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Have You Ever Heard Of Google’s Free Digital Marketing Course? It’s Definitely Worth Taking!
By: Mary Elaine
Tags: Social Media, Career Development, Digital Marketing, Google, Online Courses

Have You Ever Heard Of Google’s Free Digital Marketing Course? It’s Definitely Worth Taking!

Photo created by the author.

Did you know that Google is offering a free Digital Marketing Course and is one of the best courses they offer? This is an excellent opportunity if you want to learn more about this course from Google and get certified in the Fundamentals of Digital Marketing, whether you are just starting out a career or business, or you just want to brush up your skills with it.

Digital Marketing can be defined as, “An advertising through a digital channel. Digital channels such as web applications, mobile applications, search engines, social media, email websites, or any new digital channel.” With today’s generation, marketers consider digital marketing to be an entirely new endeavor that requires new ways of customer approach, new ways to understand consumer behavior, and is more enhanced as compared to traditional marketing.

As a graduate of Entrepreneurial Management, I was more exposed and trained in the ways of traditional marketing. It is, as they say, that now is the time to move forward and embrace the diverse new culture of going digital because this is where our world revolves now. Gone are the days of physical distribution of product pamphlets and physical copies from magazines and newspapers. Now is the time to use digital media, and what better way to do it than now where the thriving internet is an important necessity for everyone else in the world?

This Digital Marketing Course is free to access by everyone and can be taken at your own pace and your own time. This is an ultimate treat because it comes with a free certificate from Google. Make your time productive now and take this super-packed course that will surely fill up your digital knowledge skills.
A Nimble and Creative Career Journey
By: Erin Schnair
Tags: Career Paths, Iteration, Consulting Strategy, Career Development

Who knows exactly what they want to be at 21 years old? I certainly thought I did. After undergrad, I embarked on a 7+ year career in publishing, where I was instrumental in managing, improving, and delivering world-class learning solutions to college students. But after many years in this meaningful field, I needed a change.

I may have moved on from publishing, but books still rule my world!

Iterating is key to improving a strategy, service, or experience. My career journey has been no different. In 2018 I began a great pivot to get closer to my passion: to partner with leaders to co-design transformative strategies.

I now have a new name for my professional path: A Nimble and Creative Career Journey.

According to the Harvard Business Review, “Having a wide range of skills and experiences is more beneficial [than specializing early] because it allows you to be nimble and creative.”

Whether a business is looking to prepare for an uncertain future or achieve a strategy with new operating models, I use human centered and systems design to uncover root causes of problems and discover solutions.

My hybrid background has served me well in my pivot to management consulting. With every role I’ve sharped key skills.

What types of strengths do consultants need to lead businesses into the future? I’d say that being nimble and creative is at the top of the list.
The NO BS Self-Assessment on Your Storytelling
Tags: Storytelling For Business, Pr, Leadership Development, Career Development, Podcast

In this marketing podcast, Dave walks you through a self-assessment on your most recent emails, videos on your website or social platforms, presentation decks, and meetings to evaluate your storytelling while constructing tips to implement to take your storytelling to the next level.

Subscribe to the Marketing Podcast

About MASSolutions

For No Bullshit marketing solutions, including B2E marketing, public relations, and storytelling, contact Pittsburgh Marketing Agency MASSolutions here.
Role and Importance of Relationship Management
Tags: Relationship Management, Career Development, Personal Development, Self Development, Personality Development

Relationship management is the process of maintaining a bond with strategies regarding what a business has, to deliver in the market to the audience or to other businesses. It is observed by focusing on the quality of deliverables to the audience. It helps an organization or business to grow in the market while building trust, and healthy bonds with the people. The management helps to water healthy bonds for better future relationships.

Visit: why is honesty important

Benefits of Relationship Management:

Trust for the Quality of the Product or Service being offered.

Increased Market Value of the Brand.

Higher Revenue with Strong Relations.

These Opportunities contribute to the expansion of the Brand.

Higher Opportunities with better Relations.

Expanded Network working for great Advertisement.

Relationship Management offers a feeling of Loyalty from the business side of the Market.

Visit: how to improve negotiation skills

Importance of Relationship Management

It offers a great understanding between business and audience/market.

Relations are created within the market and even inside the brand as well.

Higher understanding results in achieving better communication of requirements.

The quality of the product is created through a better understanding of market demands.

The brand gains loyalty from different parts of the market and with other businesses as well.

Relations are also managed within the organizations.

Reduction in product deployment cost.

Project objectives are wisely communicated, resulting in a reduction of extra costs. Visit: emotion management skills

Some Important Facts

Relationship management services with tech integration like cloud facility, have gone on a rise from 12% to 87%.

