All About Online MBA and Online BBA Courses

Posted on by

There are quite a number of globally recognized management institutions in India. They also offer online MBA courses. Some of the leading business schools like IIM Ahmadabad, IIFT, and IIT Delhi offer online MBA courses in India. Online MBA in India differs little from courses offered in the regular classrooms in a lot of ways. Online MBA in India offers students both general MBA studies as well as more specialized MBA programs like executive MBA Programs.

Distance Learning MBA Courses have opened up huge opportunities for a lot of students who are not willing to pursue a full-time classroom course. Class contact hours is one of the main differences between distance learning and full time MBA.There are a whole lot of students who are opting for distance learning MBA courses to suit their daily schedule who can also opt for Online MBA programs at various institutes abroad. There are several institutes in India and abroad, which offer various distance learning programs at the undergraduate and post graduate level. The common eligibility requirement for a distant learning MBA course is that applicants must have a graduation degree in any discipline with a good percentage. BBA students have always an added advantage. Those who have done a diploma course in management studies can also apply for admissions to distance learning MBA courses.

The recent boom in the IT and IT related industry has opened up a whole lot of job opportunities for computer professionals. Hence, computer application courses are of immense importance these days. Those who are already working and want to enhance their qualification may opt for the online BBA degree programs offered by a number of institutions. The fee charged by institutions for these courses is also quite low when compared to the regular courses. Detailed knowledge on various aspects of the field of study like information technology, data structure, optimization techniques, fundamentals of accounting, data communication and networking, discrete mathematics and system analysis and design can be gathered in an online BBA course. Students also learn a lot about fundamentals of management, database management system, numerical techniques, system programming and numerical techniques.

10+2 pass candidates from any recognized board are eligible to apply for the online BBA course. Alagappa University, Bangalore University and Annamalai University are some of the well known institutes that offer online BBA degree programs. Higher education in computer applications is one of the best career choices today. A lot of the reputed IT firms and software companies recruit individuals for various senior as well as entry level positions in their companies.

Time To Update Your College Bound Resume

Posted on by

Colleges want to know how students spent their free time outside of school. Do they stay involved with activities of interest or go home, sit on the couch, talk on the phone, and watch TV?

Involved students have spent time pursuing and developing their strengths and interests. They have experiences and skills that will help them contribute to the college community. A resume (or list of activities) shows colleges what students have done with their free time.

Now is the perfect time to update, or begin, a college resume. Take time to include all activities from last school year and account for summer activities. Remember that activities done the summer before 9th grade are considered part of a student’s 9th grade year and so on.

What should I list? List everything! Colleges understand that students might change their interest over time or participate in an event only once. Go ahead and list the variety of things done every year of high school.

Resumes typically can be broken down into the following sections:

1. Extracurricular Activities – sports, school clubs, youth group, Boy / Girl Scouts, recreational teams, band, music lessons, theater, church choir, newspaper, debate, Young Life, academic teams, NHS, drill team, etc. This includes school, church, community, and recreational activities.

2. Honors / Awards / Academic Achievements – dean’s list, honor roll, team MVP, all area team, regional qualifier, most improved, top student in a subject, Eagle Scout, Gold Key Award, high honors, state finalist, first chair, blue ribbon, etc. List all awards, honors, and academic recognition. If you don’t have any or many items in this category, don’t worry; make sure you have items to list in other sections.

3. Work Experience & Internships – Colleges recognize students can learn valuable lessons from work. You might learn customer skills, responsibility, and leadership by working 40 hours a week at a local fast food restaurant over the summer. After two months of clearing carts from the grocery store parking lot, you may have learned why you want to go to college and improve your job prospects!

Not all work has to be paid. Don’t forget internships and unpaid experiences. It is OK to list work done for family members, but don’t exaggerate to the point of lying. You may watch your siblings every day after school or work in your dad’s office over the summer; these are both work. However, it would be stretching things to list household chores like walking the dog or making your bed as work.

4. Community Service & Volunteer Work – There are many ways for students to volunteer these days. The best types of service are those that let you develop your strengths, talents, and interests while helping others.

