged 16-19, in an unskilled manual occupation, living in local authority tenure, the relative odds of unemployment as against employment appear to be 30 times as great as for an individual with the standard characteristics.  Therefore the government have enacted a range of legislation such as the Equality Act of 2006 making discrimination due to race, age, gender, etc. illegal when considering an individual for employment and setting up tribunals to ensure fair employment practices.  This has the effect of removing barriers for some individuals facing unfair disadvantage in the labour market ensuring maximum possible benefit from the government’s employability agenda.  However, despite this there is evidence that ethnic minority youth in the New Deal scheme are less successful in gaining employer based placements and private sector jobs than their white counterparts (Bivand, 1999).

Owen Stevens is project manager at Skyblu, specialists in digital marketing and website design midlands .

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/college-and-university-articles/why-is-it-so-difficult-to-increase-rates-of-employment-participation-in-deprived-urban-areas-1424047.html

Comments (0)

By Fred, August 17, 2011 4:51 am

This is part 1 of 3 of an article written by Owen Stevens,

The New Labour government, elected in 1997, has seen it as one of their core aims to reduce long term unemployment, particularly in deprived urban areas in the party’s heartlands.  At the forefront of government policy to increase employment participation has been the New Deal.  The Labour government’s policy did not break with the broad ‘workfarist’ thrust of past Conservative policy with its threats to remove benefit if claimants do not actively seek work, New Labour saw this as a key part of their attempt to construct a welfare state based upon citizens’ responsibilities as well as rights.  Layard, a British economist influential in originating the New Deal wrote that ‘where benefits last for a long time, so does unemployment.  Governments and societies get what they pay for- if they pay for inactivity, that’s what they get’ (1998, pp.24-25).  However, the New Deal, as well as actively helping and encouraging the unemployed to find work, provides training, subsidised employment and volunteer placements to those that do not find unsubsidized employment through the scheme.  The New Deal aims to increase the employability of individuals in the eyes of employers, there have been a number of New Deals for various groups in society such as the young, adults over 25, lone parents and others.  The New Deal for Young People was the first to be put into place and receives the most funding.  The government sees the New Deal for Young People as one of the jewels in its policy crown citing 250,000 young people moving into sustained jobs and, according to one Secretary of State for Unemployment, long term youth unemployment has been virtually eliminated (DfEE, 2001).  However, the government has been less willing to acknowledge that the effectiveness of the programme has varied between locations and that there are large numbers of people who do not get jobs after they participate in the programme, of the 854,000 people who started on the NDYP by March 2003 only 36% were known to have entered unsubsidized employment and nearly one in five of those ended their employment within 13 weeks (Finn, 2003).  Sunley, Martin and Nativel (2001) carried out a study mapping the performance of the New Deal at a local level rather than assessing its performance at a national scale as the government has done.  Mapping the problem faced by the government in 1997 Sunley et al. found, as expected, that the areas youth unemployment as a proportion of the total population was more severe were concentrated in the northern conurbations and old industrial areas rather than in the south of England which has been one of the areas to benefit most in employment from the restructuring of the economy (Turok, 1999).  However, when Sunley et al. mapped the number of people who obtained unsubsidized jobs, the number of people remaining employed for a minimum period after gaining a job and the  areas in which youth employment as a proportion of total employment was worst in 2000 it was clear that the performance of the New Deal had been best in the areas in which it was needed less in the deprived northern conurbations and inner cities.  The areas with the most buoyant local labour markets, in Central and Southern England, were the areas in which most people had gained and held jobs and where youth unemployment as a proportion of the total unemployed had been reduced the most.  Sunley et al. point out that a scheme like the New Deal working on improving employability will succeed in areas where there are sufficient jobs for the increased supply of people coming into the labour market, which by definition are not the areas in which unemployment is the most entrenched.  Sunley et al. explain the poor performance of the New Deal in some areas as partly due to the kinds of jobs available in those areas which could be more insecure at the bottom of the skill structure in the service and construction sectors.  Boosting the supply of labour in depressed labour markets could also have the effect of putting downward pressure on wages leading to increased labour turnover.  Also, the target based need for employment services to place the unemployed in jobs they are unsuited to contributing to the recycling of people through the system and the persistence of long term unemployment in deprived urban areas, to combat this Peck and Theodore (2000) recommend that help for the unemployed continues beyond the first job, helping people to move into better jobs.

Owen Stevens is project manager at Skyblu, specialists in digital marketing and website design midlands .

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/college-and-university-articles/why-is-it-so-difficult-to-increase-rates-of-employment-participation-in-deprived-urban-areas-1424047.html