It’s fair to say I wasn’t the most eager pupil at school. To be honest I sincerely doubted anything within those walls could do me any good. And I was right. What lesson did they start with day one? Lego. Now when you’re five years old you don’t know much but one thing you’ve got down to a tee is Lego. In fact it wasn’t until the start of the GCSE course that school progressed from annoying chore to annoying necessity.

Without a doubt the day any pupil starts a GCSE course is a big step up in class. Suddenly you’re faced with a whole host of decisions which will impact on your future. Choices made now will stay with you for the rest of your life. The biggest often involves what subjects you choose to study.

Here is where the government gets worried. The majority of pupils load up on humanities: history, English and so on and ignore topics such as science and languages. Why is this?

Well, in part it’s because these subjects are more accessible and less intimidating. However, there is a deeper reason. Most of the people involved in the media excelled in humanities to the detriment of science. That explains the bias in the media against science. The people doing the reporting simply do not understand it.

So when choosing your GCSE course, avoid following the crowd. Choosing apparently less popular subjects can be more rewarding and challenging and it can lead you into careers which are not over saturated by qualified candidates.

Start with asking what you’re interested in and what you’re good at. Teachers will provide plenty of guidance in this respect. Their advice can be crucial. Sometimes they might be able to highlight subjects you haven’t thought about. Maybe you don’t consider yourself talented, but perhaps your teacher has spotted some potential you may have missed. Mine for example was convinced I had what it took to be very successful in physics.

He was wrong, as it turned out, but never mind. The important thing to remember is that choices now may start you down one path or another. That’s not to say decisions will be set in stone, but it pays to think about what lies ahead when you choose your GCSE course. Try not to exclude some subjects based on a knee jerk reaction. You may regret it in the long run.

Dom Donaldson is an education expert.
Find out more about GCSE course at GCSE course and the services offered from Lansdowne College.
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The steady decline in funding for even mainstream activities has meant that colleges and learning providers have to be increasingly creative in revenue generation. To achieve success there is a need to greatly improve participation rates on fully funded programmes and for this education and business must work together and engage more effectively.

So how is it achieved? Here are six employer engagement strategies that work.

1. Know your target market?

In the past learning providers have tended to take a ’splutter gun’ approach. They have listed a vast array of possible courses because they have the staff in position and mainstream learners already being served. They see the market as being homogeneous with few differentiating features except perhaps attendance patterns. However, where the offering is too generic customers become confused and do not buy.

So the key is to target specific groups and tailor the messages according to their needs. In particular it is about understanding the pain that is hurting their business and providing some strategies to help them overcome their issues. In this case less is more and the messages will be more potent if they are not surrounded with advertising ‘noise’ and general college hype. The answer is to do fewer things but do them very well. Find a niche and become an expert in that field.

2. Find out exactly what they want?

Have experts who understand common factors/trends in their industry. These people will go and find out what their potential customers want and probably, more importantly, what they need. Although experts in their field, this reason alone will not get the employer engaged. These learning professionals will need to have very good listening and questioning skills if they are to strike up rapport with their clients and move the discussion along.

A useful methodology to use, devised by Neil Rackman, is SPIN – where the following are discussed in turn – Situation, Problem, Implication, Need, or Need Payoff. Throughout, the learning professional must address client objections as they arose although this can be minimized if proper research, client screening, needs analysis, questioning and empathic discussion has taken place.

The next stage is to devise a solution that fully meets their client requirements and it is packaged it in the format they require, at a price they can afford and which the provider can deliver profitably. If you know that small to medium sized enterprises (SME’s) have time issues and tight budget constraints, a ‘Rolls Royce solution’ lasting several weeks with day time attendance is unlikely to be well received. Clients may want short seminar presentations to lectures and will almost certainly prefer ‘need to know’ nuggets of information with direct relevance to them than what they see as unnecessary theory and ‘fluff’.

3. Capture, keep and manage customer contact details as if they are gold dust.

All employers who visit your premises, website, exhibition stand or who simply send learners on courses should be encouraged to submit their contact details. They have already shown an interest in what you are offering by buying, visiting or making inquiries and there is every chance they will buy from you in the future. This information can then be ‘mined’ so that appropriate products and services can be marketed to relevant segments of the market and by the correct distribution channels. This ensures that limited marketing resources are used economically and, more importantly, do not swamp an already overworked executive with unnecessary communications.

The secret to success with this employer engagement strategy is that everyone within your organization must ‘buy in’ to the need for accurate record keeping. Gone are the days when staff kept track of their contacts on pieces of paper, their own IT system and worse still in their head. Effective knowledge management and systems based on trust, openness and transparency are crucial but so to are the change management interventions that underpin a responsive culture.

