In the face of soaring unemployment numbers and shrinking unemployment benefits, it is hard to stay optimistic when evidence of economic recovery is nowhere in sight. As a planning maneuver there are a few good things to consider in this ongoing economic crisis that may well be a welcomed change in the way we do things in our society.

Take the Stock Market for example, one would logically assume that the markets would just stay down and not be fluctuating at all but investors are anticipating the upcoming plans of President Elect Barrack Obama for our economic recovery. Those who didn’t panic and sell off their stocks at a loss in 2008 will see their investments beginning to rebound during an upward trend in 2009. It won’t be one of those massive surges but those who did sell their stocks at a loss in 2008 will kick themselves in the pants.

Going over your portfolio right now and looking ahead might be a good idea. India’s economy remains fruitful in spite of the bombing and China will have one it’s most prosperous years of all time. Brazil is still very attractive but moving at a little slower pace in 2009.

The tax cuts, new spending increases on jobs, energy infrastructure, health care and education will all be implemented with little opposition. We will begin to feel some relief during the spring and summer but we will remain cautious and many of us will have changed our occupations all together as we become more educationally active with the land and new energy sources.

We will eventually all benefit from the changes that are put into place this year and the landscape of American families will reflect a healing theme of the past eight years. This new breed of corporate and political leaders unites businesses; strengthens productivity and assures prosperity in housing, natural agricultural upgrading, reductions in carbon dioxide emissions; even the fashion industry will play a part in our economic upgrade. But it is only the beginning; the best is yet to come in the next decade.

The magnitude of international conflicts is lessened in comparison to the previous years. Though there will still be incidents and aggression, turbulence is substantially less to overcome. Peace talks in 2009 have a more positive and stable affect on our state of economy, confidence and stability in the world view.

It’s well known that when a company has to cut back on expenses, one of the first things to go is budget for training such as Excel courses. London-based companies like companies all over Europe are slashing their excess expenses and training managers are suddenly left with no money to do their jobs. How can they continue to provide necessary employee development?

Prioritize Your Training Needs

It is rare that an organization completely eliminates training, so managers are usually faced with reduced rather than eliminated budgets. It becomes a matter of stretching this new budget to meet the company’s needs.

Go through the company’s training schedule and ask hard questions about which courses are critically necessary. Team building and time management are useful skills for long-term employee development, but the company is not going to collapse if these courses are suspended for a year.

On the other hand, fundamental employee skills are necessary to the daily operation of the company. An organization with extensive spreadsheet operations would still need to send employees to Excel courses in London in order to remain competitive.

Look For Creative Solutions

“Thinking outside the box” has become such a cliche it has lost its meaning, but taking alternate approaches to a problem is a good way to find new solutions.

Contact your provider of Excel courses in London and ask about pricing options. You might be able to save money through group discounts, sending several employees at once rather than one at a time. Reserving courses far in advance often brings substantial savings in training costs.

While your budget has been cut, other departments may not have been hurt so badly. Require other department managers to provide some or even all of the cost of outside training. Many department heads will do so without hesitation.

Beware False Economies

One of the biggest dangers in a poor economy is taking measures that save money today at the cost of hamstringing company operations in the future. Managers have to take a strategic view and make decisions with the best long term outcome.

Completely eliminating training is seldom a good idea. Workers will struggle to do their jobs and use software they may not be familiar with, leading to lost hours of production that far exceed the cost of taking a course. This also leads to employee frustration and plummeting morale.

Looking for internal experts rather than sending employees to outside Excel courses in London is seldom an ideal solution. There is a difference between knowing a subject and teaching a subject. Using outside instructors who are experienced in certified both in the software and teaching methods provides a more effective training experience and a more efficient use of training budgets.