In upgrading the market, around 91% of businesses consider relationship management to be a crucial part of success.

Out of them, around 74% of businesses have better access to market data with tech advances.

Tips for Relationship Management:

Become transparent with your business Deals

Look for trust-building Strategies

Making your deliverables more Credible

Increase the Quality of what you deliver to meet Market needs

Focus on improving the market value of Brand

Be the one to initiate a conversation

Push yourselves to maintain relations, even if you don’t see any reason to do so

Personality Development and Relationship Management

Increased Focus, Helps you to look for precise information about market and audience Recognizing opportunities for expanding business Managing timings, with new relations, form strong bonds Good Communication makes better relationships Honesty in business deals

Visit: personality development skills

Originally published at https://www2.slideshare.net on December 10, 2020.
I definitely used similar websites to kickstart my freelancing career many years ago.
By: Rica Keenum
Tags: Writers Life, Writing Tips, Freelance Writing, Freelance Writer, Career Development

I definitely used similar websites to kickstart my freelancing career many years ago. As you said, the pay was indeed low and writers were always subject to the whims of the client. There was no stability and rarely any recognition for exceeding expectations. However, I did learn to manage my time, juggle a home office and family, and I got the experience I needed to grow into more lucrative endeavors. I would NEVER go back to these platforms, but I can’t say I regret my experiences. Great article! 😊
Finding Inspiration in The New Normal
By: Moon Ho Kim
Tags: Gratitude, Inspiration, Covid Diaries, Pandemic Diaries, Career Development

The new normal has savaged many of us with hopelessness and doubt. Before the pandemic, it was a lot easier to find inspiration. If you lost a job or broke up with your ex, you could travel the world, move to a new state, find a new job, join a club, or pursue whatever captured your interest to rediscover yourself. Nowadays, with COVID-19 spikes and lockdowns, people have become apprehensive about the notion of socializing. Without a change of scenery and human connections, we’ve had to strongly adjust to this new lifestyle and finding inspiration in a safe, socially distanced way. Like many of us, we are left pondering how to go about this, and I have developed a couple of ideas based on my experiences in 2020 thus far.
First Week at AMAL
By: Ali Hadi
Tags: Amal Fellowship, Amal Academy, Career Development

This is Ali Hadi, an undergraduate student. I joined the Amal Fellowship this week and since then i am enjoying every bit of it. So i came to know of this fellowship from Linkedin and decided to go for it. The motive behind joining this was to meet different talented people and learn from them. I really believe that learning from others is the best way to grow. I wanted to interact with many extraordinary people and when i went through this program’s description, i thought in my mind “Yes Ali, this is the place” and here i am today writing about my first week’s experience.

The first week was really up to my expectations. For the first time, i realised doing something for my own personal development rather than the professional one. The experience was like no other courses or online classes that we usually take. It had tons of activities and seeing such great brains at one place was just really fascinating.

So we had two sessions this week. In the first session, we had 3 to 4 fun activities. We were asked some questions in the beginning, this was followed by watching a mind blowing video and then a group task of making a figure with limited resources. These activities covered all the domains that my fellows were looking for. From motivation as a leader to team work, it covered a lot of things in such a unique way. We were told about some rules but that too did not become boring at all as our instructors would bring in a COOL activity before anyone gets bored.

The second session was a really interactive one. At first, we played a game sort of thing in which we had to guess names of our fellows. Hadi Bandial did a good job, I too was able to name just 4 to 5 fellows but I really hope we all will know each other after a few sessions. After this, we were given 3 different scenarios which we had to address, this too was quite unique and interactive. Now comes my favourite part of this session which was the debating part. There were two topics , “Amal” and “Khudi” to debate on. My team was given Khudi which we had to defend. It was a really interactive activity although time was a bit short but its understandable as our instructors had to manage all these activities in a very limited time. Such debating activities in future would be really interactive and fun (I personally love debating that’s why saying so 😜). The final activity was to make a life map. Oh man! this was just so much fun and encouraging. Looking back at things which we did in the past, the failures, overcoming those failures and turning them into success stories. The past achievements might be small but the struggle behind those small achievements is the real deal. Kudos to all my fellows for their struggles and achievements. More power to each one of you.

Last but obviously not the least, Thank You Sir Ahmad and Ma’am Iman for conducting such Wonderful Sessions.
Even If Your Coworker Is So Stupid You Shouldn’t Be Thinking About It On Saturday!
By: Lyon Amor Brave
Tags: Career Advice, Career Change, Stress, Career Development, Stress Management Tips

We live for Saturdays and Sundays!