4. Mark yourself out as being different in that market place?

The learning provider needs to think about generating leads and capturing interest. Again it is much more than merely advertising in the local newspapers and sending out press releases although these are useful for general purposes and when used in conjunction with other marketing tools. Multi-channel marketing is a really important concept and to be successful you need between five and seven different channels and at least two should be fully automated. Standard channels can include your website, brochures, flyers, press releases, telesales, networking and word of mouth referrals. Automated channels such as on-line ‘pick and pay’, via a shopping cart, can help you generate business even when your premises are closed, for example, at weekends, holidays and out of hours.

Also is there anything you can give away free at the front end that will build business in the longer term? For example, your experts could write articles, speak at conferences, give webinar presentations, produce podcasts, offer taster workshops and generally develop communities of good practice around specific themes, roles, industry sectors.

With this strategy it is important that there are higher value, follow up services that participants can be funnelled into and that will drive forward the business. For example, a free resource such as a downloadable podcast or taster session offered to employers on leading a team could lead onto a one day workshop and then a 5 day tailored management development programme with accredited outcomes. The aim as always is to increase the number of customers, get them to spend more money with you, on higher value items and to increase their frequency of purchase.

5. Other effective internet marketing strategies

You can also increase your ability of being found by search engines by using business/social media sites to signpost your organisation. Such examples include: Twitter, Face Book, Linkedin and by writing blogs. You can also ensure that your business appears on Google Maps and Google make no charge for this.

A new form of advertising is pay per click (PPC). This is an internet advertising model used on websites, in which advertisers pay their host only when their ad is clicked. Many PPC providers exist but Google AdWords, Yahoo! Search Marketing, and Microsoft adCentre are the three largest network operators, and all three operate under a bid-based model. Content sites commonly charge a fixed price per click rather than use a bidding system.

Websites that utilize PPC ads will display an advertisement when a keyword query matches an advertiser’s keyword list, or when a content site displays relevant content. These advertisements, called sponsored links or sponsored ads, appear adjacent to, or above, organic results on search engine results pages, or anywhere a web developer chooses on a content site. Cost per click varies depending on the search engine and the level of competition for a particular keyword but it can be very cost effective if used effectively.

6. Test and measure everything

In order to improve and innovate it is important to keep ahead of the wave and to do this you must test and measure response rates to every employer engagement strategy you use. If you purchases a stand at an exhibition, how many employers visited, how many were converted into live prospects, how many bought your products and services and how much revenue was generated over the sales period. It is amazing how many organisations do not follow these steps. They consider it sufficient that they were seen to be there because their competitors were also present.

It is also important to know whether your website is achieving its goals. The key is to gather traffic data; not just how many hits you are getting, but which pages are popular, who is visiting your site, when they visit, where are they exiting and a host of other data that can give you a clearer understanding of what is going on in your cyberspace. It will give you an insight into the interactions between your web visitor actions and what the website offers. It will help in optimizing the site for increased customer loyalty and could inform your infrastructure plans to handle future growth. Importantly it can also identify pages that get little traffic and where investment can be decreased or redirected.

And finally

Employers can also provide valuable help for colleges. For example, they can assist with the design, management and delivery of relevant segments of the curriculum, provide practical definitions of employment skills and structured work experience. Many can organise visits to their business premises and mentoring services for learners and teaching staff alike. Where appropriate, employers can help with giving access to live data and provide resource packs, give practical advice with interviews and other skills for work as well as relevant careers advice.

But they do need to be approached in a coordinated and considered way. They do not want to be asked to do things by lots of different people with no regard to time constraints. This is especially true of SMEs but it also applies to larger companies who seem easy prey. A good employer database (CRM system) will record all activities engaged upon and will show that the training provider is well organised, knows what is going on and, above all, is professional in their approaches to industry.

Kathy Whymark is a learning and development expert who thinks and acts strategically and flexibly, leads a team with passion and commitment and develops people and organisations to fulfill their potential.

She is director, coach and business consultant at Meet Your Goals Ltd; a support and development practice she formed in 2009. Its objective is to help learning professional respond more effectively to the needs of learners, employers and the wider communities they serve..

She is also the Director of Professional Studies at the Institute of Commercial Management and a consultant with LSIS and the Chartered Institute of Management. Recently she has written, with Skanska, the 14-19 education and learning strategy for their successful Building Schools of the Future (BSF) bid.

Kathy can be contacted on kathy.whymark@meetyourgoals.co.uk
http://www.meetyourgoals.co.uk
+44 (0)1428 653977
Skype: meetyourgoals

Students are often overwhelmed by the exams pressure building upon them. Many students usually start studying one or two weeks before the exam. They start consuming more caffeine or indulge in stress busting activities like watching excessive TV or some less healthy activities like smoking to relieve themselves off this stress.

They study till late at night and sometimes might not sleep at all which leads to a degrading performance overtime. Such students definitely need a change in their study habits. So, this question bugs many students which is how to improve your study habits.

