Joshua Wyner: Aligning Higher Education Outcomes With Job Availability

For all their differences, both President Obama and Republican Senator Marco Rubio agreed on one thing Tuesday night: the growth of the middle class and economic recovery in this country are intrinsically linked, and higher education and job training offer the keys to the middle class. You've probably heard it before: we need to do a better job in this country of equipping graduates with the skills they need to fill the jobs that are available. At the same time all citizens need to have access to affordable higher education and training.

Research shows that there are about two million jobs in the United States today going begging because Americans don't have the skills needed to fill those jobs. If domestic and multinational corporations are to fill those jobs here in the U.S. rather than moving them overseas, two things will need to be done.

First, colleges and universities must better align the education and training they provide with the skills needed to fuel economic recovery. As the president noted, many of those skills are in science technology engineering and math -- the STEM fields.

Last year, a story on NPR provided a good example of the challenge. There are thousands of computer-related jobs in the high-tech Seattle area that are going unfilled despite the fact that qualified students are clamoring to get into computer science and computer engineering programs at the University of Washington. How is this possible? Because while the University of Washington has an undergraduate program designed to train and place students in this field, that program has not been expanded since 1999 even though the number of high-tech jobs has exploded. Good jobs and eligible students make for what might seem like a perfect match, but there is log jam: Students can't access the training that they need to be prepared for those jobs.

At the University of Washington and many other public institutions of higher education, this lamentation is often heard: We don't have enough resources to expand programs, particularly in areas such as technology and health care that are especially costly to run. How can we fix that? Start by creating government incentives for institutions to deliver more education for high-demand, high-wage jobs. At the same time, it is imperative that institutions themselves consider how to realign existing resources so that students are being prepared for the jobs of today and tomorrow. Maybe that means shifting funds from programs and courses completely disconnected from good employment outcomes, and beefing up the ones that data show lead to solid jobs and are shown to increase the kind of critical thinking and technical skills needed for employment.

There are in fact many colleges around the country that are aligning what they provide to existing jobs. Notable among them are community colleges like Walla Walla Community College in Washington State and Lake Area Technical Institute in South Dakota and Brazosport College in Texas. Working to train students for jobs in the petrochemical industry, wind energy and nursing, graduates from each of these colleges earn wages that far exceed the wages of other workers in the area. This strong alignment between education and available jobs helped land each of these colleges on the list of Top Ten Finalists for the Aspen Prize for Community College Excellence.

Second, just because colleges offer strongly aligned programs doesn't mean that students will select them. Following up on the president's State of the Union promise, the White House released its interactive "college score card" yesterday. It is something that the Department of Education has been working on since last year and the idea behind it is exactly right. Students need to understand which of the programs they can choose will actually provide them with a strong chance of graduating with job ready skills.

Today, students are not routinely choosing colleges with those factors in mind. Research has shown that many students "under-match," meaning they choose to attend a college with significantly lower graduation rates than one that would have accepted them and has better student outcomes. And, students generally don't have information that allows them to align their choices with the greatest chance of post-graduation employment and earnings. In other words, they don't know whether they are getting the biggest bang for their education buck.

If colleges are to offer stronger program options, students and their families must begin to demand those programs in larger numbers. For this reason providing consumers better information about higher education outcomes, as both President Obama and Senator Rubio advocated in their comments Tuesday, will be critical to better alignment.

We could start by lifting the federal ban on a student unit record system, which has been in place for five years and prevents everyone from fully understanding what in fact happens to students after they begin college. Then, linking college records to wage information would help students, families and colleges themselves understand whether students actually receive the education and skills they need for strong employment opportunities, for jobs with good wages.

This is not to say that all higher education should be tied to specific jobs. The rigorous education many liberal arts programs provide can lead to the kind of strong critical thinking ability demanded by employers, and provide students with skills that will transfer to several different jobs over a lifetime. But students in liberal arts programs hope to land good jobs too, and measuring how often they complete degrees and earn strong wages can help signal where to improve higher education.

We are entering an era of higher education reform, where we will increasingly look more at the impact of a college education and not just how many students are enrolled. Both President Obama and Senator Rubio seem to understand that the shift needs to continue if higher education is going to do all it can to help rebuild the middle class.

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joshua-wyner/student-unit-record-system_b_2712960.html

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First To Go in a Recession? Project Management Jobs

Posted by Marios Alexandrou , Project Manager Resume in Information Technology

Back in September 2002, Janet Ruhl of the now inactive Computer Consultants BBS wrote the following about project managers bearing the brunt of a downturn in information technology projects.

"Years ago, back before IT people got used to being in demand all the time, it was well known that it was career suicide to take the project management path, rather than continue on in a technical career path."

