17 January saw the
ESDS Government meeting on changes in access to the government surveys
(Labour Force Survey/Annual Population Survey user meeting)
The slides from the above meeting are now available on the event web page (requires PowerPoint)
Quite a lot of information on migration statistics -- and informal discussions about confidentiality and why the data got lost. Given the strict rules at ONS I don't think that there's much chance of data creeping out of there!
Wednesday, 6 February 2008
Career Planning from Learning Matters (Updated)
I am a fan of Learning Matters' online self-help learning materials for business-related subjects. This is "bite-sized" learning taken to the extreme. Most of the topics are covered by a four- or five-page checklist with FAQs and an action plan, cost £2 (worth paying if you only want one topic NOW because you need to answer that question NOW) and take about 20 minutes to work through.
OK, why am I telling you this? Because I recently came across the range of career planning materials that Learning Matters produces -- found it as a result of a friend asking for help, as they do!
Brilliant!
My friend doesn't need a full career planning course just a nudge in the right direction so we sat down and found three of the subjects which would be perfect for her.
You may find that your clients will benefit similarly.
Full list as at 06/02/2008
Apply for an Internal Vacancy
Are You in the Right Job?
Assessing Your Entrepreneurial Profile: Do You Have What It Takes?
Choosing the Right First Job
Consider Taking a Career Break
Cope with a Nightmare Boss
Create a Career Plan
Creating and Balancing the Portfolio Career
Developing an International Career
Downshifting: Working Less and Enjoying It More
Do You Have the Skills to Be Your Own Boss?
Enter an Entirely New Field
Finding and Working with Search Organisations
Finding a New Challenge
Finding Your Calling and Living Your Passion: The Dream Job
Get the Pay Rise You Deserve
Getting Paid What You’re Worth: How to Assess Your Value in the Marketplace
Getting Promoted: Forget Your Boss, Serve Your Customers
Getting the Most from Your Professional Career Adviser (I like it - a professional career adviser I ain't but it looks as though this will allow clients to work out if they're paying the right person for the right service!)
Go Freelance
Identifying Your Marketable Skills
Know When it’s Time to Move On
Leaving with Style: How to Exit with Dignity
Looking for Work When You Go Freelance
Make the Decision to Take a Risky Career Move
Make Yourself PromotableManage Dual-Career Dilemmas
Managing a Portfolio Career
Managing Upwards: Making Your Boss Your Strongest Ally
Move Sideways: Reap the Benefits of a Lateral Move
Preparing for Retirement with Dignity and Grace
Reinvent Yourself
Researching the Job Market
Return to Work after a Career Break
Revitalise Your CV
Staying Marketable: Identifying Your Transferable Skills
Survive Redundancy
Test the Waters: Learn How to Network
Understand Your Values
Using the Web As a Career Resource (I might even buy this one for myself just so I work out the best way to help you use the Internet for your clients)
(UPDATE: but not when it syas it's about writing CVs in Word and using Netscape as browser)
Virtual Jobs: Staying Connected and Visible While Teleworking
Weigh Up the Pros and Cons of Looking for a New Job
Winning CVs: Creating a Marketing Tool that Gets You the Interview
Working in Interim Management
OK, why am I telling you this? Because I recently came across the range of career planning materials that Learning Matters produces -- found it as a result of a friend asking for help, as they do!
Brilliant!
My friend doesn't need a full career planning course just a nudge in the right direction so we sat down and found three of the subjects which would be perfect for her.
You may find that your clients will benefit similarly.
Full list as at 06/02/2008
Apply for an Internal Vacancy
Are You in the Right Job?
Assessing Your Entrepreneurial Profile: Do You Have What It Takes?
Choosing the Right First Job
Consider Taking a Career Break
Cope with a Nightmare Boss
Create a Career Plan
Creating and Balancing the Portfolio Career
Developing an International Career
Downshifting: Working Less and Enjoying It More
Do You Have the Skills to Be Your Own Boss?
Enter an Entirely New Field
Finding and Working with Search Organisations
Finding a New Challenge
Finding Your Calling and Living Your Passion: The Dream Job
Get the Pay Rise You Deserve
Getting Paid What You’re Worth: How to Assess Your Value in the Marketplace
Getting Promoted: Forget Your Boss, Serve Your Customers
Getting the Most from Your Professional Career Adviser (I like it - a professional career adviser I ain't but it looks as though this will allow clients to work out if they're paying the right person for the right service!)
