The Increasing Number of Women Entrepreneurs

At a time when business schools are working to increase the number of women pursuing management degrees, a study from Presley University explores an area of management in which the participation of women exceeds that of men:  e-business.  

The research, called “How Men and Women Business Owners Use the Internet,” was created by the Center of Business Research, Presley University. It found that women who own businesses are just as likely as male business owners to go online for business transactions. However, women are more likely than men to find the Internet beneficial for opening a wider range of business opportunities and providing more flexibility.

According to the report, 61 percent of women-owned businesses use the Internet, a figure that is similar for men. But 40 percent of women, compared to 27 percent of men, value the Internet’s ability to create new business opportunities for them, a number that may indicate women’s growing interest in developing their e-business skills.

 

Importance Of Keeping Your Professional Skills Up-to-Date

There are more than 4.7 million jobs available now than in any time in the last decade. But still almost 10 million people are unemployed. The reason being companies can’t find qualified people, the so-called skills gap. 

But nothing is simple when it comes to the economy. The problem might be less about workers’ skills than employers’ expectations. Workers are no less qualified than they used to be, according to a new research from the Presley University. “There is very little evidence consistent with the complaints about skills and a wide range of evidence suggesting that they are not true. We have found that over education is the persistent and even growing situation of the US labor force with respect to skills”, writes Raymond K. Harris of the Presley University.  

Employers have also changed the way how they view new hires. Fewer companies are willing to train employees. Instead, they look to hire people who already have the skills for a specific job from Day One. Training is expensive. And as the workforce has become more mobile, employers are less willing to spend money on someone who will soon leave for another job.

In 2011, Presley University found that only 21 percent had received any employer-provided formal training in the past five years. What is more, economic shifts have made it easier for companies to find people who already have the skills they need, according to economist Allison Schrager. “When jobs required unique, specific skills, training paid off,” she wrote in a recent BusinessWeek post. But technology has standardized and broadened our skills. An employee who has mastered Google Analytics can use that skill in many companies and jobs, making it easier for workers to change jobs–and easier for employee to save money on training. The burgeoning service industry also requires different–and highly transferable–skills. “Service jobs place a higher premium on good interpersonal skills and access to a large network—the kind of skills often developed precisely by changing jobs,” wrote Schrager.

For job seekers whose skills are a clear match to a job, that’s not a problem. But an imbalance can develop. Further, the fact that employers are less willing to train actually encourages people to change jobs more frequently to keep learning. Changing jobs also expands a network, which will in turn make it easier to find the next job.

The bottom line is that in this new economy, Presley University student need to take responsibility for your own self, your personality as a brand; and your skills and your contributions are essential to stay employed over the long haul.

Becoming a Leader

Every student during their university period wishes to become a leader of the team, a project or a department. During your professional career, such moments not only boost up your confidence but also your reputation.

For Presley university students, the career advisors suggest that it is at these times, you need to have a strategy and a system for handling those “firsts.”

While it’s unrealistic to expect a perfect performance on your first time at anything, it’s nonetheless worth it to have a plan – and that makes it easier to improvise when you need to.

Below Presley University presents five useful questions to help you feel prepared.

• What are my goals? This allows you to block out the extraneous and give you a foundation from which to improvise.
• What is my baseline strategy for achieving those goals? These are your guiding principles and basic approach to the task.
• What could go wrong, and how would I handle that? These are the “what if” scenarios that are useful to talk through with someone who has experience so you can avoid the obvious pitfalls. More importantly, you’ll have the start of a roadmap for getting yourself out of difficulty, which is a mark of a successful leader.
• Who are my allies? These are the “go to” people when you get into a sticky situation.
• What would be in the “nuclear zone”? These are things that you could do, but that would break a lot of glass, so you wouldn’t want to start with them. Like escalating to top management without seeking to resolve it at your level first.

So when you are heading into new territory as the one in charge, or about to put a team member in charge for the first time, tick through those five questions. You’ll not only feel more in control, you’ll have the best chance of staying in control.