5. Summer Experiences – Because students have so much free time in the summer, it is an ideal time to take on additional projects, activities, and experiences. Many colleges offer programs for high school students to get a preview of campus life and college classes. Summer can also be a great time for you to create your own opportunity – open your own business, explore a topic of interest to you, or take one of your regular activities to a new level. Make the most of this time!

6. Hobbies & Interests – Some students are passionate about subjects which aren’t offered in school or don’t translate into traditional club or activity experiences. Use this part of the resume to show anything that hasn’t fit into the categories above. For example, one student spent 15 hours a week rebuilding a classic car with his dad. Another student was a self-taught gourmet cook. Just because you do it for fun, doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be something you brag about.

It is a good habit to update your resume each semester. Keeping an up to date resume will make interviews and applications much easier.

Fashion Design School Accreditation

Posted on by

Fashion design school accreditation is one of the most important aspects to consider as you’re choosing where you want to apply. If you want to be able to prove to future employers that your degree is valuable and authentic, you must get it from an accredited school; there are no two ways around it. When a school is accredited, that means it has been shown to meet a certain set of standards that professional organizations have found to be sufficient. But how do you know whether the accreditation itself is sufficient? This can be the difficult question. With a little information, though, it’s easy to spot a legitimately accredited school from a scam.

Where to Find out About Fashion Design School Accreditation

There are many resources to learn more about the accreditation of various fashion design schools that you may be considering. These are some of the leading national and regional accrediting bodies that you can turn to for recommendations before you apply to any fashion design schools:

– The Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools: The ACICS is another national accrediting body that evaluates fashion and design programs for accreditation, as well as other independent academic disciplines.

– Middle State Association of Colleges and Schools: A regional accrediting agency for schools and colleges, including fashion design schools.

– The National Association of Schools of Art and Design: The NASAD is a national accrediting body for art, design and fashion programs with an established set of professional standards for accreditation.

– North Central Association of Colleges and Schools: The NCACS is a regional accrediting body for the north central region of the United States.

– Northwest Association of Schools and Colleges: Northwestern colleges are evaluated by this regional accrediting body.

– New England Association of Schools and Colleges: The NEASC is an accrediting board for all schools and colleges in the New England area.

– Southern Association of Colleges and Schools: An accrediting organization for southern schools and colleges.

– Western Association of Schools and Colleges: The WASC is a regional accrediting agency for institutions of higher learning on the West Coast.

The Council for Interior Design Accreditation, Council of Arts Accrediting Association and Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design may also have valuable information about design-related school programs.

The most important thing to remember is to make sure to find out whether or not the school of your interest is accredited before you apply. Don’t waste any of your precious time and money on schools that aren’t.

Charting a Curriculum For Educational Charity

Posted on by

A common guess will show anyone what the curriculum for an educational charity programme should look like. But one thing is certain; the curriculum is different from conventional education curriculum for schools. So when we talk of the possible curriculum for the above concept of education, then there is need to be careful enough as to avoid misplacing the values that really constitute the heart of the concept.

The first point that must be noted down in determining what forms the curriculum reference points for the concept of educational charity is the fact that the kind of educational packages offered here moves beyond equipping the poor and the less privileged with the letters of the book only, but rather goes further to wholly empower them to be productively creative as a way of tackling their greatest problems; poverty, hunger and disease. Here education is not about acquiring formal certificate; rather it’s aimed at equipping the individual with the needed essential and life survival skills that will enable him or her to have unhindered access to minimum decent living. It is aimed at empowering the poor to break the chain of dependence perpetual on external intervention and charity as a way of alleviating the effects of poverty, hunger and disease on the poor. Educational charity centres on practical learning that gives the poor direct access to the immediate or remote labour market.

An appropriate understanding of both the setting and the target group of the above concept of education is also needed to be able to render an effective service of charity or intervention. For example the curriculum of a program that has rural farming women as its target will definitely differ from the curriculum of an educational intervention program aimed at empowering the rural youth economically through ICT and similar packages. In the same sense, an educational programme after such manner meant for the children within the poor circles of the world will definitely focus on basic education to achieve minimum literacy.