We start counting down the week as soon as it’s Monday!

It’s the weekend, you are off work and still thinking about all the crap that happened at work. That is no good.

If you cannot unwind when you are at home from work that might be a sign it’s time to quit your job.

t is important to have work life balance so you have to learn to control your mind.

You should not be thinking about what a dick Timmy is from the office, while out on a date or enjoying a meal with your family.

Do not bring a toxic work environment home.

Our free time is precious when we are working 40 to 60 hour weeks.

You have to learn to make your time off work sacred and yours.

You do not want to be angry all throw the weekend because of something that happened on Tuesday.

Learn to control your thoughts, so you can take control of your life and time.

As soon as you realize you are thinking about work outside of work, do yourself a favor and stop. Think about what you really want to do with your free time.

Do you want to go to the gym, sleep, date, work on your own projects.

#coworkers #officedrama #toxiccareer
This is how I feel about what I do for a living.
By: Hector Sosa
Tags: Manager, Fellowship, Career Development, Career Advancement, Career Paths

This is how I feel about what I do for a living. I love to be a mentor, but I rarely get the chance to do it.

I don’t remember when was the last time I was in a situation where I could keep advancing technically, instead of being thrown into the managerial kennel. There is one company that won’t even let me interview, after I was laid off, for new positions because I expressed that sentiment.

I’ve seen a few companies that have have a “Technical Fellow” path. Sadly, I only hear about someone achieving that then it disappears into the bit ether, to never be heard from again.
the path to becoming a successful engineer.
By: Forrest Smietanski
Tags: Career Advice, Software Development, Career Development

In 2011, I graduated from university with a degree in Management of Information Systems. I had no idea what I was going to do with my life when May rolled around… I ended up take an analysts position with a company in Seattle and unbeknownst to me embarked on my journey to becoming a software engineer.

The Early Days…

When I began my career as an analyst I truly feared engineers as I believed they were some of the most competent people at my company. After a few years of writing requirements; I became more comfortable working with my colleges. I even started to watch a few code tutorials online to help restore my confidence from my horrific memories at university on programming.

Eventually I was granted access to make business logic changes in our BRE( Business Rule Engine). The changes were small, and somewhat insignificant; but they taught me basic coding principles and system interaction methods. I slowly gained confidence and began working on more complex issues. I believed I was becoming a software engineer…

The switch to Engineer.

My company eventually began adopting agile principles as my analyst role was going to be re-align with the business and not with IT. My boss and I both agreed this was the right time for me to switch job roles…

This was it I had made it! I was ecstatic; I was so excited to transfer to my new team and begin working on new projects that emphasized working on code heavy solutions. Little did I know, how little I actually knew. I wasn't completely inept, but I had a ways to go in order to become a contributing member of my squad.
Take control of your career today
Tags: New Job Tips, Career Advice, Career Development, Career Strategies, Personal Development

#5 Create your own opportunities

Waiting for new opportunities in the work place can take a long time but if you create your own, the chances are that you’ll be able to get started in a matter of weeks if not sooner. The most rewarding opportunities will probably require you to be open-minded and adapt, and mixing your interests isn’t a bad shout either.

If you’re interested in gaining leadership skills, rather than wait for a new role to become vacant, why not identify a gap in your workplace and take the lead e.g. start a coding study group, lead a confidence in presenting workshop series if that’s one of your strengths.

When you start making a list, you’ll realise that there are so many opportunities! You’ll probably have to run your idea by your line manager but if it’s a viable solution to a real problem, you should be okay. As well as learning to lead and gaining extra responsibilities, you’ll raise your profile and get recognised in the business for being proactive and using your initiative. When that leadership role comes around, you’ll already be in the running for it. If not, you have solid example to discuss in job interviews elsewhere!
Apology rejected: Why it’s time for HR to stop saying I’m sorry
By: Ben Brooks
Tags: Coaching, Career Development, Hrtech, Hr Executive, Thoughts

Each month I get to put pen to paper and encourage other HR professionals in my column for HR Executive Magazine. Recently, I felt inspired to urge our industry to put down their “sorry shields”.

For years, I was an over-apologizer. However, I’ve been learning just how much saying, “I’m sorry,” when we’re not can damage both our impact as HR professionals and our confidence in our jobs. I’ve come to notice that many of my colleagues in the Human Resources field seemingly share this same bad habit of leading with an apology when one isn’t even warranted. It happens in meetings when we’re bringing up ideas or asking questions, in emails when we need confirmation of status, when we need to give difficult feedback, and in countless other circumstances when we are just trying to do our damn jobs. Today, though, I’m here to assert that we are cheapening the HR function, holding back our own careers and severely limiting our impact with our insincere apologies.

