Why You Should Start Volunteering

Volunteering can be a valuable experience at any stage in the life of a person. There is nothing more fulfilling than developing a strong bond with your community and seeing the results of your hard labour ease the wellbeing of your fellow man in need. Perhaps winning the online lottery USA but we honestly wouldn’t know. It goes without saying that if you are interested in doing humanitarian work that you definitely should and below we even have a few charity organizations that might catch your eye.

Things You Will Learn

Getting to meet like-minded people that are likewise interested in alleviating suffering can be life-altering. There are plenty of altruistic and philanthropic human beings that spend their precious time for non-profits. Therefore, volunteering is a place that you can network and build rapport with colleagues in a similar manner that you should in any other work environment.

When out in the field volunteers learn how to cope with stress and a tight schedule wherein some humanitarian organizations the speed at which tasks are done could save a life. Volunteering provides a glimpse into the logistical and organizational needs of a large group of people. Some charities have more than a million members that need to be coordinated with the resources available in order to be effective.

Doctors Without Borders

Doctors without borders (MSF) is an independent and impartial organisation that seeks to deliver medical aid where it is needed most in the world. MSF have treated tens of millions of people since its beginnings in 1971. There are plenty of offices around the world should you wish to stay in-house or you may prefer a hands-on approach in the field. A volunteer in MSF would typically gain more knowledge about manipulating, distributing, and maintaining medical equipment.

The Red Cross

The Red Cross has approximately 17 million volunteers that seek to alleviate human suffering. The organization was conceived by Swiss gentleman Jean-Henri Dunant who was awarded the first-ever Nobel Peace Prize in 1901. In their annual report, they claim to have provided food to 7.8 million people and gave 35.8 million people access to fresh water.

Rotary International

Composed of 1.2 million members, Rotary International have managed to immunize 2.5 billion children against polio. Rotarians worldwide seek to grow local economies, improve basic hygiene and promote peace. It is also an organisation that works with more than 35,000 independent clubs that are dispersed around the world so it will never be difficult to ensure correspondence with them. It should be noted that Rotary International can be a charity that helps other charities. There are clubs in London that have been fundraising for MSF for example.

How to Join

If some or all of the above humanitarian organisations interest you, then there is no need to wait but go out there and facilitate peace and prosperity for those that are disenfranchised. Of course, volunteer work need not have the worldwide scope that some charities have, but rather you may wish to volunteer for your own community providing your neighbours with valuable expertise you may already possess.

Following current affairs should give you the requisite details for what is currently needed since volunteer work plays a crucial role in the recovery effort of a country, region or town.

Why Teach English in a Foreign Country?

What makes it such a fantastic career?

Some careers offer good pay, others offer exciting new experiences, but very few offer both. One career that does offer both is teaching English in a foreign country. This is an extremely rewarding career, allowing you to travel to almost any country around the world and enjoy all the experiences they have to offer. This career is extremely flexible and offers you the capability to meet and fulfil a wide range of different needs and requirements.

How to begin teaching English in a foreign country

The process to begin teaching English in a foreign country is very similar to becoming a teacher in a country where English is the native language.  Below, we have listed a few steps for you to follow and consider if you decide teaching English abroad is the ideal career for you:

Step one – Which language/country?

The first step you need to take to be able to teach English in a foreign country is deciding which language you would like to learn and teach / which country you would like to live in.  This is an extremely important step as it will decide the experiences you have access to, and therefore the quality of your experience teaching English in a foreign country.

Step two – Where and how will you teach English and where will you live?

Now you need to decide where and how you would teach English, as well as where you would like to live in this country.  There are several options available for how you can teach English in a foreign country. For example, you could choose to teach at one of the local schools and educate the students, or, you could also become a private tutor. Whichever way you choose to teach English, you should spend time on real estate websites to make sure that you can find a quality home for your time spent teaching English in a foreign country.

Step three – Applying for necessary documentation

Once you have done the first two steps, you need to apply for various pieces of documentation that allow you to live and teach in a foreign country. Some of these documents include: a passport, a visa and a bank account for use abroad.

To give you the best chance for getting your dream job, you should also have a verifiable bachelor’s degree, and a thorough medical check; some jobs also require a TESOL, TEFL, CELTA or DELTA certificate.

Step four – Apply

Now you can begin to put offers in the accommodation, apply for jobs and arrange travel to and from the country. You should start putting together some savings ready to pay for the travel and living costs when you first start teaching English in a foreign country.