"I wrote about this extensively in my 1988 Programmer's Survival Guide and received a bundle of letters from ex-project managers who had worked at companies with names we all recognize who agreed with my warnings and lamented that they had fallen into this particular trap."

"There's no easy solution. When there are fewer projects there is a greatly decreased need for project managers and unlike programmers, a manager can rarely use their skills to generate earnings for a smaller company or for themselves."

"In the past, laid off IT managers often became brokers because of their network of internal connections. But in those days there were very few IT brokerages since IT consulting was a very small almost invisible pursuit, so during recessions you didn't get the shakeout you get now."

"The other alternative is to use those managerial skills to transformed yourself into an entrepreneurial consultant. Your business knowledge lets you speak the same language as clients. If you still have some technical skills, you should be able to get the clients' jobs done. Or you should be able to put together a team to get the job done."

"This isn't easy, particularly not during a recession, because you have to go out and find the client yourself and sell them your ability to get that job done. But people do it."

Whether you agree or disagree with her now 4 year-old assessment, you should always have back up plan. Assume that in a year's time a recession does hit, how will your fare in the job market? Are you skills likely to be in demand? If not, what will you do until the job market picks up again?

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Source: http://infolific.com/technology/information-technology/first-to-go-in-a-recession-project-management-jobs/

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Bulgari will showcase Elizabeth Taylor's gems in Oscar-week exhibit

(Reuters) - Famed jeweler Bulgari said on Sunday it would put eight pieces of the late actress Elizabeth Taylor's jewels on display at its Beverly Hills boutique, more than a year after the Hollywood star's world-class collection fetched record prices at auction.

The exhibition of pieces from that sale will include jewels Taylor obtained and wore during well-documented times in her storied life, including the filming of "Cleopatra," which launched her romance with Richard Burton, Bulgari said.

Included are Taylor's first piece of Bulgari jewelry, an emerald-and-diamond brooch which achieved a record per-carat price for any emerald at the Christie's sale. The brooch sold for $6,578,500, setting a record price for an emerald jewel and emeralds per carat at $280,000.

An emerald and diamond necklace which sold at the Christie's auction for $6.1 million, and a diamond and gold sautoir set with six ancient Roman coins acquired for $5.9 million, will also be shown along with other diamonds, sapphires and more.

The jewels, widely reported to have been bought from the Taylor estate by Bulgari at the December 2011 auction of her collection at Christie's, will go on display this week in advance of next Sunday's Academy Awards, Bulgari said.

"There couldn't have been a more appropriate celebrity to have fallen in love with Bulgari," it said in announcing the display.

Noting Taylor's "grounded" nature in contrast to her impossibly glamorous life, it said Bulgari is known for creating jewels that pair precious stones with items of no intrinsic value such as antique coins, ceramics and silk cords.

Burton, whom Taylor married and divorced twice, once famously quipped that "The only Italian word Elizabeth knows is Bulgari." The Italian luxury house was founded in 1884 in Rome by Greek Sotirios Voulgaris, known in Italy as Sotirio Bulgari.

It was acquired in 2011 for 4.3 billion euros ($6.01 billion) and other considerations by the French luxury house LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA.

Taylor died in 2011 aged 79 of congestive heart failure. The Christie's auction of her gems took in a record $116 million.

(Editing by Chris Michaud and Todd Eastham)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/bulgari-showcase-elizabeth-taylors-gems-oscar-week-exhibit-224830087--sector.html

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Afghan president to ban airstrike requests

Angry over civilian deaths, President Hamid Karzai announced plans Saturday to ban Afghan security forces from requesting international airstrikes on residential areas.

If he issues the decree as promised, the move would pose a significant new challenge to government troops who have relied heavily on foreign air power to give them an advantage against insurgents on the battlefield even as the US and other countries prepare to end their combat mission in less than two years.

The declaration came as anger mounted over a joint Afghan-NATO operation this week that Afghan officials said killed 10 civilians, including women and children, in northeast Kunar province.

"I will issue a decree tomorrow that no Afghan security forces, in any circumstances, in any circumstances can ask for the foreigners' planes for carrying out operations on our homes and villages," Karzai said in a speech at the Afghan National Military Academy in Kabul.

Civilian deaths at the hands of foreign forces, particularly airstrikes, have been among the most divisive issues of the 11-year-old war and have complicated negotiations for a bilateral security agreement that would govern the foreign presence in the country after 2014.

The US-led coalition has implemented measures to mitigate them, but the Afghan military also relies heavily on air support to gain an upper hand in the fight against Taliban militants and other insurgents.