In whatever is the case a balanced curriculum for educational charity meant for the poor and the less privileged must definitely aim at two major objectives targeted at enlightening the poor towards literacy and empowering them towards productivity and self dependence.

Professional Writing – Four Tips to Get Hired

Posted on by

Want to become a professional writer? These days the online world offers you lots of opportunities, and the more expert you are in targeting those opportunities, the greater your chances of getting hired. Let’s look at four tips which will help you.

1. Rewrite the Ad to Which You’re Responding

If you’ve found a job ad online to which you want to respond, rewrite the ad. Why rewrite the ad? Because then you’ll know exactly what the advertiser wants, and you can tick off the points with which you’ve complied in your application. Editors and other buyers of writing won’t hire a writer who can’t follow instructions.

2. Choose a Specific Market, and Get Hired

The best writing jobs are never advertised, therefore if you want to get higher paying jobs, write proposals. If you’ve written for magazines, you know that you query magazine editors on an article you want to write. Your proposals are similar to query letters. You may be wondering: “What do I propose?”

That’s up to you. For example, consider that these days every website needs content. The web is huge, and growing. The environment is much more competitive than it was even six months ago. Therefore, if you can write an interesting proposal on writing content for a website, the chances are that you’ll get hired.

Many publications and sites need writers, but they’re too busy to advertise, and if you come to them with a fresh voice, you’ll get hired at best, and at worst, you’ll have made a useful contact.

3. Craft a Mission Statement, Brand, and Bio

Creating a mission statement sounds complex, but the statement you’ll create isn’t a jargon-filled, cynical mess of pointless verbiage as most businesses mission statements are. It’s your intention for your professional writing career.

Here’s how to create it. Write down in 250 words exactly what you intend with your writing career. Who do you want to write for? Why do you want to write for them? What skills and abilities do you have? Who can best use these skills and abilities? You create a mission statement so that you can get clear in your own mind on exactly what you offer. I promise you that if you devote half an hour to this it will do amazing things for you, simply because you’ll start targeting the appropriate markets for your writing.

Once you’ve written your mission statement, think about your brand. Do yourself a favor and “brand” your own name. I see many writers who think up cute names for their businesses and then attempt to brand that name. Or even worse, they brand themselves as an “article writer” or a “web writer” or whatever. Over time, the kinds of writing gigs you’ll accept will change. What happens to your “web writer” brand when you no longer do that? Once you’re known in an area, those kinds of jobs keep coming, even when you no longer want them.

Your own name never changes. Therefore brand your own name first, and then worry about creating other branding if and when you need to — most writers will never need to. Once you’ve completed your mission statement, and have considered branding, it’s time to create your bio. Your bio is simply 250 to 500 words about who you are and what you do. You can create a mini bio of around 25 words which you can use as part of your branding.

4. Brand You: Your Website Is Your Sales Person

Your website sells YOU 365 days a year. If you don’t have a site, create one. If you do have a site make sure it contains lots of information. If your site is currently a skimpy brochure-like site, it will be very difficult to get search engine traffic. Therefore, add more content and preferably add a blog as well.

Professional Writing – Four Tips to Get Hired

Posted on by

Want to become a professional writer? These days the online world offers you lots of opportunities, and the more expert you are in targeting those opportunities, the greater your chances of getting hired. Let’s look at four tips which will help you.

1. Rewrite the Ad to Which You’re Responding

If you’ve found a job ad online to which you want to respond, rewrite the ad. Why rewrite the ad? Because then you’ll know exactly what the advertiser wants, and you can tick off the points with which you’ve complied in your application. Editors and other buyers of writing won’t hire a writer who can’t follow instructions.

2. Choose a Specific Market, and Get Hired

The best writing jobs are never advertised, therefore if you want to get higher paying jobs, write proposals. If you’ve written for magazines, you know that you query magazine editors on an article you want to write. Your proposals are similar to query letters. You may be wondering: “What do I propose?”