Children in the US Need More Sports

Youth participation in sports has shown a steady decline over recent years in the USA. ‘Almost 45 percent of children ages 6 to 12 played a team sport regularly in 2008, according to Aspen data. Now [2017] only about 37 percent of children do,’ reported the Washington Post. The big four all saw declining participants namely, football, soccer, basketball, and baseball. On the other hand, the online game craze continues to rise, especially with bonuses such as the Golden nugget bonus code. Should the trend continue, we are bound to see an increase in diseases related to physical inactivity. Below are some of the problems kids in the US face if they want to start training.

High Costs

It comes as no surprise that those of lower socio-economic status just cannot afford to pay for registration fees, equipment, and travel costs. 34.6% of children that came from families that made less than $25,000 per annum showed up for at least one day of team sports in a year, compared to 68.4% of kids coming from families that make at least $100,000 per annum.

The Sports and Fitness Industry Association in Aspen surmise that there is a strong correlation between having money and playing sports. These figures, however, do not take into consideration just how much sport is being played outside of sports clubs. Because those coming from the lower socio-economic group do not have the resources to finance club-level play they may instead opt to play outdoors, in the field, or on a public basketball court.

Where To Play?

Apparently even public spaces are taking a hit. Sports facilities are usually few in number and demand is always around, the costs of these facilities have outpriced the have-nots. Moreover, sports clubs that wish to operate under a tight budget usually save money and cut corners.

Lack of Coaches

Professionally trained coaches are hard to come by, which is normal – if they have the requisite qualifications why not train athletes in the NFL. Few coaches are medically trained or even know CPR and those that do know the tricks of the trade would like to be reimbursed for their expertise.

Health Benefits of Sports for Children

Young children need sports to remain healthy and have an outlet for all that energy we envy them for. The physical activity helps to prevent cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and obesity – all of which are correlated with inactivity. Furthermore, sports help foster varied relationships with children that would not have otherwise had the opportunity to meet.

Mental health comes hand in hand with physical health and there are too many benefits to list them all here. But at times like these, we need to strongly consider ways in which to bring in the have-nots into sports. The disenfranchised are already left out from premium healthcare and usually do not have the means to alleviate the severe medical conditions that they may currently be in. Now, they lack the means of preventing those diseases by something as simple as a sports club that all children should be able to enjoy.

Morals and Ethics

Have you ever wondered what is ethics and is there any difference between ethics and morals? The short answer is: yes, there are important differences between the two, they are not synonymous with each other, although they are often used interchangeably in everyday discourse.

Both morals and ethics endeavor to answer the variety of questions related to how to lead a good and virtuous life, how to treat other living beings, and how to base decisions on the right values. Both have normative content, prescribing how we should behave in various contexts.  

Morals

Morals include systems of values and beliefs that shape behaviour of an individual or a community and are usually derived from what is generally accepted practice. It ranges from personal conviction, values transmitted via formal and informal education, to values and beliefs about right and wrong that we share with members of our community based on tradition. Different historical periods and social groups have different morals.

For example, if I am a vegetarian because I believe that it is wrong to eat animals, this is a matter of my personal moral system of values. If my parents taught me that lying is wrong, and I adopt this as my value through education, this is also part of my morals that I share with my parents as well as with other members of my community.         

Ethics

On the other hand, ethics is a philosophical discipline that analyzes morals from a theoretical perspective. Simply put, ethics studies morals, seeking to establish the basic and most universal principles of human moral behaviour and form a coherent and rational system out of these beliefs.

The main branches of ethics include virtue ethics, deontological and utilitarian ethics. Virtue ethics originated in ancient Greece and deals with the question of what are the basic human virtues. Kant is usually taken as the founder of deontological ethics, which deals with the question of duty and obligation in morals. Finally, utilitarian ethics developed by Bentham and Mill suggests that there is a link between what is considered good and what brings more happiness to the greater number of people.  

There is also applied ethics, e.g. in medicine, law, etc, seeking to apply general ethical principles to certain fields of human practice. Ethics is a theory, developed by experts who derive norms of behaviour from well-thought-out arguments and definitions.

Conclusion

To sum up, the most important distinction between ethics and morals consists in the fact that ethics offers a theoretical background for our moral judgements, and is based on rational arguments, whereas morals usually refers to a particular system of beliefs regarding right and wrong that is not theoretical, but rather inherited and spontaneously formed in the course of living within a particular community.