So let’s all make a pact as professionals, to check our impulses to apologize when we don’t really mean it and to reject the unnecessary “sorry” statements from our colleagues.

Read my full article here.
General Assembly: Advance in your Career for 1 Hour per Month
By: Quin Roussard
Tags: Learning, Career Change, Online, Career Development, Careers

I can not be the only one that thinks my phone is somehow always listening to me… Hear me out… If you find yourself having a conversation with a friend that you are looking for a new facial moisturizer, then the next time you go on your phone, there are ads for Target and Sephora moisturizers… Facebook ads always seem to be hearing what I’m talking about, even if I don’t type anything into my phone about it! Usually these ads are meaningless to me- clothes, beauty products, new kitchen items- things I definitely have enough of, and definitely do not need to be spending my money on.

Although, recently, I was browsing through my LinkedIn Premium courses- and the internet must have been listening to me here, too- but this time, it was actually for the good! I stumbled upon an ad for General Assembly FREE skills workshops. Yes, you read that correctly- FREE.

Photo by You X Ventures on Unsplash

General Assembly is an online* learning platform, created by Jake Schwartz to bridge the gap between needed career skills and the associated education, at a low cost. The best part, the courses are always adapting to the relevant times- for example, they currently have courses on how to network virtually and “Job Searching during “Difficult Times.” They also stay up to date with in-demand job skills, are easily accessible and offered at all times of the day, and the best part- all taught by industry professionals!

General Assembly offers free one-off courses (typically introductory) and paid boot camp (quick learnings), part-time courses and full-time (12 week courses), so there are options for everyone’s schedules, needs and skill levels. The main overarching topics that General Assembly offers courses in are: Coding, Software Design, Data, UX Design, Marketing, but also have other topics, including career development and Product Management. I’m sure you can find something that relates to your interests to help develop your skills on this educational platform.

In addition to educational resources, General Assembly also offers co-working spaces for professionals all over the World- from North America to Europe to Asia and Australia, on their over 30 campuses Worldwide — where they typically offer in-person courses and dialogues. Additionally, when you graduate from a short- or long-term course, you have access to their diverse alumni network and they have connections to over 19,000 hiring partners. A great perk!
3 Strategies to Take Control of Your Career
By: Paul Kosinski
Tags: Career Advice, Leadership Development, Career Development, Paul Kosinski, Career Strategies

Most employees take a passive role in their careers. They put their heads down, work hard, and hope that their accomplishments will lead to success. Sometimes they get lucky, and management takes notice of their work. Promotions, raises, and expanded responsibilities land in their lap. Other times they get unlucky and are stuck with poor management, lousy company performance, and a perpetual feeling of “being stuck.”

In both cases, something other than an employee’s actions, luck, is in charge of the outcome. The key to career growth and success is ownership. Employees must be their own greatest advocates. They must be willing to grab opportunities as they arise and move on from jobs stifling their growth. But how can one take ownership of one’s career? Here are three strategies that’ll help.

Learn, Learn, Learn

In 2020, the world has never moved faster. The only constant is change, and to find career success, employees must prioritize learning. Gone are the days of employees being able to make a living utilizing the same skills for multiple decades. A modern employee who doesn’t learn risks waking up to find out that their job has been made obsolete by rapidly advancing technology.

Read books, take classes, volunteer for projects outside of your wheelhouse in the office. Never stop learning.

Network, Network, Network

Networking has taken on a negative connotation in the modern workspace, often conjuring images of highly transactional relationships. The reality is networking is merely making an effort to meet and interact with other professionals in a given industry. Attend conferences, sign up for virtual webinars, and freely give thoughts and advice based on your lived experience.

Networking is useful beyond landing a job. Meeting professionals outside of their organization can help employees develop smart solutions to problems, identify potentially useful vendors, and find new people to recruit to a team.

Don’t Hesitate to Cut an Employer Loose

We all know the feeling. Stuck in a dead-end job that doesn’t promote growth-doing the same thing day in and day out. Promises of raises and expanded opportunities are given year after year and yet are never delivered.

Sometimes the fit simply isn’t there between an employee and a position. An employee can outgrow a position, or the strategic business goals of an organization may change. A lack of fit can be frustrating for both employee and employer, but the biggest mistake often occurs when an employee decides to “stick it out.”

If there isn’t a fit, move on. Don’t waste years of a career hoping for things to improve; shape your own career destiny!
5 Easy Ways To Develop Your Career At Home
Tags: Career Advice, Career Development, Career Tips

5 Easy Ways To Develop Your Career At Home

Small changes to your approach can make a big difference to your career journey SociologyInSession Follow Dec 2, 2020 · 3 min read

Photo by Dominika Roseclay from Pexels

It can be difficult trying to build your career whilst being at home. Especially during this current-climate where there are many restrictions placed on us.

