CAO site up and running as normal

The CAO website crashed yesterday evening and went off line. It is now fixed and up and running as normal.

Students have till July 1st, which is Wednesday to go online for the change of mind though the CAO.

Hyperwords - such a handy plugin

Reading the Times Online announcing Microsoft's Bing Search Engine

The two biggest names in technology are set to slug it out over the coming weeks in a $20 billion (£12 billion) battle for web supremacy. In one corner is Google, the dominant player in online searches; in the other is Microsoft, the world’s biggest software company. Microsoft is poised to launch Bing, a new search engine it says will give more useful results and end its rival’s hegemony.

I admit to not being sure what the word 'hegemony' means. Instead of having to look for the dictionary (which I don't always have to hand, or opening another tab to access an online dictionary) I just double click on the word and thanks to a plug in called Hyperwords, I have the meaning in seconds without leaving the page.

From Ancient Greek ἡγεμονία (hēgemonia), “‘supremacy or leadership, chief command’”) < ἡγεμόν (hegemon), “‘a leader, guide, commander, chief’”) < ἡγεισθαι (hegeisthai), “‘to lead’”) < αγειν (agein), “‘to lead’”).

I can translate the word into French, hégémonie, into Arabic سيطرة, and replaces the original word in the text with the translated word.

There are a number of other different functions that it carries out, but what a godsend just for its translation and reference features alone!

Exam Help

RTE - Have a very helpful site with all the latest advice via podcasts, blogs, message boards. Check it out.

Can everybody learn something new?

Let's see what Stephen Fry has to say about it.....


Creative Thinking: Stephen Fry: Learning

Can you help?

Rainforests around the world are being destroyed at an alarming rate. This is increasingly due to destructive logging operations and conversion of the land for farming use. RainforestSOS states. An online campaign asks for our help.



Please put your name to the list using the widget on the right. Thank You.

And we wonder.......

Taken from the Drogheda Independent

Wednesday April 22 2009

Dear Sir,

I RECENTLY had a long conversation with a friend of mine who lost his job. He was in a reasonably good job and after a little bit of overtime was earning a gross salary of € 35,000 per year.

So I asked him the obvious question of how he was going to cope now with four children to feed and I have to be honest the answer startled me, he was actually a lot better off and now in a position to go out golfing every day when his children are at school.

Frankly I did not believe him until I sat down and did the sums.

On a salary of € 35,000 his annual net income after the mini budget was € 28,854, after all deductions.

Now he's on the supplementary welfare allowance which, with a wife and four children, gives you € 443.90 per week or € 23,083 annually.

As he also has a mortgage he is entitled to mortgage interest supplement which pays all the interest on your mortgage so in his case € 1,200 per month of his € 1,500 mortgage or € 14,400 per annum.

He is also entitled to back to school and footwear payment of € 905 per year for four children, a medical card which we will say is worth on average say € 500 per year (probably more) and a heating supplement which I cannot quantify.

In total he now therefore has tax free income of € 38,888, an increase in his net income of € 10,034 per year working on his handicap.

Based on the calculations after the mini Budget you would need to earn more than € 47,000 per year if you have four children to justify continuing to work. Now this is even before the costs of working like petrol, car maintenance, tolls, lunches etc.

Now in any civilised society and especially a society in a deep recession with a huge welfare bill surely the Government must give people an incentive to go out and work.

Making the child benefit taxable or means

for golf tested later this year is just going to make the situation far worse and encourage more people to give up work and rely on the state to live.

It could even drive our small economy to collapse as the welfare bill gets bigger and bigger as more people, including myself, say why should I bother to go out to work when it is basically costing me money to work?

The country needs to get back to basics, to a system that encourages people to get up off their backside to work, encourages people to take risks, set up businesses, enterprise rather than encourage people to rely on the state.

Unless something radically changes I will be joining my mate on the golf course very soon.

More Please

Another brilliant show, Boston Legal bites the dust. There is a dearth of really good shows out there that can engage the mind rather than vacant it.

I love the writing, the acting and the fact that it makes me think as I watch, it also educates me, and can have me running the gamut of emotions all in 40 minutes.