Education for IT Jobs

To begin with, Information Technology is undoubtedly a large field offering a wide spectrum of career paths. Job descriptions may include: programmer, systems analyst, healthcare assistance, technical services, helpdesk, and even things as exciting as the admin of the best slot sites in UK! A very attractive perk that singles out a career in IT is the variety of industries that a worker can be exposed to whether its healthcare, finance, agriculture, manufacturing, and so on. Regardless of the perks, entry requirements need to be fulfilled before you begin job hunting.

Formal Education

If you already have a company or enterprise that you would like to be part of in mind, then you need to take a look at the minimum requirements for each IT role available in order to get a glimpse of what is expected of you. As a general rule of thumb, a bachelor’s degree in a relevant computer field is usually a prerequisite for most jobs in IT. For instance, computer science, information science, or a degree in information systems would fit the bill.

Experience

As a disclaimer, you should be on the lookout for a few years of experience in the industry you would like to work in, as most firms want to see candidates that have already proven their competence alongside their academic achievements. Internships and volunteer work all count as experience and you may also want to be engaged in extracurricular projects during your studies.

Online Courses

If you are done with your education and are looking for employment you need not waste time. There are plenty of courses online that can further your knowledge of computing. Udemy offers courses pertaining to information technology that cost around $15 when on sale and comprise of approximately 25 lectures depending on the program. Moreover, edX has plenty of specialist courses that are verified and popular amongst technologically savvy students. If you really need to take a course in bioinformatics, DNA sequences, or probability distribution models – edX has it all.

Online courses are usually flexible enough that you can work on the material at your own pace, not to mention that they can be done anywhere with internet access. We are not saying that online courses will give you an edge separating you from other candidates, but rather they are a valuable way of spending your time if no work is available for you just yet.

Applying

There may come a point where an attractive job lists more requirements than you can fulfil. It is at this point where you must make a tough decision and think about just how many qualifications you lack as it still may be worth the trouble of applying for the vacancy.

If you cover most of the areas necessary you should send your CV because you may still be considered for the work. Having said that, if you do not meet most of the requirements it is better not to waste someone’s time. We understand that it is tough out there in the labour market but stay positive and persevere.

What is Business Culture and Why is it so Important?

What is business culture?

Business culture is the style or model followed by a company that defines how employees and managers at different levels of the hierarchy interact with one another, as well as how all employees of a company interact with customers. Some of the standards of a company’s business culture are formally written as company policy, although most are not.

For example, business culture could be the way that employees in the customer service department of the business interact with customers, or it could be the way which emails are formed and written between employees and managers. The business culture of the company is gradually formed over time and covers every interaction and communication that happens throughout the business, becoming a standard for communication within the company.

Why is it so important?

The business culture maintained by a company impacts the way that it is perceived by its employees, as well as the public. Business culture can make or break a company, with a good business culture helping to improve the efficiency of the day-to-day tasks of the organisation, and a poor one leading to the complete breakdown of communication within the organisation.

How you can improve your business culture

Below, we have outlined several methods that you can use to improve your overall business culture and therefore the efficiency and professionalism of your company:

Make employees aware of your desired business culture

To change your business culture, you must first make all employees in the company aware of your desired business culture, as well as what is wrong with the current standard. We recommend holding weekly meetings to outline the progress into achieving your desired business culture and giving your employees targets to help improve it.

Create formal documentation

You should also try creating and enforcing a formal documentation outlining the business culture you are trying to achieve. This will help give your employees a set of undebatable guidelines for how they should carry themselves and behave within the organisation. To effectively make sure employees are aware of this new company policy, you could host training sessions to outline what is involved in this new business culture and how they should go about meeting it.

Lead by example

Training all of your employees on your desired business culture can be very expensive and time-consuming. Another method for implementing your desired business culture is through leading by example. This method involves the managerial staff of your organisation behaving parallel to your desired business culture, with the hope that other employees within the organisation will follow suit.

Overall, business culture is an essential part of most businesses in the modern world,  forming the way that the entire business is run, as well as how it is perceived by the public.  Business managers should make a conscious effort to improve their business culture using the techniques we have listed above.

 

How our Idea of Well-Being is Shaped by our Culture

How come some people can’t go a day without eating pork while some groups of people completely avoid it? Some cultures prohibit gambling in all ways and in some it’s completely normal to search for a Harrah’s Casino promo code for 2019 during any time of night and day. Even the basic needs of people differ greatly from group to group.