Many Afghan and international officials have expressed concern that the impending withdrawal of international combat forces by the end of 2014 will deprive government security forces of that crucial weapon. President Barack Obama has announced that he will withdraw about half of the 66,000 US troops in Afghanistan within a year.

Karzai has frequently denounced airstrikes and even demanded that they cease. But his speech Saturday was the first time he threatened to formalize his concern with a decree.

The US-led military coalition already said in June that it would limit airstrikes to a self-defense weapon of last resort for troops. That followed a bombardment that killed 18 civilians celebrating a wedding in Logar province, which drew an apology from the American commander.

Afghan and coalition officials frequently offer differing accounts of military operations, with local residents claiming civilians were killed while foreign troops insist they targeted insurgents. The line is often blurred because insurgents don't wear a uniform and are usually part of the community, with airstrikes and night raids hitting areas where women and children also are asleep.

The UN mission in Afghanistan said 83 civilians were killed and 46 wounded in aerial attacks by international military forces in the first half of 2012. That figure was down 23 percent from the same period of 2011, which was the deadliest year on record for civilians in the Afghan war. It said two-thirds of the casualties last year were women and children.

Jamie Graybeal, a spokesman for the US-led coalition, declined to comment on Karzai's remarks because alliance officials had not seen the decree.

But Gen. John Allen, the former top commander of US and NATO forces in Afghanistan, said before leaving that the coalition can provide air support to troops on the ground anywhere in Afghanistan within 12 minutes of a request. He said Afghan forces would have to get used to not having the same abilities in the future.

Karzai said Allen's successor, US Gen. Joseph Dunford, told him that Afghanistan's intelligence agency, the National Directorate of Security, had requested the airstrike late Tuesday in Kunar's Shigal district, which borders Pakistan. When Dunford met with Karzai two days later, the coalition said the general expressed "his personal condolences for any civilians who may have died or been injured as a result of the operation" and said investigators were trying to assess what happened.

Karzai said Afghan forces were ready to take over their own security despite concerns about persistent violence that have cast doubt on their capabilities.

"We are happy that foreign forces are withdrawing from our country," he said. "We are happy for all their help and assistance so far, but we don't need foreign forces to defend our country. We want our Afghan forces to defend their homeland."

However, former Afghan Gen. Amrullah Aman was surprised by the remarks, saying international air power is essential since one of Afghanistan's main weaknesses in defending itself is the lack of a fully developed air force.

"In a country like Afghanistan where you don't have heavy artillery and you don't have air forces to support soldiers on the ground, how will it be possible to defeat an enemy that knows the area well and can hide anywhere?" he asked.

"There must be air support to help all those ground forces on the battlefield."

The UN has said the number of civilian deaths and injuries attributed to foreign and Afghan forces, including airstrikes, has declined as both groups strengthened policies to protect civilians, but it also expressed concern there could be an uptick as the summer fighting season approaches.

Local Afghan officials claim five boys, four women and one man were killed in the bombardment. Four insurgents also were reported killed, but Karzai said that did not justify the loss of so many civilian lives. He said the public had complained not only about foreign forces but about Afghans as well.

"The people must not be afraid of you," Karzai told the military audience. "They must feel safe when they see you in their areas and villages."

AP

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/co/Mvia/~3/jBFZr-_e7cM/Default.aspx

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Video: Burger Wars: McDonald's or Burger King?

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Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/cnbc/50823986/

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Global investors watch how chips fall in China's cashless casino bar

By Farah Master

SANYA, China | Sat Feb 16, 2013 11:20pm GMT

SANYA, China (Reuters) - Placing bets on green-felt baccarat tables in a new casino bar on China's southern Hainan island, punters seem oblivious to a huge wager quietly being placed around them, one that could potentially siphon business from the world's largest gaming hub in Macau an hour's flight away.

For now, players at Jesters casino bar, part of the newly opened Mangrove Tree Resort World on Sanya Bay, cannot win cash - only points that they can use to pay for accommodation, luxury goods, jewellery and artwork for sale at the resort.

Owned by art, film and real estate mogul Zhang Baoquan, the casino bar marks the Chinese government's first tacit approval of a gaming concept outside of Macau. Global investors, including some of the world's biggest gaming companies, are watching to see how the chips will fall.

"Our casino bar is the first in the country. The government is monitoring, it's a test," Zhang told Reuters in a recent interview at his 23rd-floor office overlooking his sprawling 173-acre property that opened late last year.

"Right now we are not at this stage (legalising casino gambling), but my personal opinion is, in future, there is a big possibility that they will have."

The stakes are enormous -- China's monopoly gambling site, Macau, raked in $38 billion in gaming revenues last year, primarily from Chinese gamblers. If Beijing were to allow gambling elsewhere in the country, cash would follow.