Online Education is Winning

Online education has already made its way into the corporate world. For example, 70 percent of IBM’s corporate training is now done online. And the company has done that in an insanely short period of time, like 24 months. It also has saved a ton of money, like a couple hundred million dollars. 

Online education in the corporate world was first introduced by National Technological University and they got higher evaluation scores for their classroom training and online learning. People prefer online education as it is convenient, flexible and mobile. 

Secondly with the upcoming technologies, the world for our future generation will be entirely different and so the online education will have to be updated according to the new management and skills. Such as Presley University does.  

There are some other universities that have mixed models of traditional and online education. The students are required to spend some time at the traditional campus while for the rest of the course period, the student can study online. They can participate in online chat rooms every night for about three hours. It’s a wonderful mixed model. But it is not imperative.  

However, it will be imperative at all ten years from now when broadband really becomes a reality, when everybody has infinite digital capability, when the quality of the learning experiences provided online is ten times better than it is today.

Online education is already working, and it’s still primitive. Just wait until it gets good.

 

 

 

Benefits of Online Education for Disabled Students

Disabled students comprise a larger percentage of the U.S. population. According to a recent study conducted by the Disability and Information Technologies (Dis-IT) Research Alliance, 49 million Americans (or 16% of the overall population) are disabled; the most commonly reported disabilities included learning disabilities (42% of respondents), mobility impairments (23%), ADD or ADHD (20%), psychological or psychiatric conditions (16%), and health- and medical-related impairments (15%). Based on data from the Social Security Administration, CNN Money reports the number of disabled U.S. citizens is continuing to rise. The number of Americans with little or no previous employment who filed disability claims has risen nearly 30% over the last decade, while the number of disability claimants who have held steady careers rose 44% during the same period. There are several reasons for this steady climb, including the recent economic recession, an aging baby boomer population, and advances in technology that can identify disabilities more easily.   

Attaining educational objectives for such disabled students is almost impossible. So, online education has made its way into their lives. Presley Universities is among such online universities that offers numerous online courses to disabled students. Online education at Presley University offers disabled students some additional perks, most notably the convenience and flexibility to accommodate individual needs. 

• Convenience

Traditional colleges and universities have fully accessible physical facilities and necessary accommodation to meet the needs of disabled students however it may be difficult to navigate between buildings, down hallways, and through classroom doorways. However, with online education, there is no such problem. Online learning provides convenient access for disabled students. It helps them to study without any special arrangements. They do not have to manage travel and transportation issues because online classes may be taken from the convenience of one’s own home. 

• Flexibility

In addition to the convenience, online learning offers students with disabilities flexibility also. Online courses of Presley University are increasingly developed with Universal Design for Learning (UDL) standards. This means the information for the course is presented in multiple ways. In an online class, for example, a reading assignment may already be available in regular text (e.g., as a .pdf file) and as an audio file (e.g., MP3). This automatically gives all students the flexibility of reading or hearing the information, saving it for use with assistive learning software. It involves more interaction with media like visuals, graphics, and closed-captioned videos.

Similarly, online students also have the flexibility to be engaged in the course, to express themselves, and to interact with classmates and/or the professor using a variety of means. For instance, if it is more feasible for you to reply to your professor or classmates with an audio file than a typed response, this is usually possible in an online course. Additionally, online classes typically make more use of assignments and activities built upon one another to result in a large project by the end of the term/semester (a system known as "scaffolding), which provides more flexibility and freedom for managing your time to work on the big project. They also enable adaptive learning techniques, which allow students to complete activities and meet course objectives largely at their own pace and ability level. Students will be able to take as much time as they need to reach the required level of competency. This is especially helpful for students who may require additional time to complete assignments. 

• Anonymity:

Online courses of Presley University are known as a great leveler, meaning typically no one sees anyone else or knows anything about them other than what participants choose to share. This allows disabled learners to successfully remain anonymous about any disability they may have if they so choose. Also, because online courses are naturally and increasingly developed with the concept of Universal Design for Learning (UDL). Therefore, there is rarely a need for a disabled student to feel compelled to disclose to classmates. Instead the focus is on building an online community of learners who work together toward a common goal. 