So, what is ‘your culture’

Your culture is typically defined as your surrounding environment that you experienced throughout your development and is comprised of many factors.  Culture tends to vary between different countries and different areas all over the world, but can also vary between families living in the same country. Your culture ultimately ends up shaping and guiding your decision-making and belief systems later in life, this is a concept known as the internal working model.  For example, if a child has parents who are happily married, and they experience a stable, loving relationship during the development stage, then they will generally maintain a positive view of love and relationships later in life.

How it shapes your idea of well-being

Many studies have proven that your culture and upbringing shapes and effects your ideas and beliefs about well-being and happiness, below are some of the ways that culture can affect your beliefs about well-being:

Need for positivity

Different cultures around the world appear to have different beliefs and needs regarding positivity.  Most people around the world seek out positive experiences and dislike negative experiences or unwanted negative comments. However, some cultures place less emphasis on seeking out positive experiences than others. For example, a study found that members of the public in America often require two positive events to offset one negative event, whereas many countries such as Japan only required one positive event to offset a negative event and maintain a positive well-being.

Perception of gift receiving

In most western countries, gift-giving is seen as an act designed to bring positivity and happiness to the recipient. However, this is not the case across all cultures.  Some cultures, such as South Korea, do not necessarily see gift-giving as a positive and enjoyable act. In fact, a study found that many people in South Korea who receive a gift view it as a reminder that they are not doing enough for their community.  With a simple cultural variation, an act that is considered positive and often kind in one culture can be considered upsetting, if not offensive in another.

Collective happiness V Individual happiness

A final example of how your culture can affect your views on welfare is the way in which you perceive true happiness cultures can be one of two things, either collectivist (individuals are perceived as part of one large machine- the community), or individualistic (societies where individuals tend to place their own needs above the needs community as a whole). Studies have found that members of the public in collectivist societies tend to find true happiness when most people in a group are happy, whereas in an individualist Society, members of the public tend to find happiness when they themselves are happy rather than everybody else.

Why We Need More Diversity in Schools?

At a time of social and political disarray, the migrant crisis burst the bubble of xenophobes across Europe. Of course there were also positive arguments stating that there are numerous benefits not only in offering aid to the downtrodden but to accepting them into our community. Below we consider a number of advantages to diversity in a community by taking a closer look at the case of education. When we speak of diversity we do not only speak of race but religion, gender, and socio-economic background too.

Knowledge and Tolerance

A student that undergoes education amongst a culturally diverse classroom quite naturally has the advantage of learning about multiple cultures and enhances her general knowledge. Imagine if each student brings along a snippet of his or her country’s culture on a daily basis, then surely by the first semester one would have amassed a compendium of cultural, historical and political knowledge.

The more nationalities in the classroom, the broader the education. Moreover, racially diverse classrooms diminish xenophobic or racist ideologies. Upon socializing with different ethnicities children begin to formulate a much more positive image of their fellow human beings and hence become more tolerant.

Creativity and Cooperation

 

Yet another benefit to diversity in schools is to prepare the children for the workplace. The early exposure to social queues and cultural sensitivities prepares the child for later collaboration in enterprises that most certainly encourage diversity in the workplace. An environment that encourages a different set of skills in order to accomplish tasks increases productivity immensely.

According to Forbes online, “research on creativity and innovation has been consistent in showing the value of exposing individuals to experiences with multiple perspectives and worldviews. It is the combination of these various perspectives in novel ways that result in new ideas popping up.” Hence, diversity is conducive to blistering creativity both in and out of the classroom.

Having diversity in the workspace at the early stages in a child’s life builds bridges to other countries and makes the world their oyster. In fact, I have made many friendships that enabled me to visit wonderful places all over the world. I guess you could say the world became a smaller place and each year I would make sure to meet my buddies in a new place whether it was in Asia or in Europe.

International Schools

The usual culturally diverse educational hub in every country is commonly called an international school. International schools flaunt the number of nationalities they have – at times they have up to 50 different countries! They have every right in doing so since they most certainly wish to develop global citizens from a very early age. The International Baccalaureate is exactly the kind of programme that does this.

The only downside in countries is that private schools seem to offer such an educational upbringing that is usually only available to children of workers from the upper echelons of management, seldom for those that would normally apply for public schooling. But what can change? We may promote diversity in public schooling in order to gain those benefits already mentioned. Some consciousness raising is needed in order to change the current status quo if we want to instigate change, but it’s possible.

