INNOVATIVE LEARNER

Years ago, The Conference Board of Canada, an independent, not-for-profit applied research organization, developed the Employability Skills 2000+, which lists the critical skills that employees need to succeed in the workplace. Communication skills, tops the list of fundamental skills needed to succeed in the workplace. A decade-and-a-half later, with the rise of social media networking and texting, communication is becoming more casual, even in situations where more formal ways of communicating are required. What this means is that people from the younger generation, may not know or even understand the importance of effective communication skills in the workplace. When you take a look at the greatest leaders, one of the traits they possess, is the ability to communicate effectively, which underscores the importance of communication skills. There are specific things to do that can improve your communication skills: 1. Listen, listen, and listen.  People want to know ...

According to a report by World Economic Forum (WEF), 800 million jobs will be impacted by 2030. It also suggests that bots will take over these jobs across 800 occupations. What happens if the report comes true? How can we prepare for and secure our future? While automation will bring in the much-needed agility of operations, it is important to weigh in our blind romance with technology. With process outcomes we may compromise as we get bedazzled with what technology can deliver. The good part is people who get displaced from these back end, repetitive jobs will move to do other interesting jobs. But it’s important to consider what we seem to be headed for as a society. As part of ongoing evolution, millions will now have the opportunity to upgrade to more interesting, engaging and intellectually stimulating jobs (albeit with some investment in upskilling), which is the shining rainbow in the grey skies of job losses! While the job landscape is predicted to undergo ra...

Read up. Dress well and mind your body language. So you are soon going to be armed with your graduation degree and will be ready to take on the world with your creativity, passion, and originality. But wait a minute! One of the steepest hurdles for you to first clear will be your interview with your employer. So how do you convince others to hire you as an employee? Here are 10 tips to help you. Read, read, read   Read up on three things -- 1. the company you are planning to apply to 2. your course of studies and how it links to the domain of work and 3. global trends in society, economics and politics. Introspect Ask yourself, what are your unique traits? What makes you employable? Why should a company hire you? What value can you bring to them? Thinking about these questions and penning the answers will help you craft convincing replies at the interview. Common questions Prepare a list of commonly asked questions and write out the answers. ...

You’d think business writing is always carefully crafted, but the truth is that it’s often error-ridden with misspellings, misused words and grammatical inaccuracies. The good news is that you can easily improve your business writing in a few easy steps. First, Know Your Audience: Often our writing suffers because it’s inappropriate. We write convoluted emails, we format reports poorly, and overall we don’t try to make our content reader friendly. Knowing the purpose a piece of writing serves gives you a sense of direction. Writing a business report should follow a specific format; for example, an in-office email could be short and informal, but a customer email or a PowerPoint presentation should follow guidelines of courtesy, clarity and conciseness. Your audience should be your compass; keeping in mind what the recipient seeks to learn narrows down the possible directions your writing should take. Style, tone, and vocabulary use should be in line with your audience a...