That’s up to you. For example, consider that these days every website needs content. The web is huge, and growing. The environment is much more competitive than it was even six months ago. Therefore, if you can write an interesting proposal on writing content for a website, the chances are that you’ll get hired.

Many publications and sites need writers, but they’re too busy to advertise, and if you come to them with a fresh voice, you’ll get hired at best, and at worst, you’ll have made a useful contact.

3. Craft a Mission Statement, Brand, and Bio

Creating a mission statement sounds complex, but the statement you’ll create isn’t a jargon-filled, cynical mess of pointless verbiage as most businesses mission statements are. It’s your intention for your professional writing career.

Here’s how to create it. Write down in 250 words exactly what you intend with your writing career. Who do you want to write for? Why do you want to write for them? What skills and abilities do you have? Who can best use these skills and abilities? You create a mission statement so that you can get clear in your own mind on exactly what you offer. I promise you that if you devote half an hour to this it will do amazing things for you, simply because you’ll start targeting the appropriate markets for your writing.

Once you’ve written your mission statement, think about your brand. Do yourself a favor and “brand” your own name. I see many writers who think up cute names for their businesses and then attempt to brand that name. Or even worse, they brand themselves as an “article writer” or a “web writer” or whatever. Over time, the kinds of writing gigs you’ll accept will change. What happens to your “web writer” brand when you no longer do that? Once you’re known in an area, those kinds of jobs keep coming, even when you no longer want them.

Your own name never changes. Therefore brand your own name first, and then worry about creating other branding if and when you need to — most writers will never need to. Once you’ve completed your mission statement, and have considered branding, it’s time to create your bio. Your bio is simply 250 to 500 words about who you are and what you do. You can create a mini bio of around 25 words which you can use as part of your branding.

4. Brand You: Your Website Is Your Sales Person

Your website sells YOU 365 days a year. If you don’t have a site, create one. If you do have a site make sure it contains lots of information. If your site is currently a skimpy brochure-like site, it will be very difficult to get search engine traffic. Therefore, add more content and preferably add a blog as well.

Tips To Help You Get Ready To Receive Your School Exam Results

Posted on by

Sitting an exam is one thing and it is quite another to receive results for the same. No matter how prepared and confident most students are when sitting for their exams, there always seem to be some sort of anxiousness and nervousness when it is finally time to receive the exam results. This is especially the case when your exam performance determines whether you go to the next level or not. It is not fun to keep retaking exams and therefore most students hope to pass. The thought of failure seems to freak almost everyone out, but there are a few things that you can do to prepare for the results.

1. Remind yourself that you gave the exam your best. This is one of the easiest ways of keeping calm and maintaining cool when the results are about to be released. You studied hard and prepared for the exams the best way you could so you are bound to get what you really deserve. Go over your preparation period and convince yourself that you are a success no matter what to calm your nerves down.

2. Get your mind off the results. If you are too anxious to do anything else or to think of anything else, you only make it worse when you sit around doing nothing. Why not find an engaging activity to help you keep your mind off the results. You can engage in interesting exercises or take a session at the gym to try create a diversion as you await to receive the results. The less you think about the results the less you will worry yourself over the unknown.

3. Be ready to accept the results. Acceptance is very important and no matter what grades you get, you should be ready to accept them. If your performance is impressive them celebrate how you want and if it is not as satisfying then at least remember that you can always retake or have a remark of the same. There is really no reason to take drastic actions simply because you did not perform as expected, so be ready to accept whatever comes your way.

4. Choose the best channel to get the results. Most schools make it possible for students to find results on their website and some offer codes that can be dialed via mobile phone for the results to be accessed. Such channels are convenient if you want to get your results fast and easy without leaving the comfort of your home, but some prefer the traditional method of going physically to the school to get results. Choose the channel you are most comfortable with so you have the privacy that you may need when opening the results or you may have the company you find appropriate for the same. Some would rather be alone, others with fellow students and teachers, whereas others feel more at ease around family.

5. Know who to turn to in case you need assistance. You may want to have someone on standby to offer you necessary support or advice as soon as you open your results. It is best that you select this person beforehand; it could be a trusted teacher, or a close family member or friend.