It's not just the Chinese government that is watching the development. MGM Resorts International (MGM.N) opened a hotel in Sanya last year and fellow U.S. casino operator Caesars Entertainment is set to open a hotel in 2014.

An MGM spokesman said the company had no plan to introduce "anything of this kind". Caesars did not respond to requests for comment.

Dressed in jeans and a black-and-white Hawaiian shirt during his interview, the 56-year-old Zhang said he aims to create an integrated resort similar to those in Las Vegas and Singapore where gaming, convention space and retail outlets are offered together.

Mangrove Tree Resort World, the newest addition to Hainan's rapidly developing hotel scene, will be China's biggest resort when construction is completed next year. It will have more than 4,000 rooms, a convention hall accommodating 6,000 people and facilities including a water park.

It is one of 10 integrated resorts that Zhang is developing around the country, including one more in Sanya and others stretching from Lhasa in Tibet to the eastern coastal city Qingdao.

While the Chinese government does not permit casinos in the country outside of Macau, Zhang - ranked by Forbes as one of the country's 300 richest people in 2012 with $600 million - said Hainan could become an exception.

Sensitive to existing restrictions, the soft-spoken businessman emphasized cultural attractions such as his art gallery that, along with the casino bar, will be incorporated into the planned resorts.

WINNING "MANGROVE" POINTS

Inside Jesters, which models itself on Macau's casino halls with garish chandeliers and a giant roulette wheel ceiling, players buy tickets costing 500 yuan ($80) each. Bets range from 20-2,000 yuan in the mass area, while the high-limits area is set at 2,000-100,000 yuan. Big whale punters will be able to bet over 100,000 yuan once the VIP room opens on the second floor.

The casino bar, with 50 gaming tables now, is currently open only to hotel guests, but when the resort is completed, local residents will be allowed in.

When players win, they receive "Mangrove" points that can be used to buy products available in the casino such as an iPad 3G or a Rimowa suitcase. Once luxury brands open outlets within the resort, customers will be able to spend their points in those stores. Art work from Zhang's Beijing art gallery is also available for purchase.

Retail stores including Prada and Louis Vuitton will be part of a network of 20 luxury stores that will open at the resort next year, Zhang said.

Zhang, president of Beijing conglomerate Antaeus, has the financial backing of China Development Bank. The state lender invested 70 percent of the cost of the Mangrove Tree expansion.

"The local governments are very supportive," says the boyish-looking Zhang, who started off as a carpenter in his hometown of Zhenjiang in eastern Jiangsu province, and now is well known as an arts philanthropist and prominent film investor.

Married to Wang Qiuyang, a mountaineer whose father Wang Chengbin was a former army commander, Zhang said any potential change to gambling restrictions would take time, adding that the government would need to decide whether to let other operators open similar casino bars.

"Gambling culturally is a very bad thing, but today there is a difference -- gambling is a financial tool," said Zhang.

"In Asia, even North Korea has two casinos. The richest country, Singapore, before you would never think society would accept it there. All over the world the attitude towards casinos is different from what it was traditionally."

SANYA AND BEYOND

China is positioning Hainan as an international tourist destination, approving the construction of 15 large resorts and 63 five-star hotels as part of the country's five-year plan.

As Chinese spend their money in new casinos across Asia from the Philippines to Vietnam, pressure is growing on Beijing to keep more gamblers at home.

"To some extent, the approval of gaming on Chinese soil is inevitable," said Gary Pinge, analyst at Macquarie Group in Hong Kong.

"With regional markets already vying for a share of the Chinese gambling wallet, unless China brings gaming onto its own shores, it will not only lose tax revenues to other countries, but also the 'multiplier effect' from the consumption spend."

In the meantime, Zhang is pushing ahead with his expansion plans. Aiming to list the Mangrove Tree brand on the Hong Kong stock exchange in 2015, Zhang hopes to use the capital raised to take his Mangrove Tree brand outside of China.

"Sydney, the Maldives, the United States, England, Paris and Turkey" would all be good, said Zhang with a shy smile.

(Editing by Ken Wills)

Source: http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/02/16/uk-china-sanya-casino-idUKBRE91F0AH20130216?feedType=RSS&feedName=businessNews

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Apple iPhone 6 Vs iPhone 5: Features, specs showdown

Apple is trying hard to come up with a product that helps it beat its competitors hands down. It is working on different products including next generation iPhone, next generation iPad, smaller tablet iPad Mini and a smart-watch that works as a smart ?

Read more at Northern Voices Online.

Source: http://www.twytter.net/blog/apple-iphone-6-vs-iphone-5-features-specs-showdown/

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