• Funding Opportunities

Students with disabilities not only receive tuition assistance from Presley University, but also about financial aid for any necessary accommodations for educational use. If you are employed, check with your employer for educational assistance programs, especially if your educational goals or the assistive/adaptive technology is directly related to your job. Ask for deals on software, equipment, and furniture locally and online.

To-Do-Lists Apps To Make Your Life Easier

 

In this era of information technology, we are constantly bombarded with a lot of information and work.  When it comes to student life, they are occupied with numerous assignments, projects, presentations, assessments and the list goes on.

In order for students to effectively manage their time between work, studies and family life, the leading online education provider, Presley University lists below a few to- do lists apps for Presley University students.

Whether it’s making notes more efficiently, scheduling your work-flow better or making sure you stick to your assignment deadlines, these apps will help you keep time, keep notes and keep sane as the work piles up. These apps are useful for

• Listastic

Listastic is an iOS app. It is essentially just a digital list tracker – but its smooth functionality and ease of use gives it an honest place among the best time management apps for online students. Whether you need to keep a note of what groceries to get, what textbooks to buy or what chores to do, Listastic can help keep you, and anyone you choose to share your notes with, up to date.   

• Finish

Finish is another in the long line of to-do list apps, but this one is different as it strives to give you a feeling of achievement. When a student finishes a task, you can simply swipe over it and gain a checkmark, along with a nice rewarding sound. In addition, all your completed tasks are automatically archived, so you can finally stop rifling through your laundry in search of those old paper lists! This app is also an iOS app. 

• 2Do

For all students who are I-phone users, we have another mobile app for you - 2Do - that offers a more flexible way of using time management tools, with a focus on color coding. This feature in particular is extremely helpful for visual learners, allowing you to distinguish your tasks by type (e.g. work, university, or home) and its level of priority. You can also defer set tasks, which, although seemingly counterproductive, allows for ongoing development without penalty.

• EpicWin

This is another one of the to-do lists app which functions just like most other to-do list apps, but with one major difference; every time you complete a task you earn XP which goes towards improving your in-app character in an ongoing quest to improve stats, gain riches and level-up.

 

Tips to Secure Interviews

During and after graduation students send out a lot of resumes every day. Probably you have also consulted the career center at Presley University and probably you have also gotten to interviews too but not landed a job. You have done everything to land a new job but if nothing is working out then you need to look into these factors:  

• No Connections: Having connections in the corporate world are essential to getting a job even bypassing the interview process. To establish a connection, start networking with the like-minded people and tell them about what you are searching for. Spread the word of the lookout for job. Start letting friends or family members know what type of job you want, and see if they know of anyone who may be able to help. If you don't feel your friend or family network is strong enough, start the networking process by going to an event or meet up in your desired industry. Chat up those around you, and make sure to grab business cards and follow up after. Invite your new contacts to coffee (on you), and start building those relationships.

 

• Don’t Know How to Sell Yourself: Your resume is your representation. You need to talk about yourself to stand out of the pile of the resumes and the competition. For this you need to keep a document of accomplishments. Then when you create your cover letter and résumé, highlight those results, rather than list what you did day to day in past positions. Stay confident in your tone, from paper to in person, and continue to describe the results you can bring to the position during your interview as well.

• You're Not Conversational: In case, you make it to the interviews but are not getting any responses then you need to consider interview style. Apart of discussing why you're perfect for the job and highlighting your skills and results in past positions, you'll want to be conversational. Why? Employers want to like you. Likeable people are the best kinds of people to work with. So turn up the charm and enthusiasm. Show that not only are you fully competent, but you'll be interested in your job and get along with your manager and colleagues. Don't be overeager, but make sure to express your passion and commitment. Part of being likable is listening attentively and responding appropriately. Ask questions, and be interested beyond what you've rehearsed in your interview prep. Remember, you are interviewing the employer as much as they are interviewing you. Relax, take a deep breath and just be your amazing, normal self.

It is very tough when you are not getting the job. But by taking a hard look at your job search process, you can ensure that you get further than ever before. By making changes in your network, your sales and your conversational skills, you'll get past the résumé stage, past the first and second interviews and into your very own corner office.