Under these circumstances, it’s easy to lose motivation or get distracted, which makes it an even tougher challenge to develop your career whilst having to adapt to a new way of living. So I have come up with 5 easy ways anyone can develop their career at home.

Keep informed with your industry

Keeping informed with your industry is essential when it comes to developing your career, having an awareness of what’s going on is important in case you need to adapt to any changes.

Employers like to see that you understand what’s going on in your field and how it affects them, so being able to demonstrate this early on in your applications or interviews puts you at an advantage.

Subscribing to blogs, podcasts, and social media accounts that talk about key trends in your industry is a good way to keep updated

Assess your skills

It’s good to assess your strengths and weaknesses to figure out what you do well and what could be improved.

Spend some time making a list and then coming up with steps to take to strengthen certain areas. It’s also good to know what you do well so that you can bring this out more on your CV.

Invest in Online Courses

Investing in online courses is an easy way to strengthen your skills from home. There are many free and low-cost learning platforms that you can use in your spare time.

Some courses also give you a certificate at the end of the programme, which you can put on your CV and show to potential employers.

The online learning platforms I like to use are:

Skillshare

Coursera

Linkedin Learning

Update your CV

Ensuring that your CV is regularly updated saves you time re-drafting when a job you’re interested in comes up.

It’s good to spend a few hours adding any new achievements or experiences gained to help your CV stand out more and to make the application process run smoothly.

Network virtually

The way we network has changed a lot over the years. Especially with the current climate, more people are networking online.

There are many virtual panel events and webinars going on. This is a good opportunity to network directly with industry professionals and to ask any questions that may be useful to you.

Attending these online events is also a great way to learn more about your industry and to get tips on progressing within your chosen field.

Final Thoughts

Developing your career whilst being at home can be difficult, but making a few small changes to your approach could make a big difference to your career journey.

Subscribe to my mailing list for more self-development & career content.

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3 Keys for Building a Personal Brand
By: Jacob Morgan
Tags: Personal Branding, Business Strategy, Future Of Work, Entrepreneurship, Career Development

<​a href​=’https://www.freepik.com/vectors/background'​>Background vector created by freepik — www.freepik.com<​/a>

What’s the single best thing you can do for your career?

Build your personal brand.

It doesn’t matter if you work for someone else or for yourself. Your personal brand is what you stand for, how people perceive you, and what you’re known for. It can make the difference between getting career opportunities and staying stagnant.

Everyone has a personal brand, even if they don’t realize it. But to shape your own brand, you have to be proactive and take control. When’s the best time to start building your personal brand? Today!

I made a video about this which you can see below. If you want more content like this then make sure to subscribe to the Be Your Own Boss Podcast Youtube Channel where my wife Blake and I teach you how you can be your own boss.

Here are three keys to building your personal brand:

Consistency

What is your area of expertise? What do you want to be known for? Choose a topic and stick to it. It could be anything from marketing to leadership to coding or accounting. The key is to be consistent. If you’re all over the place, people won’t know what you stand for or what skills or knowledge you have to offer. Choose a message and stick to it.

Frequency

Once you’ve chosen your topic, be frequent about the message. Share it as much as possible across multiple channels. Leverage social media to share articles, podcasts, photos, videos, and more. Within your organization, start conversations on the intranet or get involved in committees. Don’t spam people, but get your message out there as much as possible. You want to be in people’s minds, and that doesn’t happen by only speaking up or sharing once a month.

Blake and I made lots of mistakes during our entrepreneurial journey and learned things the hard way, but you don’t have to. Whether you are considering going off on your own or you already have, this will be a valuable resource for you. Download our PDF on the 7 things you need to master if you want to be a successful entrepreneur.

Building a personal brand doesn’t happen overnight. It takes years and years of staying true to these three principles and continual practice to build your brand. Keep working on your personal brand — it’s the most crucial part of building your career.

Visibility.

Your consistency and frequency don’t matter if they aren’t visible. You have to share your message in the most visible ways on the most visible platforms. Reach out to other thought leaders, podcasts, or publications and offer to contribute or collaborate. When your message is visible, people will think of you when they need someone for a particular task or topic.