Go Freelance
Identifying Your Marketable Skills
Know When it’s Time to Move On
Leaving with Style: How to Exit with Dignity
Looking for Work When You Go Freelance
Make the Decision to Take a Risky Career Move
Make Yourself PromotableManage Dual-Career Dilemmas
Managing a Portfolio Career
Managing Upwards: Making Your Boss Your Strongest Ally
Move Sideways: Reap the Benefits of a Lateral Move
Preparing for Retirement with Dignity and Grace
Reinvent Yourself
Researching the Job Market
Return to Work after a Career Break
Revitalise Your CV
Staying Marketable: Identifying Your Transferable Skills
Survive Redundancy
Test the Waters: Learn How to Network
Understand Your Values
Using the Web As a Career Resource (I might even buy this one for myself just so I work out the best way to help you use the Internet for your clients)
(UPDATE: but not when it syas it's about writing CVs in Word and using Netscape as browser)
Virtual Jobs: Staying Connected and Visible While Teleworking
Weigh Up the Pros and Cons of Looking for a New Job
Winning CVs: Creating a Marketing Tool that Gets You the Interview
Working in Interim Management
Saturday, 2 February 2008
Credo Reference content update January 2008
I can't imagine a situation when any of my known readers of this blog would want to access, for example, the Dictionary of Italian Literature. However, since I haven't done a survey of your private reading/study habits I really can't say for sure. I also don't know whether your local library service subscribes to Credo Reference but you can check here.
A number of titles have been added to Credo Reference in the past month.
Below are the latest additions.
A complete list of available titles is here.
Latest Additions
Dictionary of Italian Literature, Greenwood in Literature
Encyclopedia of Medieval Literature, Greenwood in Literature
Handbook of Environmental Sociology, Greenwood in Social Sciences
Friday, 1 February 2008
Goobledegook? No, it's the law
I've tried hard to ensure that the original formatting has been preserved in what follows but ensuring that it is still understandable!
By contrast with this the Statutory Instruments relating to the HMRC are a doddle!
Statutory Instruments 2007 No. 3436
The Education (Provision of Information About Young Children) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2007
Made 6th December 2007
Laid before Parliament 13th December 2007
Coming into force 10th January 2008
The Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families makes the following Regulations in exercise of the powers conferred by section 537A(4)(c) of the Education Act 1996(1) and sections 99(1) and (4)(c) and 104(2) of the Childcare Act 2006(2):
Citation, commencement and application
1.— (1) These Regulations may be cited as the Education (Provision of Information About Young Children) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2007, and come into force on 10th January 2008.
(2) These Regulations apply only in relation to England. Amendment of the Education (Provision of Information About Young Children) (England) Regulations 2007
2.— (1) The Education (Provision of Information About Young Children) (England) Regulations 2007(3) are amended as follows.
(2) After regulation 14, insert—"15. Persons having access to a database established and operated by the Secretary of State under section 12 of the Children Act 2004(4) are prescribed for the purposes of section 537A(4)(c) of the 1996 Act and section 99(4)(c) of the 2006 Act.".
(3) In Part 2 of the Schedule, after paragraph 11 insert—“11A.—(1) Where the person provides funded nursery education to the child in more than 38 weeks in the funding period, the number of hours of funded nursery education which the child receives from that person during the period starting with 1st January and ending with 31st March in the calendar year in which the information is requested. (2) In this paragraph “the funding period” means the period, being no longer than 12 months, of arrangements between the person providing funded nursery education and a local education authority in England under which the person provides such nursery education.”.
