Month: May 2021

Regulators and Mandatory Ongoing Education – A Learning Experience

The other day I was talking to a professional business woman about her continuing education courses. She indicated to me that she needed to study for one of these upcoming tests which went along with her continuing professional and ongoing education requirements. If she doesn’t study, and fails the test, she could be out of a job. She would have to shut down her entire business, and she would lose her license, and her livelihood. Okay so let’s talk shall we?

Now then, this gal I met works in California, and the California regulators, along with the federal regulators do require mandatory ongoing education. And they make no bones about it, if you fail to pass the tests, you are history. Nevertheless, they try to soften it up with wording such as; “you should treat this ongoing education and testing as a learning experience.” Well that’s really great, because if they fail the test they lose everything they’ve ever worked for – so, how convenient for a regulator to make it sound all warm and fuzzy when they are putting maximum stress on these individuals under the penalty of taking away their livelihood.

You see, I thought that we wanted to increase the number of people who have jobs the United States, not put people out of business, or take away their income. The only learning experience that one could get out of that whole procedure is to realize and learn that the government is out to make your life miserable, that they don’t care, and that they hold the power over you and your future. That’s what we are teaching our professionals in our society by all this mandatory ongoing testing. It’s gotten totally out of control, but then again the continuing education testing industry is a $2.5 billion industry in the US.

The industry is able to do this because they lobby our government to solve the problem that the government has with regulating industry. The government can’t regulate morality, and it just looks bad every time something goes wrong. Therefore they make more rules and regulations on top of other rules and regulations to the point of absurdity. Then the government says they are doing everything they can because they have ongoing education to help educate the professionals.

Trust me when I tell you, they aren’t educating anyone, they playing an old CYA trick, while trying to put the fear of God into the professionals out there, and keep them under threat of losing their livelihood, and it is a very mean-spirited theoretical strategy that they use. There is no honor in that. Indeed, this is abuse of power by the government, and crony capitalism for those that create the tests and continuing education programs.

I’d say we need the government employees and regulators to go through mandatory ongoing education classes, and if they fail the test, they lose their pension, their pay, their seniority, and their healthcare. That’s what we should do, because that is the threat that they make every time they give one of these tests to a hard-working independent professional in the free-market.

I would like you think about that good and hard because this is insane, and what we are doing is wrong. It’s a dishonest and a mean-spirited practice, it is akin to bullying. It needs to stop. Indeed I hope you will please consider all this and think on it.

Starting a Small Business Online Today

The internet is a perfect place to start up your first small business. You can do it for super cheap and the profits you have the opportunity to learn are immense to say the least. Don’t think for one minute though that running a successful business online is going to be easy. It takes work just like any business and you will only get from it what you put into it. Here are a few pieces of advice on starting a small business online.

The first thing that you will want to do is figure out just what kind of business you want to run. There are a plethora of ways to make money online and all of them can be effective with the focused work and consistent follow through. You will need to find something that you are passionate about and something that you have conviction in because you will more than likely have to do a lot of writing to promote your online business.

Next you will need to work on the design, theme, or layout of your website. You will want to optimize it to make you the most amount of money possible. You will need to think about the best way to market to your visitors whatever it is that you are selling. You may want to put a few banners on your website and/or an opt-in email box as well.

You can attempt to do the website installation and building yourself or you can hire a professional to do it for you. The latter will cost you quite a bit of money but will ensure that you have a nice looking website with all of the customizable features that you request. The former will save you money but will take you time to learn how to do everything that you need to do. It may be best to try it yourself if this is how you want to define your career. It surely wouldn’t hurt to learn all of the processes involved in starting a small business online.

Last but not least, you will need to market your business. This means that you will need to develop a system of getting traffic to your website so that you can make money. There are also a vast number of ways to do this as well. Study all of them and find a process that works for you.

Starting a small business online can make a drastic change in your lifestyle for the better. Remember to be patient and work persistently to reap the internet rewards.

Adult Education

It sounds like an old, beaten-up clich?�, but education never really ends. It does not end the moment you drop out of high school, and neither does it end the second your receive your college diploma. Education is something you pursue throughout your life, as you continue to learn the smallest and the biggest of lessons everyday you spend on this planet.

That being said, it is formal education that often ends all too quickly for many people. Many people who have dropped out of school early on tend to think that since they have given up before, they have no hope of getting back to where they have left of. Fortunately, this is no longer the case today. For instance, in colleges in Ireland, adult classes are quickly becoming more and more common as of late. It does not matter whether you are looking to finish off even just your elementary or high school education, if you are aiming to get your first vocational diploma, or even if you are planning on getting your second college degree. It does not matter what your age is. It does not matter at all, as there are many options open to you — as long as you are willing and ready to learn.

As previously said, you can now pick up right where you left off. Fortunately, today, more and more secondary schools in Donegal are offering what are frequently referred to as “continuing education” courses. Obviously, educating an adult is different from educating the average teenage high school student, as an adult has already amassed a lot of knowledge and experience outside of the academe. Fortunately, continuing education courses are conducted with this fact in mind. Not only do the teachers know how to specifically teach the courses for adults, but the classes are also often held in the evenings or on weekends. This is, of course, in consideration of adult students who may have full-time jobs as well.