Coaches – Don’t Get Caught in These Coaching Pitfalls

Posted on by

Being a coach is a big responsibility. You are dealing with people’s lives and the decisions that they make about their lives. That is a basic thing to remember. It is not your life, it is your client’s life. You have no say in how they decide to live their lives. You can only ask questions so that they can make those decisions in an informed manner. Unfortunately many coaches forget this or worse, do not get or understand this very basic principle of coaching. All novice coaches go through a struggle learning not to take on their client’s life, not to tell them what to do and not to direct the conversation.

Coaching takes practice and good coaches never stop practicing. They also constantly continue to work on their coaching skills either through courses or with a mentor coach or both. Below are some of the coaching pitfalls that they work to avoid and overcome.

  1. Asking leading questions.
  2. Asking closed ended questions.
  3. Getting caught in the client’s story.
  4. Giving advice and telling the client what the coach would do.
  5. Following the coach’s agenda rather than the client’s agenda.
  6. Making judgments about what the client should or should not do.
  7. Letting the client ramble.
  8. Not interrupting when necessary to refocus the client on his agenda.
  9. Thinking about what to say to or ask the client next.
  10. Setting goals and action steps for the client.
  11. Not getting to beliefs and dealing with them.
  12. Staying on surface issues.
  13. Not giving the client time and space to think.
  14. Dealing with the presenting problem rather than the issue.
  15. Not taking enough time to identify the real issue.
  16. Dealing with more than one issue at a time.
  17. Thinking the client is a friend and treating them as such.
  18. Breaking confidentiality.
  19. Worrying about their own needs instead of the needs of the client.
  20. Not getting to the goal setting stage.
  21. Not understanding how to use assessments properly.
  22. Using poorly validated and unreliable assessments.
  23. Having a limited array of techniques and methods of coaching.
  24. Not listening well thus not following the client.
  25. Not using the client’s own words to direct the next question.
  26. Not challenging the client’s assumptions.
  27. Not unearthing the client’s self-limiting beliefs.
  28. Not helping the client replace their self-limiting beliefs with empowering beliefs.
  29. Not checking for take – always from the session.
  30. Not having the client recap the session.

This is just a start on the pitfalls coaches can get trapped in. There are many, many more. You can see how easy it is to get tripped up on some of these. If you need a good mentor coach or coaching school I would be happy to help you find the ones that will meet your needs.

Career Training Program – Helping You to Your Fullest Potential?

Posted on by

Selecting a career takes time and for this to be successful one needs to consider several aspects. Just because you are an expert in a certain field does not mean that the particular work you are good at will bring you lots of money. It is essential that you choose a profession that is profitable and which will give you job satisfaction.

If a person’s career path does not lead him or her to a developed stage, then it would be useless to be employed and be stagnated in one place. Majority of people take their career very seriously, starting at a very young age. Why do you think this happens? It is mainly because their financial stability lies in how successful they are at the workplace. No one wants to live a life without money. Many people work for a living and the money they earn depends on how good they are at the workplace. Having a qualification does not simply pave the way to success. Today you need something more than that.

If you look closely, you will notice how a career training program can do just that. A career training program can help an individual use their fullest potential as it brushes up their skills and abilities. A good career training program can groom an invidual to be successful in the workplace, but also helping them achieve respect in the society they live in.

If you have just completed your higher studies and looking for a job, a career training program can prepare you with the necessary skills needed to get a good job. With the basic training, transforming you into a professional in your chosen career. A career training program usually consists of a set of educative lessons which come in a systematic order making it easier on the student.

Having a competitive edge over your colleagues is necessary if you want to reach the top in your career. This is needed especially if you are determined in excelling in the career you’ve chosen. Getting this knowledge from a career training program is one of the best ways to gain a competitive advantage over the others. Many universities and professional bodies have noticed how graduates and other people need career development training in their lives. This is why almost every university today carry out at least one career training program to help their students.

The job market is in need of skilled and trained professionals. If you are to stay on the top, the skills and knowledge you have should be up to date as it’s a continuing process of learning. A career training program can be helpful to a person who has just completed their higher studies and entering the job market or for someone who is already half way up the career ladder.