Research conducted in 2005 by Johns Hopkins University and the Philadelphia Education Fund revealed that as many as half of all Philadelphia high school dropouts showed signs predicting their early departure from school as early as the sixth grade. Four factors were essential in forecasting these AWOL students: low attendance, poor behavior, failing math, and failing English grades. Such research is indispensable in the fight to raise America’s educational standards and to help struggling students conquer their academic nemeses.

It’s difficult to extrapolate on precisely why so many leave school early, and why these occurrences are linked so strongly with math and English grades, specifically. Perhaps the current school system isn’t flexible enough to accommodate different learning styles and conditions like ADHD for such difficult subjects – an argument alternative educational theorists have been raising for decades. Perhaps factors unrelated to the school environment, such as difficulties at home, are to blame. Maybe poor study techniques, and lack of assistance to correct them, are the culprits. Of course, no single explanation will do…but in my quest to find real and practical solutions, I decided to start with a factor everyone can control: study techniques. In particular, one of the hardest of them all – math study techniques.

Hey, who among us is, or was, the picture perfect student? Did we always clear a room to study, take breaks when we should have, or have what we needed on hand? How often did we get up to snack when the math homework became just a little too overwhelming? Did we always ask for the algebra help, the geometry help, or the calculus help we really needed? Math tutors could have saved us a lot of grief, but losing our pride just seemed too valuable to our adolescent hearts. Being guilty myself, I decided it was time to pull in a heavyweight for some advice.

Dr. Christine Benson, Associate Professor of Mathematics and Statistics at Northwest Missouri State University, is one of the most qualified individuals in the country to recommend effective math study techniques. Having earned an interdisciplinary doctorate in mathematics and education at the University of Missouri, Dr. Benson also received a MSEd, taught math at public schools for eight years, and has been teaching math method courses at NWMSU for the past twelve. Here are a few of her top recommendations for making the grade.

(1) Study in several short sessions of twenty to thirty minutes, and then take a break! There’s only so much your poor mind can take at a time, and research proves that putting book to brain for shorter, intermittent periods, versus forcing yourself into longer cram sessions is far more effective. Plus (unlike most things that are good for you) you’ll probably find this to be a lot easier.

(2) Study everyday. Math is a bit like learning a language – it takes consistent, sometimes tedious, irritating hours upon hours of work to get the job done. It also tends to pile up with cold indifference; at every lesson, you’ll learn new concepts that count on your understanding of the ones from last time. Falling behind will just exponentialize your frustration, because you won’t have the proper tools to understand new materials. Discipline pays off! Soon, you’ll be able to understand concepts-the language of math, if you will-you never thought possible. You’ll feel like the brilliant individual you really are. It just takes practice.

(3) Don’t just memorize steps in an equation. “I know, I know,” you say. “Try to understand it – that’s what everyone tells me.” But, like it or not, it’s true. You’ll remember the formulas much better if you can understand the bigger pictures behind them and are able to integrate new information into what you already know. Reasoning through questions that do not precisely fit the models you studied, but require you to use the broader concepts from them, will also be much easier.

(4) Ask questions! Don’t be embarrassed to raise your hand and engage in a true discussion about all the whys of all these whats. You can’t fully integrate the concepts you’re trying to learn until you understand at least some of why they work and what they are meant to do.

(5) Include brain-empowering protein in your munchies. It’s all right to snack while you study, but don’t just reach for the carbs.

(6) If your eyes start to droop while pulling an all-nighter (or an all-dayer), wake yourself up with some physical activity. Get that circulation going! Take a walk, do some jumping jacks or push ups, go for a short jog – whatever it takes to change your setting and rouse your body.

(7) Duplicate the test room setting. If you’ll be taking your exam in a quiet, controlled environment (which is most likely), then study in that environment. No music, no television, no loud noises or chatty friends coming in and out to distract you. Train your brain to work with the stimuli that will be there when you test.

(8) Get a good night’s sleep and eat a protein-rich meal before the dreaded exam. You can’t test your best if you don’t feel your best.