Beverley Hughes Minister of State Department for Children, Schools and Families 6th December 2007
Explanatory Note (This note is not part of the Regulations)
These Regulations amend the Education (Provision of Information About Young Children) (England) Regulations 2007 (S.I. 2007/712) (‘the principal Regulations’). Regulation 2(2) prescribes a further category of persons to whom the Secretary of State may provide any individual child information or individual pupil information. This will ensure that such information, after it has been disclosed for inclusion in a database established and operated by the Secretary of State under section 12 of the Children Act 2004, may be viewed by users of such a database. Regulation 2(3) provides for an additional item of prescribed information to be provided by a provider of funded nursery education under regulation 7 of, and Part 2 of the Schedule to, the principal Regulations. An impact assessment has not been produced for this instrument as no impact on the private or voluntary sectors is foreseen. (1) 1996 c. 56. Section 537A was inserted by the Education Act 1997 (c. 44), section 20, and substituted by the School Standards and Framework Act 1998 (c. 31), Schedule 30, paragraph 153. By virtue of the National Assembly for Wales (Transfer of Functions) Order 1999 (S.I. 1999/672) the powers conferred by this section are exercisable by the Secretary of State in relation to England. See section 579(1) for the definitions of “prescribed” and “regulations”.
Back [1] (2) 2006 c. 21. Section 99 of the Childcare Act 2006 is modified by section 100(2) and (3) of that Act until section 7 of the Act comes into force. See section 99(9) for the definitions of “prescribed” and “regulations”.
Back [2] (3) S.I. 2007/712, amended by S.I. 2007/3224.
Back [3] (4) 2004 c. 31. Section 12 was amended by paragraph 43 of Schedule 2 to the Childcare Act 2006.
Back [4]
Was that helpful? No? Am I surprised? Not a bit of it -- trouble is that if one of these Statutory Instruments slips past without comment from the media -- which doesn't happen often -- then the law may have changed without you realising it.
By contrast with this the Statutory Instruments relating to the HMRC are a doddle!
Statutory Instruments 2007 No. 3436
The Education (Provision of Information About Young Children) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2007
Made 6th December 2007
Laid before Parliament 13th December 2007
Coming into force 10th January 2008
The Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families makes the following Regulations in exercise of the powers conferred by section 537A(4)(c) of the Education Act 1996(1) and sections 99(1) and (4)(c) and 104(2) of the Childcare Act 2006(2):
Citation, commencement and application
1.— (1) These Regulations may be cited as the Education (Provision of Information About Young Children) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2007, and come into force on 10th January 2008.
(2) These Regulations apply only in relation to England. Amendment of the Education (Provision of Information About Young Children) (England) Regulations 2007
2.— (1) The Education (Provision of Information About Young Children) (England) Regulations 2007(3) are amended as follows.
(2) After regulation 14, insert—"15. Persons having access to a database established and operated by the Secretary of State under section 12 of the Children Act 2004(4) are prescribed for the purposes of section 537A(4)(c) of the 1996 Act and section 99(4)(c) of the 2006 Act.".
(3) In Part 2 of the Schedule, after paragraph 11 insert—“11A.—(1) Where the person provides funded nursery education to the child in more than 38 weeks in the funding period, the number of hours of funded nursery education which the child receives from that person during the period starting with 1st January and ending with 31st March in the calendar year in which the information is requested. (2) In this paragraph “the funding period” means the period, being no longer than 12 months, of arrangements between the person providing funded nursery education and a local education authority in England under which the person provides such nursery education.”.
Beverley Hughes Minister of State Department for Children, Schools and Families 6th December 2007
Explanatory Note (This note is not part of the Regulations)
These Regulations amend the Education (Provision of Information About Young Children) (England) Regulations 2007 (S.I. 2007/712) (‘the principal Regulations’). Regulation 2(2) prescribes a further category of persons to whom the Secretary of State may provide any individual child information or individual pupil information. This will ensure that such information, after it has been disclosed for inclusion in a database established and operated by the Secretary of State under section 12 of the Children Act 2004, may be viewed by users of such a database. Regulation 2(3) provides for an additional item of prescribed information to be provided by a provider of funded nursery education under regulation 7 of, and Part 2 of the Schedule to, the principal Regulations. An impact assessment has not been produced for this instrument as no impact on the private or voluntary sectors is foreseen. (1) 1996 c. 56. Section 537A was inserted by the Education Act 1997 (c. 44), section 20, and substituted by the School Standards and Framework Act 1998 (c. 31), Schedule 30, paragraph 153. By virtue of the National Assembly for Wales (Transfer of Functions) Order 1999 (S.I. 1999/672) the powers conferred by this section are exercisable by the Secretary of State in relation to England. See section 579(1) for the definitions of “prescribed” and “regulations”.