These three keys can help shape your personal brand and set you on the path to success, whatever your path may be.
Merdeka Belajar a la Nadiem; the Need for Local Government Involvement (2)
By: Suhandi Hasan
Tags: Education Reform, Local Government Services, Merdeka Belajar

In education, teachers inevitably play a vital role as the school’s key actors to affect students’ performance in study. So improving teachers’ professional development should be the major concern of the government. In fact, approximately 3 million teachers who follow Teacher Competency Test (UKG) don’t achieve a passing score.

Meanwhile, a report from the RISE in 2019 shows the unsatisfied result of training practice to improve teachers’ competence. This is because the planning and design of teachers’ training are not fully under teachers’ needs. Some reasons; (i) inaccurate mapping of teachers’ competence, (ii) infrastructure pedagogical ability does not meet the expectations and needs of participants.

To reform the educational system in Indonesia, the political ecosystem should also be reformed in a way that supports the national education system. The fact that almost all matters related to teachers are under the authority of regional governments has proved ineffective for proper national recruitment, deployment, and distribution of teachers.

As the central government focuses on two main issues; students’ quality and graduates’ character. Without involving the local government, this school-centered approach is partially inadequate. The visionary policy would be hardly implemented without supports from local governments. In fact, Indonesia’s compulsory education (SD and SMP) is under the authority of the local government (regency/city government).

Local government has traditionally held broad responsibilities; tackling underperformance in schools and ensuring high standards. In this context, every school has a wide range of high-quality support to draw upon, and that every school receives the informed external support and challenge that is crucial in securing improvement or sustaining outstanding quality. In addition, the local government should have a positive and strategic engagement with teaching schools can lead to strong collaborative partnerships. In the UK, for example, local authorities are working with teaching schools to provide technical support; to signpost schools to the training and support that the teaching school offers.

In fact, the national policy is sometimes exacerbated by conditions of locals’ bureaucratic. Sometimes, local governments are incapable of control education services. It’s common to find local officials that tend to be “closed” and hardly adapt to the development of technology. Besides, it’s still uncommon to hear local governments who dared to innovate in the management of education service. They mostly work routine to carry out the central government’s policy that lasted for a dozen years. Therefore, local governments’ (education department) involvement needs to be prioritized to support Merdeka Belajar in school.
The Shelf Life of Skills & Knowledge
By: Simon Zeeks
Tags: Education Reform, Education, Learning

It might come as a shocker for a few, but most skills & knowledge does indeed have a shelf life; a limited time during which it is useful and relevant.

There are very few universals. And even fewer that has stood the test of time.

As an example, a doctor educated 40 years ago seems less likely to suggest proper treatment, as the things he/she was thought has later been disproven or overridden by new and better models he/she might not be aware of. [1]



But what’s worse than being thought something outdated is the attitude that’s sold with it. People start to confuse the contents of their curriculum with truth. It isn’t. It never was. And if you think so, you were fooled.

In this way, conventional schooling does double damage — disseminating incomplete and outdated information, and solidifying it with misplaced confidence that (like the ideal of timeless truth) it’ll stay useful & relevant forever.



And there’s another problem with all of this. But it seems Mark Twain got this one figured out around a hundred years ago, and phrased it quite nicely:
MPSC परीक्षा की तैयारी कैसे करे?
By: Barve Tips
Tags: Education Reform, Education, Educational Technology, Mpsc Coaching Classes

MPSC परीक्षा की तैयारी कैसे करे? HOW TO PREPARE FOR MPSC EXAM.... All about information Hindi language..

https://bit.ly/37MTuXp
Raphael, your story can surely awaken the vast majority of youth out of their ill founded dreamy…
By: Mahesh Shroff
Tags: Life Lessons, Education, Life, Education Reform, School Dropouts

Raphael, your story can surely awaken the vast majority of youth out of their ill founded dreamy notions, that play the insidious role of pushing them on path to sure failure.

Having said that, the policy makers who lay down the educational formats, also better earned their salaries and play their role which doesn’t add fuel to the raging fire !

In the meantime, however, its better if, in their very own interests, the youth remained hinged to a middle path, have plan B, before taking on the bulls of their dreams, headon –while wearing a red shirt, rather than waving the red flag !
Is Career oriented education what really the present generation requires?
By: Thejas K
Tags: Education Reform

Career oriented education is the kind of education that helps individuals to find out a better career and help them in preparing for the same. A better career is something everyone wish and will help them to grow as an individual. Also, the monetary benefits from the employment makes them self reliant.

But, the primary purpose of any kind of education system should not be a better career. The number of suicides in our prestigious institutions like IITs, the raising number of divorces, the health condition of our young and old generation, social negligence rather than social feeling and social commitment, corruption in our country, crime rates against women, children and the underprivileged - all point towards the failure of our education system. Also, a look into the unemployment rate in India will further question the fact whether the career oriented education, as itself is called, is any way successful. The happiness and satisfaction of the people in their job is another fact that needs consideration, because it is said that Underemployment is the real problem of India rather than unemployment.