More and more colleges are also offering similar courses for older students. Whether you want to finish a simple vocational course, earn a bachelor’s degree in accounting, or undergo events management workshops, you are sure to find an institution that can cater to your needs, such as the Atlanticside College. Additionally, thanks to the advent of the Internet, you can also choose to enroll in a particular course including language courses and business without needing to go to school at all. You can now opt to take an online course. There are obviously certain important advantages to this option-the topmost being the flexible and convenient schedule.

On the contrary, if you are considering taking an online course for the sake of more privacy, you must also remember that you do not even have to limit yourself to distance learning through the Internet. More and more schools are also beginning to offer one-on-one courses for adults-something that you may consider if you are not very comfortable going on bigger classes. Additionally, you may also opt for this if you want a more focused sort of teaching and training.

Too many people find themselves regretting their decision to put formal education last in their list of priorities. Fortunately, today, even that decision can be reversed.

Apple, Galvin and Buffett – Why You Are Never Too Old to Consider Starting a Business of Your Own

The names above may not be instantly recognizable, but in the world of business and entrepreneurship they belong to three individuals who put paid to the notion that to be successful in business you must be both young and money driven. Phyllis Apple, Bob Galvin and Warren Buffett all continue to head up their respective businesses – and they have a combined age of 252 years. A fact that should be an inspiration to anyone who doubts they can start up their own business.

Phyllis Apple enjoys golf and needlepoint – pastimes that one would normally associate a woman of 86 – but its her public relations firm, Apple Organization that really keeps her going. After having worked as a reporter at The Charlotte Observer, at the age of 57 Apple decided to start a business in which she could focus some of her favourite things – ‘organizing events and cultivating relationships’. Today Apple boasts not only an impressive client roster from their base in Miami Beach, Florida, but it also prides itself on being a great springboard for many leading PR experts in the US.

Bob Galvin is perhaps a little more famous, being the son of Paul Galvin – the founder of Motorola. Since stepping down from being CEO at Motorola in 1986 at the age of 64 (after helping grow their revenue from $216 million to $6.7 billion), Galvin has begun two research and development ventures which aim to improve major US networks including the power grid and traffic problems in large cities. The former was begun in just 2005 when Galvin was 83.

Warren Buffett’s story is a little different. Due to his investment partnership established in the 50s, Buffett was a millionaire by the time he was 33 years old in 1960. His relatively early millionaire status stimulated quite uniquely philanthropic leanings in Buffett’s life – which he still upholds today. Yet, he still maintains strong business interests despite his age and the ongoing and difficult recession, being the largest shareholder of Berkshire Hathaway (owners of General Re and Fruit of the Loom, and many more), and buying General Electric as recently as 2008.

At a time when many are considering career changes, embarking on business studies online and breaking out on their own, Apple, Galvin and Buffett are inspirational to anyone who may have doubts because they are too old. With age, often comes wisdom, and transferable skills which are often not fully realised until they are given the opportunity to flourish – and it seems that older entrepreneurs are going to be far more common over the next few years than they have been in the past.

Adult Education – How is it Different?

How is it different from K-12? Why is this important to us? Discuss andragogy and life-long learning.

Adult education, how is it different? Before we discuss the practical differences, let’s first address the two primary categories of education – pedagogy, and andragogy. Simply stated, in Merriam Webster’s online dictionary, pedagogy is the art science or profession of teaching. Within the profession, however, pedagogy, more often refers to the K through 12 type of approach; the Socratic approach, if you will, where teachers teach and learners listen. The information is passed from the instructor to student – more of a rote learning approach, where the learner is dependent upon the instructor for all learning. The teacher or instructor assumes full responsibility for what is taught.

Andragogy, however, assumes that the learner is self-directed. The learner is responsible for his or her own learning. Self-evaluation is characteristic of this approach. With Andragogy, the learner brings his own experience to the learning process. Each adult learner is a source of knowledge and contributes to the overall learning experience. With this approach is more of a built in readiness to learn than in the pedagogical model. This self-motivation comes from the need to know in order to perform more effectively or to accomplish one’s goals.

So, adult education is focus more on learning what we need to know to accomplish our different life goals. The other education approach is more of a required process to gain certain basic credentials. It is often much less student centered and focuses more on specific outcomes centered around a set curriculum. Adult education in comparison to K-12 is more learner centered in the expectation is more participation based on life experience.

The adult education approach becomes important to us since the goals are primarily different. The goals are centered on achieving a specific task outcome, or learning new behaviors. The adult becomes less motivated by grade point averages, and more motivated by achieving specific goals. Most often these goals are more pragmatic, and are centered around specific outcomes at the learner wants to achieve.

In this 21st century world of complexity, all of our senses are continually being assaulted with multiple types of information. To survive and possibly even to prosper, learning becomes a lifelong process. Most of us become lifelong learners, whether we recognize that specific term or not. In essence, adult education is different primarily from our K-12 experience, and possibly early college, by both our motivation and our need. Adult education becomes a choice, not a responsibility.

Copyright November 4, 2009 Boyd K. Smith, Ph.D. All rights Reserved