At least something can be controlled. Failing at anything, or even not doing as well as you know you could, can be absolutely maddening. Dr. Benson has showed us there are things you can do, however. If you’re a parent, enforce the rules. Set your child up for success by providing the proper environment. If you’re a student, hey, you just got free expert advice – and you didn’t even have to let anyone know you needed it.

Historically, in the United States, there has always exist a tension in higher education between the education of the person and the achievement of specific and pragmatic objectives. Liberal arts colleges in the United States have traditionally tilted the balance in favor of educating the whole person. Character building was viewed as equal in importance to intellectual development. The core of the liberal arts experience is a commitment to the excitement of learning.

While affirming the enduring value of a liberal arts education, we must also be responsive to the technological and social changes taking place around us. We must be responsive to the social, political, and economic needs of our community, state, nation, and the evolving global society. However, our most effective response should be our passionate desire to learn more about these needs and how society can most effectively respond to them.

We need to be mindful of the economic imperative that change requires investment. An enormous investment is currently being made in communication and information processing technology. Contemporary society urgently needs to adapt to the intended and unintended consequences of that technological investment.

During the past three decades, the work place has changed more dramatically than any other time in the history of the United States. Today, the ability to create new knowledge is quickly over shadowing the importance of manufacturing goods and services.

As the world continues to become more complex, more technological, and more competitive one issue that flows from the literature on higher education is the increasing need for an educated workforce that can meet the needs of a global economy.

A recent Department of Labor report projected that eighty percent of the children beginning kindergarten will eventually enter jobs that doesn’t even exist today. If work continues to change as radically as it has in the recent past, than the question is: How do we prepare today’s students to enter the workforce and become productive citizens?

It’s obvious to many of us that we are witnessing radical changes in the entry-level skills required for jobs as they evolve toward higher-level skills, especially the skills of analytical thinking, problem solving, communication, computation, and working in teams. To be successful in the workplace of the future, individuals will need more than technical training.

A recent report, issued by the National Leadership Council for Liberal Education and America Promise (LEAP), indicated that two-thirds of employers say college graduates lack essential skills to succeed in today’s global economy.

The report goes on to say that: College graduates will need more cross-disciplinary knowledge and an advanced set of communication and analytical skills to apply that knowledge to real-world problems. It also urges a more thorough application of liberal education in American colleges and universities.

A liberal arts education will remain the most practical preparation for lifelong employment because it promotes intellectual and personal growth; and it equips the individual to cope with change by being able to adapt to the workplace as it continues to transform.

“The quality of learning, not the possession of a diploma, will determine whether the next generation can keep our economy and democracy strong,” says Association of American Colleges and Universities President Carol G. Schneider. Ms. Schneider goes on to say “It’s time to stop channeling students into narrow tracks that prepare them for an initial job but not for tomorrow’s challenges.”

We should agree, however, that the term “liberal arts education” has a fuzzy meaning for many people. For some, it means many required classes that get in the way of technical training, which some people feel is the only way to prepare for a job. Upon closer observation, however, liberal arts education can be understood as the key to survival in any field that subject to change over time.

It’s true, technical training might give one the “foot in the door” as an entry into the workforce, but a liberal arts education will provide the staying power, serve as a foundation for continuous growth and development; and lead to professional success we all set our sight on.

Today, more than ever, undergraduate students are trying to make a connection between subject and content in the educational marketplace. What students seem to value most is the ability to translate their undergraduate education into better employment opportunities.

For most students, perceived or future success depends on professional preparation in areas such as law, medicine, or business. The fact that the liberal arts are at the root of such disciplines is often lost on today’s career minded students. As a result, students are less inclined to major in the liberal arts.

Conclusion

The shift in the economy from a manufacturing base to one with a knowledge foundation is having an impact on higher education in significant ways. More importantly, the basic goals and purposes of higher education seem to be in flux. However, one constant remains true today colleges and universities can no longer afford to graduate students ill-prepared for a persistently changing workplace and a global economy.