James Spader explains Scientology in an episode;



Another programme I am hooked on is The Wire. Again both the writing and acting is superb. This series has just started on BBC 2. I had tried before to watch it, but found the American Projects and drug dealers slang hard to grasp. This time I turned on subtitles and it was so much better and I am glad I did otherwise I would have lost on on following this terrific series.

Here, one of the drug dealers explains how to play chess by using the allegory of the hierarchy of the drug dealers and the running of their operation.



There is only so much time I have available to watch shows, RTE have released the Beta version of their Player and I am enjoying it. The quality is excellent. I do have a fast broadband connection but I think anyone with 1mb+ should be fine.

I caught up with The Best of The Panel today :-) I hope this player does not disappear for long before they bring out the final version.

Believe in yourself

Count me in as one of the millions that have watched Susan Boyle's rendition of I Dream a Dream (from my favourite musical Les Mis). (Currently this version has been seen over 25 million times!)

Don't you just love the fact that she is an everyday woman, a woman you would see all over Ireland. Yet for all the knocks she has received in life she had a belief in herself and a dream to honour her Mother, and did she ever! It was wonderful.

I found another recording that she did 10 years ago and her diction today as then is one of the reasons I enjoyed her singing so much. I find many singers today have little sense of diction and it ruins my pleasure in listening. Susan Boyle sings Cry Me a River, stunning, even on You Tube.

Twittering

We have just added Twitter to our sidebar where you can follow all the latest happenings on Courses.ie!

As providers update their listings with new courses or events we will be letting you know as soon as it happens.

New articles? Get to hear about it first by following us on Twitter. Look forward to seeing you there. www.twitter.com/courses

New Fourth Level Education Announcement

New fourth level education proposal to create thousands of jobs

According to the Irish Independent

Wednesday March 11 2009

The Taoiseach has unveiled a major new initiative between the country's top two universities, aimed at creating thousands of jobs over the next ten years.

Trinity College and UCD are teaming up to create what has been described as a new fourth level academy, similar in concept to the IFSC in Dublin.

Up to one thousand graduates will be trained every year in specialised areas, in a bid to promote innovation and entrepreneurship.

It is estimated that this will result in the creation of around 300 new enterprises in this country over the next ten years.

The winners & losers in course choices this year

In today's Irish Times, they have given a run down on the course choices students are making according to the CAO.

The big winner this year is science where demand for higher level degree is up by 20 per cent. The Government and business leaders will be delighted with this trend, which reverses years of steep decline.

The bad news for Leaving Cert students is that CAO points for science courses are set to rise because of the increased demand.

The other big winner this year is agriculture where demand for courses is up by almost 50 per cent, reflecting confidence about the long term security of employment in the food industry and in agriculture.

Physics for the leaving Cert

For those of you studying physics, here is a wonderful site with lots of notes and great advice from the physicsteacher.ie

According to his blog;

For each chapter I have included all past exam questions, which can be cross-referenced with the relavant marking-scheme which is also included. Also included is a copy of the associated extracts from the syllabus - this gives the students the responsibility of checking up on me to ensure I have everything covered before moving on to the next chapter.

There is also plenty of “extra-credit” material tucked in at the end to help address many of the conceptual difficulties which students (and teachers!) have; these also help to set the historical and social context of many of the discoveries. Science is after all a very human activity, dispite what you might think from the text-books and syllabus.

I would hope that students outside of my own school would find these useful, particulary those who don’t have a specialised Physics teacher should find it to be a useful resourse to help them help themselves.

Some would see the decision to allow the students to see their test in advance to be somehow ‘cheating’, but for me it helps overcome one of the biggest obstacles facing many students who may not be in the top bracket; they simply don’t know what to learn. I have found with this new approach that hard-working students who are of average ability have gone from 50% to 75% since I introduced the option. It doesn’t change those at the top; the A-students still get their A’s, while at the other end those determined to do as little as possible still continue to achieve results which reflect this.