Back [1] (2) 2006 c. 21. Section 99 of the Childcare Act 2006 is modified by section 100(2) and (3) of that Act until section 7 of the Act comes into force. See section 99(9) for the definitions of “prescribed” and “regulations”.
Back [2] (3) S.I. 2007/712, amended by S.I. 2007/3224.
Back [3] (4) 2004 c. 31. Section 12 was amended by paragraph 43 of Schedule 2 to the Childcare Act 2006.
Back [4]
Was that helpful? No? Am I surprised? Not a bit of it -- trouble is that if one of these Statutory Instruments slips past without comment from the media -- which doesn't happen often -- then the law may have changed without you realising it.
From folksonomies to ontologies: employing wisdom of the crowds to serve learning purposes
by Mathias Lux and Gisela Dosinger in International Journal of Knowledge and Learning Volume 3 Number 4/5
Is Web 2.0 just hype or just a buzzword, which might disappear in the near future? One way to find answers to these questions is to investigate the actual benefit of the Web 2.0 for real use cases. Within this contribution the authors study a very special aspect of the Web 2.0 – the folksonomy – and its use within self-directed learning. Guided by conceptual principles of emergent computing they point out methods which might be able to let semantics emerge from folksonomies and discuss the effect of the results in self-directed learning. (Original abstract)
Is Web 2.0 just hype or just a buzzword, which might disappear in the near future? One way to find answers to these questions is to investigate the actual benefit of the Web 2.0 for real use cases. Within this contribution the authors study a very special aspect of the Web 2.0 – the folksonomy – and its use within self-directed learning. Guided by conceptual principles of emergent computing they point out methods which might be able to let semantics emerge from folksonomies and discuss the effect of the results in self-directed learning. (Original abstract)
Social network analysis of self-taught e-learning communities
an article by Andrew Laghos and Panayiotis Zaphiris in International Journal of Knowledge and Learning Volume 3 Number 4/5
The technique of Social Network Analysis (SNA) has been for years used extensively in the fields of sociology and communication research. Recently however, SNA has been extended to study online communication and virtual communities. In this paper, we have used SNA to analyse the social networks that have formed around a self-taught e-learning community. In traditional face-to-face learning environments, the students are part of a classroom where there is a teacher who presents the lectures and supervises the communication interactions. But what happens when the learning takes place online and there is no teacher to mentor the process? We have carried out SNA on such a community with the aim of discovering what roles, groups and characteristics the students take on when there is no teacher present and discuss the implications of our results. (Original abstract)
The technique of Social Network Analysis (SNA) has been for years used extensively in the fields of sociology and communication research. Recently however, SNA has been extended to study online communication and virtual communities. In this paper, we have used SNA to analyse the social networks that have formed around a self-taught e-learning community. In traditional face-to-face learning environments, the students are part of a classroom where there is a teacher who presents the lectures and supervises the communication interactions. But what happens when the learning takes place online and there is no teacher to mentor the process? We have carried out SNA on such a community with the aim of discovering what roles, groups and characteristics the students take on when there is no teacher present and discuss the implications of our results. (Original abstract)
The Political Compass™ -- nothing to do with Golden Compasses!
Are you a "leftie" or a "right-winger"?
The Political Compass website works out not only where you sit as per the seating arrangement of the French National Assembly of 1789 (getting a bit old-hat and rigid by now) but also how an "up and down" axis best fits your view of the world. This provides a unique position for you and you can see which political figures are nearest to your own position.
As the intro to the website says:
The Political Compass website works out not only where you sit as per the seating arrangement of the French National Assembly of 1789 (getting a bit old-hat and rigid by now) but also how an "up and down" axis best fits your view of the world. This provides a unique position for you and you can see which political figures are nearest to your own position.
As the intro to the website says:
On the standard left-right scale, how do you distinguish leftists like Stalin and Gandhi? It's not sufficient to say that Stalin was simply more left than Gandhi. There are fundamental political differences between them that the old categories on their own can't explain. Similarly, we generally describe social reactionaries as "right-wingers", yet that leaves left-wing reactionaries like Robert Mugabe and Pol Pot off the hook.
So are you ready to take the test? Remember that there's no right, wrong or ideal response. It's simply a measure of attitudes and inevitable human contradictions to provide a more integrated definition of where people and parties are really at.
PS Blogger's spell-checker is still not working!
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