The career oriented education provided in our country primarily lacks the concept of developing an healthy mind in an individual. This points to the fact that India has moved towards the western culture / education system. Because, our ancient texts of Vedas, Upanishads and Bhagavad Gita had given prime importance to the human mind and its healthy use.

The prevailing education system also has developed an unhealthy competition in the minds of students rather than a healthy competition, which is the need of the time.

The fact cannot be ignored that India has moved forward a lot compared to the immediate past in its overall development and the development of its each individual. It has found out its place in this global world, and its voice is getting due attention internationally. At this point of time, it is equally important to look back and make the required changes to bring forward the underprivileged and uphold our rich past and our valuable culture in order to realise an India as envisaged by the founding fathers of our republic. Our education system has to ensure that students in our nation will imbibe the values and morals of this nation's culture by the time they complete their school education. The education should help the student to think rationally, critically and rightly without any bias. For this the kind of education that is provided should be capable of helping students to develop their thinking. How to think and understand things better - it should be the primary mandate of the education.

Right thinking will help the person to develop rightly, and a right person will develop a better society. A better society in turn will build a better nation. Right education is the key remedy for any societal change. This will be a process that takes time. So the earliest the process is started, the earliest the result is achieved.
Getting Close To Mega Project (Amal Academy Fellowship)
By: Muhammad Farhan
Tags: Counseling, Student Counseling, Education Reform, Initiative

In our country, most of the students face difficulty while deciding the right dimension. Therefore, I came to a point that why shouldn’t we provide them a guidance to adopt a particular field of their interest. In this regard, a full fledge strategy of taking this initiative has been made in which we are looking for the feasibility parameters and the best most platform for this program. This initiative might be called as students counselling.

The main theme of this program is to develop a sense of decision making in young pupils and act upon it accordingly, in later stages while deciding for their higher studies. First of all, we’ll deign a strategy in which the students will be guided by all the major field of science and then their respective applicability in our country so that if they adopt a particular field in future then they should have known its scope in a particular industry/sector.

Secondly, there must be a proper platform to assist all the students in this context. This platform can be social media websites and portals on which we can upload all the information and make it freely accessible to all the students belonging to different backgrounds. For example, we can make a Facebook page on which we will be giving such information on daily basis or might be on weekly basis.

The very main objective of this program is just to make all the students think out of the box and find a better discipline for their higher education. For example, if a student adopts pre-medical subjects in higher secondary school he/she only thinks that they can only adopt the profession of medicine. So, this is the motive that we’ll make them realize the importance of all the other fields that are now growing with an admirable pace in the world. Let’s extend this example in the same context that we’ll provide all the information to those students who have pre-medical background to go for other programs as well like, biochemistry, microbiology, biotechnology, molecular biology, etc.

This sense of counselling sprang up by the experience that we have and by learning some very significant things while Amal Career Prep-Fellowship. We really incline to work for it to highlight all the pros and cons of all the major fields, their scopes and applicability in particular sectors for the young students, in this country. This was an idea that I’ll definitely share with my colleagues for implementation and even more refinement and we’ll try our best to initiate it as soon as possible.
Core Values of Anarchist Education:
By: The Anarchist Environmentalist
Tags: Mutual Aid, Education, Anarchy, Anarchism, Education Reform

Our current education system is extremely hierarchical. As anarchists we need to develop an alternative. In order to better visualize what an anarchist education system would look like, we need to identify the core principles that this system should be based on.

To name a few, it should be an act of mutual aid, not a means of social control. It should be run by the community it is based in. It should be both free of charge and coercion. Its curriculum should be based around the individual student’s creative desires. It should center learning instead of grading. It should teach open-sourced content.

These schools need to be explicitly against all forms of hierarchy and teach about the nature of hierarchy and power and they’re effect on society. This also means that the schools themselves cannot be a form of hierarchy. The most crucial and difficult part of this is creating an environment where both teachers and students are equals.

This is by no means a complete list of the core values an anarchist education system should be based on but it is a start. If you want to learn more about anarchism and education along with me I encourage you to read Judith Suissa’s ‘Anarchism and Education’ so far it is a very interesting read and I highly recommend it.
If You Want to Change Schools, Listen to These 17 Podcasts.
By: Molade Osibodu
Tags: Education Reform, Education Innovation, Podcast

I am a self proclaimed Podcast Addict and truly cannot imagine the last few years without pods. While I realize that there are many educational podcasts by scholars, I tend to prefer those made by “regular” people because I find them to be more engaging. It is also part of my ethos of learning outside the walls of academia.