But I’m delighted with this practice. We spend at least one class and maybe two going over these questions at the end of each chapter and before I give them the test. Then I simply pick ten questions from the list, while altering the numbers in the maths questions. After seven years of leaving-cert questions (2002 - 2009) there is a pretty comprehensive bank of questions there, so I don’t believe it is giving students an inflated sense of their own worth.

But as an incentive to prepare for class tests and greater student participation it is working like a dream. I’m not too proud to say that I’m thrilled with my work!

Courses.ie leading the way....again :-)

They say imitation is the greatest form of flattery.

It is both a compliment and interesting to see sites older than ours recognise that we have raised the benchmark and are now incorporating features that we, Courses.ie, introduced and felt should be taken as standard.

Watch out for more as we start to introduce some of the changes and new features you have told us that you want to see.

Furniture Design in Ireland

Just imagine if you designed a chair and it sold for over 22 million and went into the history books as the most expensive piece of design in the world! Well that is what happened to Irish designer Eileen Gray. 23 years after she has died and over 90 years since it was designed. It was in the collection of Yves Saint Laurent which is currently being sold in Paris. (Photo courtesy of the Irish Independent) The National Museum had the foresight to purchase her private collection of papers and furniture from her apartment in Paris. They are now on permanent exhibition in in the Museum. Gray died at the age of 98 yet many of her designs would not look out of place in this contemporary age. If you might like to follow in her footsteps and learn furniture design or study design there are many colleges around the country that run design courses, below is a list while not exhaustive, will help you get started. If you would like a college added to the list please let us know. Photos of the Yves Saint Laurent auction at Christies are on Flickr. COLLECTION YVES SAINT LAURENT ET PIERRE BERGE Catelogue Athlone Institute of Technology	www.ait.ie
BA (Hons) in Design Communications (3yrs ab initio) BA (Hons) in Design (Visual Communications) (4yrs ab initio) BA (Hons) in Design (Multimedia Studies) (1yr add-on)
Carlow Institute of Technology	www.itcarlow.ie
BA in Industrial Design BA (Hons) in Industrial Design BA (Hons) in Product Design Innovation
Cork Institute of Technology	www.cit.ie
BA (Hons) in Multimedia (4yrs ab initio) BDes in Design Communication (3yrs ab initio) BDes (Hons) in Visual Communications (1yr)
Crawford College	www.cit.ie
BA in Ceramic Design BA (Hons) in Ceramic Design Higher Diploma in Arts (Art & Design Education)
Dublin Institute of Technology	www.dit.ie
BDes in Visual Communication BDes in Interior and Furniture Certificate Design Display BSc Product Design National Certificate in Design Studies BSc in Architecture
Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology	www.iadt.ie
BA (Hons) in Animation BA in Design (Model-Making for Film & Media) BA (Hons) in Design (Visual Communication) BA (Hons) in Film & TV Production BSc (Hons) in Psychology Applied to Information Technology BEng in Digital Media Technology Higher Certificate in Arts (Make-Up for Film, TV & Theatre)
Grafton Academy	www.graftonacademy.com
Diploma in Fashion Design (3yrs)
Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology	www.gmit.ie
BA in Art & Design BA in Art & Design (P/T) BA (Hons) in Textile Design BSc in Furniture Design & Manufacture BSc in Furniture Production & Technology BSc (Hons) in Product Design (Furniture) BSc (Hons) in Manufacturing Technology (Furniture) BSc (Hons) in Design & Technology Education
Griffith College Dublin	www.gcd.ie
BA in Interior Design BA in Interior Architecture BA (Hons) in Interior Architecture Diploma in Interior Design (2yrs)
Letterfrack Furniture College (GMIT)	www.gmit.ie
BSc in Furniture Technology National Certificate in Furniture Design & Manufacture National Certificate in Furniture Production National Diploma in Furniture Conservation & Restoration
Limerick Institute of Technology	www.lit.ie
First Year Art & Design BA (Hons) in Product Design (Level 8) BA (Hons) in Fashion Design (Level 8) BA (Hons) in Design (Visual Communications) (Level 8)
Letterkenny Institute of Technology	www.lyit.ie
BA in Graphic Design BA in Industrial Design BA (Hons) in Design Media, Design & Production
National College of Art and Design	www.ncad.ie
BA in History (Art, Design & Craft) BA in History (Art, Design & Fashion) BA in History (Art, Design & Textile) BA in History (Art, Design & Visual Communication) BA in Art & Design Education BDes in Visual Communication BDes in Fashion Design BDes in Textile Design BDes in Industrial Design BDes in Craft Design (Ceramics, Glass & Metals) HDip in Art & Design Education
NUI Maynooth	www.nuim.ie
Degree in Product Design (4yrs) BA/BSc in Multimedia
Queen's University Belfash	www.qub.ac.uk
BSc in Architecture (3yrs) BSc in Creative Multimedia (4yrs) BEng in Product Design & Development (3yrs) MEng in Product Design & Development (4yrs)
Sligo Institute of Technology	www.itsligo.ie
BA in Industrial Design BA (Hons) in Industrial Design BA in Interior Architecture (ab initio) BA (Hons, add-on) in Interior Architecture
University College Cork (UCC)	www.ucc.ie
BSc (Hons) in Architecture (4yrs) Run jointly with CIT
University College Dublin (UCD)	www.ucd.ie
BSc in Architectural Science (3yrs)
University of Limerick	www.ul.ie
BSc (Hons) in Digital Media Design BSc (Hons) in Product Design & Technology BEng in Computer Aided Engineering & Design Bachelor of Architecture
University of Ulster	www.ulster.ac.uk
BA (Hons) in Architecture BA (Hons) in Art & Design BA (Hons) in Textiles & Fashion Design BDes (Hons) in Design & Communication BDes (Hons) for Visual Communication BDes (Hons) in Interior, Industrial & Furniture Design BDes (Hons) in 3D Design (Interior, Product & Furniture) BSc (Hons) in Interactive Multimedia Design BSc (Hons) in Multimedia Computing & Design BSc (Hons) in Technology with Design BSc (Hons) in Technology with Design (with Integrated Foundation Year) PgD/MSc in Computing & Design PgD/MDes in Design Communication Foundation Studies in Art & Design (Diploma) CertHE in Interior Design PhD/MPhil in Arts & Design
Waterford Institute of Technology	www.wit.ie
BA (Hons) in Design (Visual Communication) (4yrs)