Improvisations to Make Distance Learning in India for Better GER

Posted on by

The 12th five-year plan is geared up to achieve a 30% GER from the present 15% GER of students in the higher education segment. Attracting larger numbers from the student segment not only demands accessibility but also affordability, flexibility and relaxations in the eligibility criteria. With these workable and viable parameters, distance learning serves as the rider to mass education, and, can considerably expand its scope to bring in more students to continue their education.

Distance learning has grown in shape and size, and at present accounts for 22% of the total GER of students in the higher education segment. Considering the needs of the Indian mass, who want to pursue higher education, while continuing to work, distance education can be the bridge for aspiring students/working professionals to achieve their dreams. The areas, which can bolster the initiatives of distance learning in India, are:

Remote accessibility:

At present, India has 544 universities and 3132 colleges. The mushrooming universities in the country have not delivered easy access to students from remote areas. According to a survey, close to 24% of all enrolments in the higher education system is from the ODL system. To boost this percentage, Distance Learning Universities can focus on opening up information/learning centers in regions with low GER, but a vast student potential. This apart, in view of the internet penetration in the country, the online medium of training and studying can be adopted in regions with prominent internet presence.

Innovative pedagogy for higher employability:

As the competitive job industry looks for skilled work-force, students with industry-relevant knowledge about the subjects they have studied, have a brighter chance to land in the right job. Industry – oriented training through cutting-edge course modules, with a right balance between practical and academic training, make a distance learning course more relevant in the modern-day scenario. For instance, SMU-DE’s online platform EduNxt features many avenues for all-round learning and development of its students and has a vast student base.

Placement services

Universities such as IGNOU and SMU-DE provide placement services to its students. SMU-DE has a dedicated placement cell, which is networked with the major employment exchanges of the country.

In addition, Job fair initiatives taken up Distance Learning Universities will assure prospective students of the career prospects post a distance learning course.

Introducing new-age courses, economy-based, vocation-sciences

The market-trends determine the growth of different industries and thereby different opportunities. India, being an agricultural economy holds a lot of prospects for professionals who can research on agricultural sciences and give innovative solutions to the Indian farmers. Distance learning courses pertaining to agriculture is more relevant for the larger populace, who would be eager to add value to their family business of farming or otherwise. Similarly vocation sciences training have greater application for the labour force- the semi-urban or the rural section of the society, who can acquire additional skills and earn a better financial status.

Distance education universities such as IGNOU has instituted Schools of vocational education training to promote the study of vocational sciences. In this regard, SMU-DE offers fashion design, and journalism and mass communication courses for students seeking self-employment or job-ready skills at the end of the course; as the vocational sciences subjects centre on hands-on training.

The vernacular medium for education

Primary education in the semi-urban and rural areas is delivered in the vernacular medium. The numbers of students willing to pursue higher education but step back because of the language barrier account for large numbers. Distance Learning courses, if delivered in the vernacular medium, yield the double-advantage: firstly, it can attract more students to continue education and secondly, the ease and comfort of learning in one’s mother tongue gives a better understanding of the subject and thereby delivers better results.

Quality with affordability

Quality stands top for all students. And, when distance education comes on par with the regular stream of learning with timely delivery, excellent interface with its students, up-to-date course materials, more number of students will resort to take to distance learning as their main stream.

Relaxations in eligibility-entry, exit, re-entry

Compared to regular stream of learning, which imposes the 10+2+3 norm, the eligibility criteria for any distance learning course is less stringent. Further relaxations can be brought in for students, who have the merit to pursue higher education but do not satisfy certain criteria, especially those who had to discontinue studies and are keen on studying further.

Education loans and Scholarship schemes

Distance education universities can initiate student loan schemes on subsidised interest rates. This way, the deserving students from the economically weaker sections can continue their education without hassles. Scholarship schemes can work in tandem with loans to make the pursuit of higher education simple and flexible.

Distance education holds the promise of reaching quality education with affordability to students across the country.