With that in mind, here are my favorite podcasts episodes related to education, that are also intimately tied to race. (Descriptions from publishers are in quotes). Although they are all about the United States, they offer useful knowledge for anyone working in education across the world. Happy listening!
What to expect from Schools and Facilitators if you have a gifted child?
By: Dhatri Dubey
Tags: Teaching And Learning, Schools, Gifted And Talented, Education System, Education Reform

It is a common notion among parents across the world that the education system and the pedagogies implemented at the school level have failed to do justice to gifted students. Although, gifted children can outperform in most of the activities concerning their genre of intelligence, yet they are often not challenged enough. Classrooms across the world have major focus on Performance Enhancement of mediocre and slow learners.

It has been commonly observed among facilitators that their approach and interaction with any gifted child is full of premonition. They assume that the child will perform with or without the efforts of the teacher in a similar manner. They rule out the role and responsibilities of a facilitator due to the prejudice that a gifted child will ultimately perform well. Hence they direct their efforts towards preparing worksheets and strategising towards the non performers of the class. Whereas, in true sense if a gifted child is not challenged appropriately, he/she might loose out on their skills owing to deterioration of interest . Thus it is quintessential that classrooms have a different set of challenges in their curriculum that can accommodate the abilities of gifted children.

Most researchers feel that a loophole in the training process of the teachers is responsible for such an ignorance. This ignorance can have a catastrophic effect on the learner as the frustration of him “waiting” for others in the class to catch up can have permanent effects and ultimately dipping levels of class interaction and attention.

Just as the slow learner sometimes feels the pain of social exclusion, the same effect can be seen in a gifted child and this might bring behavioural alterations in him/her.

Therefore, is is highly recommended that:

* The curriculum must incorporate more challenging exercises in the Higher Order Thinking category

* More emphasis should be payed to identifying the kind of gifted children and ensure that their skills are application based and not based on rote memorisation.

* The teacher training modules must be specific in terms of dealing with different levels of learners with more emphasis on this uncharted territory of dealing with different minds.

* Behavioural Science should be used to study the attention pattern of these students and a diagnostic approach must be adopted immediately if more than standard deviation is observed.
This Past Decade in Education Reform
By: Stephen Muskett
Tags: Learning, Schools, Education, Teaching, Education Reform

This article serves as a reflection on the education reform journey AoA has taken over the years. I believe I started writing on Medium in 2014 or 2015 and started this publication around 2015. So it has been a while of managing, editing, and curating these amazing articles that get sent to me. I am so grateful for all of the awesome people I have met along the way. It wasn’t a full decade to reflect on but we are excited to start this new decade with an open-mind.

This is a collection of some of the most popular articles featured in AoA over the past 5+ years. These articles show how we struggle with school and its systems but also want to so badly change these systems for the better. These stories help highlight how we want to push for positive change with social justice, environmentalism, and STEM education as our base.

These stories help show how we are striving for ways to improve the way we learn, improve the systems in which we learn in, and how we take a hard look at the faults in our systems. These past 5+ years have shown us that there are so many different ways to learn, that learning never does stop, and that learning how to learn is often overlooked.

This past year especially has highlighted many faults in our systems. The pandemic really put schools and education under the microscope. It has exposed the racist roots and aspects of our systems. It has highlighted the opportunity inequality between many school districts and states. It has highlighted the grievances of parents that have been ignored for too long. And now it is helping lead us to solutions for all, not just for some.

This next decade, AoA wants to keep in mind these grievances and issues and push for solutions in education reform. We want to help unite the ideas and movements that are shaping the world of learning for the better. The following are some of the articles from the past 5 years that help highlight education and its reform, as seen through the eyes of AoA:

2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

2020

We hope you enjoyed reading (or rereading) some of the articles listed above. We invite you to check out some of the other works and authors on Age of Awareness and to keep up with our efforts in 2021 (and beyond).
THE FUTURE OF EDUCATION
By: Harsh Rana
Tags: India, Future, Education, Young People, Education Reform

Every parent in the world wants his/her child to become great and successful and the education system through which a student goes through plays a vital role in creating an opulent future for him. Talking of great education necessitates the mention of the finest universities including Harvard University, oxford university, Stanford University, Cambridge University, and many more. These universities have surely raised the bars of standards for teaching and learning. Going to these universities and getting the highest level of education is still a dream for every student who wants to pursue further education after school. The only obstruction that emerges in this path is the expensiveness of these universities. The amount of fees that these universities demand is surely reasonable but is too far from the reach of many parents.