Shrove Tuesday, Pancake Tuesday

Today is Shrove Tuesday - the day before Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent. It is so called because it was the day on which people were ‘shriven’ or absolved of their sins prior to Lent.

The word shrove is the past tense of the English verb shrive, which means to obtain absolution for one's sins by way of Confession and doing penance. Thus Shrove Tuesday gets its name from the shriving that English Christians were expected to do prior to receiving absolution immediately before Lent begins.

Shrove Tuesday is also known as Pancake Tuesday, because traditionally pancakes were made on this day. Many people in Ireland (and elsewhere) still enjoy celebrating ‘Pancake Tuesday’ by making pancakes. The reason for associating pancakes with Shrove Tuesday is that they use up the fresh items from the larder – items which could not be eaten during the period of Lent, as it was a time of abstinence.

Odlums, one of Irelands longest manufacturers of flour run Odlums Pancake Party in aid of The Children's Hospital in Tallaght. You host a party any time between the 20th and 24th February by inviting family, friends, work colleagues, to your home, school, community centre or work place. The idea is to have some fun while raising money for a worthy cause. They have pancake recipes on the website; traditional, easy and easier!

I am the traditional type with sugar and lemons, but there are various methods of pancakes from different countries, maybe instead of traditional you might like to try Griddle (from America) Crepes (from France) or Bellinis (from Russia). Have fun :-)

Nowadays we don't have to use up all the fresh items in the larder but many people still want to atone, offer up, do penance, by giving up something they enjoy for the Lenten period. Be it chocolate, sugar, alcohol or cigarettes. For years in homes around the country many school children brought home the Trócaire Box. The idea being that what you would have spent on chocolate, sugar, alcohol or cigarettes you put in to the Trócaire Box instead. In that way you are helping not only yourself but also people in the Third world.

Trócaire state on their website;

Lent is our most important fundraising and awareness building period. Each year during Lent we highlight particular challenges facing people in the developing world and encourage the public to take action through campaigning and by raising funds through our Trócaire box.