Tips to Improve Your Studying Habits

• Students should keep pace with their course curriculum at school. This will help them assess their knowledge base of the subject regularly and also help them to know when they should start studying before the exams.
• Students should analyze their strengths and weaknesses better prior to exams and can take the help of your teachers well before time and get over with it.
• Smoking and caffeine consumption are performance degraders. They should be avoided as much as possible. Caffeine is known to cause sleeplessness which in turn leads to fatigue and a tired brain can not perform to its peak level when required.
• Watching a little TV is good but it should be pre-decided for how long TV will be ON. Surfing aimlessly through channels and programs often leads to wasting of time which is of the utmost importance during exams.
• Students should prefer a healthy diet before the exams. Eating lots of cereals and drink fresh fruit juices is often recommended.
• Divide your study hours during the day and also spare some time for sports activities which will make you really active.

These small steps for improving your study habits can make a big difference in order to conquer the grade divide. Can catch more http://www.schooltrainer.com/category/blog/studying-tips by Jade at SchoolTrainer Blog

Saving Instinctual Optimism and Intrinsic Motivation
How can a teacher help a student to be both intrinsically motivated and optimistic?
There are many ways that the teacher can help to create the conditions in which a student begins to motivate themselves, or regains such feelings again. It all begins with teaching them to be as optimistic as possible.

Failure is Temporary
Something that many students encounter early in the learning process is a sense of failure. It may be simply answering a question wrong, behaving badly in the classroom, or it might even be the result of some sort of learning disability, but a student must never be permitted to see a single failure or difficulty as a permanent status.

Understanding Optimism
True optimism will allow the child to view any failure as temporary, totally non-personal, and very specific. This is the reason it must be a major focus of a child’s teachers and parents, especially if the student is struggling. To do this mentors and teachers must reframe the student’s perceptions of failure into something more reinforcing and beneficial. They must shape their own verbal responses and answers to any such events, scenarios, feelings, or situations in completely non-judgmental ways. They should aim at expressing to the child that their difficulties are temporary, that success is something coming from hard work, and that they have strengths that will help them get the answers they need.

Specifically, the teacher should, reframe the student’s perception of a frustrating event – discussing the issue with them using non-judgmental terms or remarks is the first step. For instance, a teacher should never assess a failure by jumping into the “where you went wrong” approach.

Rachael is a very experienced international corporate professional and is also a certified Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) practitioner. She wants to share her skills and experience with people who want to learn and apply strategies that will bring out the best in the students at school and/or growing up children at home.

Please visit my website http://www.motivateschoolkids.com for FREE newsletters, tips and books.

How often have you heard people that whatever they do, no matter how much they want to become a cop, they just can’t pass the test because they aren’t good at testing and fail both the police written exam as well as the police oral exam? Unfortunately, testing is critical because it is a measure of your abilities to perform well when under pressure, as it is a daily occurrence for a police officer. However, do not despair because passing the law enforcement exam can often be as simple as improving your test taking ability and it can be done.

Law Enforcement Exam: Preparation is Key

As with any test preparation is vital and the more you prepare the more confident you will be in your abilities and will be less likely to give in to the jitters. You will want to find out beforehand everything you can about the test, whether it will be an essay or a multiple choice or some other format. Other facts you will need to know are the time you are allotted to take the law enforcement exam as well as what the test itself will be assessing, whether your knowledge of the facts or your comprehension, or both. You will also want to ascertain whether it will be a police written exam or a police oral exam, or it may include both.

A great way to prepare is to ask those who have taken the law enforcement exam before to give you a little information and insight on how the test unfolds as well as the type of questions asked. You will also want to find past exams as well as samples for the different categories.

Practice Makes Perfect

Studying the material is vital but practicing taking tests can be even more important because it will help you learn what to expect and you will also find it easier to retain the information after you have had to “work” with it. So do as many practice tests as possible.

Common Sense or Thinking Like a Cop

There is a federal mandate that states you are not required to know police procedures before taking the test but those who create the tests consider that some of these procedures are purely common sense and include them in the test. They are a critical measurement of both your judgment and common sense.

However, it isn’t all just common sense and that is why those who have police officers in their family or among their friends tend to do better because they are already accustomed to how cops think.

Studying some of the police procedures beforehand will definitely give you an advantage if you don’t have any friends that are in law enforcement. Most of the questions place you in a particular situation and ask what your response would be. These situations are based on real life police events and this is where knowing procedures and priorities can be vital.

For example, protecting the welfare of citizens, victims and fellow officers will always be more important than securing public order or upholding the law. In other words, if you are chasing someone who was speeding and the chase could put lives in jeopardy then you are expected to let the offender because your first priority is to protect the welfare of citizens.

These are just a few tips to help you on your way to achieving your dream of passing the law enforcement exam.

For more information about the police exam check out the Police Exam Digital Manual found at http://www.policepath.com It offers you police exam strategies & practice tests.