Environmental Influences on Youth Development

What makes a person behave a certain way? There are many aspects that can change over time, but one thing that almost everybody agrees on is that the environment has a huge role in what a person is going to be like and what a person considers normal. It’s not the same whether you grew up in a liberal family which believes that playing bingo is fun and has nothing against using the Heart Bingo bonus code and others to play online, and the family which considers any form of gambling as something unacceptable and banned. This is a more extreme example, but there are noticeable differences in even smaller aspects of life.

How does the environment influence youth development

Many studies have shown that various factors in an environment can have a huge impact on a child’s development. Many have argued that the environment is one of, if not the biggest influencer on youth development. One of the biggest ways that our environment influences our development is the way in which our environmental experiences during the development stage maps and forms our beliefs and behaviours later in life, a concept commonly known as the internal working model. The internal working model is the way that we understand and understand the world. The environment in which we develop in is pivotal in the growth and formation of our internal working model, we often use our experiences as a child to understand our experiences in adulthood.

Examples of environmental impacts on youth development

Example one

One example of how our environment impact youth development is relationships.  A child with parents who are happily married and often publicly display signs of affection for one another may grow up to take a positive view of relationships and love, whereas a child with divorced parents may grow up to take a negative view.

Example two

Another example can be found in how children learn. If a child is exposed to daily challenges which require logic and creativity to overcome, then they may develop to become significantly better at abstract problem solving and thinking later in life in comparison to those who were not presented with these challenges during the development stage.

How parents can use this information

As a parent, there are a variety of actions that you can take to ensure that a different environment is optimal for your child’s development. Below, we have listed a few examples of techniques you could use to do just this:

Create controlled challenges

You can set a variety of challenges for your child to overcome on a daily basis to help prompt and promote the development and formation of strong problem solving and abstract thinking skills that they can use later in life.

Lead by example

As a parent, one of the most important things you can do to help the child youth development is through leading by example. By this, we mean that you should promote positive views and experiences as much as possible to help your child form the same positive views and attitudes towards certain ideas later in life (one good example being relationships).

Treat any experience as progress

Finally, you should treat any experience, good or bad, as progress in your child’s development.  Based on this, you should try not to discourage your child from negative experiences and should instead encourage them to embrace them, as part of promoting their youth development.

Female Education Around the World

There are many benefits of female education, both for the girls and for the entire society. Educated girls have a healthier life, more opportunities, higher earnings, and their skills and competence can significantly contribute to the global economic growth.

However, there are still big systemic barriers preventing millions of girls across the world from having access to safe and quality primary and secondary education. Today, more than 130 million girls are out of schools. Whereas in Europe and North America girls have recently outperformed boys by the number of higher education diplomas and success in school, girls face discrimination especially in the world’s poorest countries, mostly from Sub-Saharan Africa, where the gender gap is also the highest.

Major Obstacles

Major obstacles to girls’ access to education include household responsibilities, poverty, cultural norms that prioritise boys’ education, early marriage, lack of safety in and around schools, sexual harassment and violence, and lack of basic resources and bad hygiene in schools.

Teen pregnancy is also an obstacle for many girls. For example, Tanzania, Equatorial Guinea, and Sierra Leone expel pregnant girls from schools. In contrast, boys who are the fathers are generally not expelled.

Below are some examples of gender gap in education around the world.

Chad

Chad is the lowest ranked country in terms of closing the education gender gap, according to the World Economic Forum report. This country has an extremely low literacy rate, with only 31.33% of men and 13.96% of women being able to read. The gap in primary school enrollment sits at 21%.

Afghanistan

Afghanistan, the country that still suffers the consequences of a devastating civil war, girls often don’t have a place to go to school. Instead, they study in tents or in the street, while classrooms are mostly reserved for boys. Most girls drop out of school by the time they are 15 and only 37% of them are literate, compared to 66% of boys. Many get married very early or must find work to help their families survive. Sometimes, families don’t believe that girls should study or fear for their safety.

Pakistan

In Pakistan, where only 70% of men and 46% of women are literate, the wake-up call came in 2012 when a 14-year-old Malala Yousafzai was shot and almost killed because she wanted to go to school. She became the voice of a generation of Pakistani girls who are denied education because of traditional gender roles are being forced upon them.

STEM fields

The gender gap in education exists even in economically developed countries. Girls are significantly under-represented in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Deeply rooted gender stereotypes discourage girls from pursuing these fields of study. Many countries are already actively working on changing the mindset that favours boys in STEM fields, but only 35% of young women today choose these career paths.

These examples and many more show that there is still much to be done to promote and improve access to education for millions of children all over the world.