In our home my son has taken to making the pancakes (and Mum gets to clean up after!!) so enjoy Pancake Tuesday and try not to leave the pancake on the ceiling when you have the toss the pancake competition! :-)

A-Z using British Sign Language

British Sign Language:How To Sign The Alphabet Using British Sign Language

Eight Toughest Interview Questions

Paul MacKenzie-Cummins for CareerBuilder.co.uk

Interviews are designed to do just one thing: identify the best possible candidate for the advertised job. And sometimes it may feel that the questions being asked have been designed to deliberately catch you out or make you question whether you are up to the job or not.

But that's not their intention. Some questions aim to establish how well you cope under pressure, others will be to reveal your personality or to see what your career aspirations are. Just remember that there is no need to draw a blank or clam up if you have done your research and preparation beforehand.

If you want to avoid an interview disaster, here are some of the toughest interview questions and their suggested responses.

Q: "Tell me about yourself"

This is perhaps the most open-ended question of them all and is typically used by interviewers as a warm-up question to give you the opportunity to shine. But resist the temptation to start talking about your life history. What your interviewer is looking for is a quick two or three minute snapshot of who you are and why you are the best candidate for the job. So keep your response relevant to the position you are applying for. For example:

A: I started my media sales career five years ago as a telesales representative, rising through the ranks before gaining promotion to sales manager three years later. I am now responsible for training and developing a team of 15 sales consultants that are currently the company's best performing sales team.

Q: "What are your salary expectations?"

You should have done some research into the average salary and remuneration that this type of position will pay. Try to deflect the question by turning it around and asking the interviewer about the salary on offer. Typically, they will start with a lower figure than they are prepared to offer because they want to keep their costs down. So if you are pressed to give a number, its best to give a range to avoid pricing yourself out of contention. For example:

A: I'm sure whatever salary you're paying is consistent with the rest of the market average of £23,000 to £25,000.

Q: "Why should we hire you"

This can be a killer question and can make or break your chances of winning the job. And how you answer will depend on how well you have probed your interviewer about their requirements and expectations. So what the interviewer is really asking you is, What can you do for my business? Your response needs to answer that question. For example:

A: As I understand your needs, you are first and foremost looking for someone who can increase your advertising sales and has experience of managing a sales team. I have a proven track record in successfully managing and developing my territory within this sector, having increased my sales from £150,000 to £210,000 over the last two years alone.

Q: "If you were a car ... tree ... animal what would you be?"

Baffling though it may seem, some interviewers still insist on asking silly questions, such as If you were a car, what type of car would you be and why? There are no right or wrong answers. The interviewer is simply testing your reactions under pressure to see how you will cope with the unexpected in an attempt to gain an insight into your personality and how you view yourself. Don't get hung up on the implications of what type of car you say you would be, just be mindful that you will be expected to explain your choice. For example:

A: I would probably be a 1962 Alpha Romeo Spider -- classy, stylish, driven and fast off the mark

Q: "Why did you leave your last job?"

You know this question will be asked at some stage, so have your answer ready in advance. The rule of thumb is to always remain positive about your current and previous employers because you never know when your paths may cross again. Besides, who are you going to turn to for a reference? For example:

A: I learned a lot from my previous employer and enjoyed my time there. However, promotional opportunities were few and far between and I am keen to advance my career sooner rather than later.

Q: "What are your weaknesses?"

Career manuals abound with ways to tackle this question. And most of them seem to suggest that you should take one of your strengths and portray it as a weakness. For instance, I work too much. But this will actually work against rather than work for you because it may imply that you do not organise your workload effectively, or that you have poor time management skills. Instead, opt for a genuine weakness. For example:

A: I used to struggle to plan and prioritorise my workload. However, I have taken steps to resolve this and now I have started using a planning tool and diary system on my laptop.

Q: "What motivates you?"

Short of telling your interviewer that you are motivated by the prospect of earning a footballer's salary, driving a Bentley or having a holiday home in St Tropez, try and give a constructive answer that will excite your interviewer into understanding what benefit you will bring to his business. For example:

A: I get a real kick out of seeing my team exceed their sales targets and completing the project on time and within budget.

Q: "How would your former colleagues describe you?"

This is a sure sign that the interviewer likes you and is already thinking about contacting your previous employer for a reference. And this is the time when you realise how important it is to choose your referees carefully. So answer this question in the way that you would like to think your employer would respond. For example:

A: I have an excellent working relationship with my manager and we have mutual respect for each other. He considers me to be hard working, dedicated, reliable and able to work well using my own initiative.

Essential Maintenance

Please excuse the inconvenience but Courses.ie will be down today for a couple of hours due to essential maintenance.

Thank you

Core Skills and Up Skills - a debate

Thanks to Bernie over at Inside View posting about Core Skills in Ireland. He discusses the post 'Core skills not up skills' by Chris Horn, who says

"There's some considerable debate here in Ireland about the need to "up skill" our economy, in the light of loss of jobs to lower cost economies. I however contend that there is not so much a need to "up skill", but to "core skill" - to get back to fundamentals and thus ensure that we have a solid foundation of lifetime skills."

I feel there is a need to do both. We cannot ignore the fact that many workers now need to gain more skills if they wish to be in demand as ongoing or future employees. I see his point and fully agree that core skills are being neglected in primary and post primary schools. Getting back to basics now will only allow us to see the benefit in our children in 10 years time.

Horn says

" Our young people should be able to reason, to deduce and derive, to correlate and spot patterns, to explore and to be inquisitive, and to be articulate and confident. In my humble view, these are more life centric skills than learning facts and perspectives by rote: knowing something off by heart, but not understanding why, why not, and so what. Skills taught in schools should be for life. There are many things which can be learnt during adulthood, but some skills which are difficult to learn without a solid foundation during the teens and 20s."

Maths and science is where Horn is leading and feels our students are being let down by the education system that fails to take more of an interest in these skills.

In Britain Carol Voderman is being suggested as a Maths czar as a means of getting students interested in Maths, and there is an American TV police show 'Numbers' that is fascinating with the way it shows how we interact with numbers every day of our lives. The site explains the maths in the series and also has a weekly maths puzzle, well worth exploring.

Bernie Goldbach of Inside View states,

I know that many of the asipiring programmers have weak mathematical skills. Many do not program in second level education, so learning programming is like learning another language. Some first year students do not think logically and expect their third level education will remedy their deficiencies. Third level is often too late in the education cycle. Taking a page out of Chris Horn's blog, the primary level is where the skills start--in mathematics classrooms. Then those skills continue into second level, with an expectation that geometry, trigonometry and calculus get sound coverage. From what I see entering third level, I think there are serious core skills shortfalls in Ireland and I don't believe those shortfalls will be remedied during the current recession.

Bernie Goldbach is a lecturer in Tipperary Institute.

Teachers, things can only improve

Despite all the doom and gloom around us our children will still need to be educated and "students should not be too quick to abandon the profession, because of the current shortage of jobs." So says the article in the Irish Independent.

While the start of the article would make you wonder why anyone would go into education as a career following the budget it does go on to say...

Demographic trends suggest that more teachers will be needed in Ireland in the coming years.

The number of school pupils in Ireland is expected to grow by more than 50,000 over the next five years, and unless class sizes are increased dramatically, staff will have to be hired to teach them.

Moira Leyden, the assistant general secretary of ASTI, says: "We are very concerned about the increase in pupil-teacher ratios, and the fact that there will be job losses.

"The long-term trend is an increase in population over the next five or six years, and ultimately there will have to be jobs for teachers coming on stream so that these children can be taught. There are still plans to open new schools, and these will need teachers.''

In the second-level sector, employment prospects also vary according to subject areas.

Those who specialise in English, history and business studies are finding it much tougher than those with degrees in maths and Irish. Aspiring teachers can also improve their chances of securing steady work when they are on placement by showing enthusiasm and dedication, and becoming involved in the school's extra-curricular activities.

Ultimately, the trainee who directs the school play or coaches two hurling teams will be seen as a greater asset to a school.

The full article can be read here