Scholarships Grants

Gaza, Palestinian Territory (IRIN) – The lack of job opportunities for young people in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt) has created an unemployment crisis that could further destabilize the Arab region, experts warn.

“The largest generation, which was born in the’80s, has reached working age… young adults are now perceived as the most problematic age group,” notes sociologist and demographer Philippe Fargues, also director of the Migration Policy Centre at the European University Institute in Florence.

“Their growth has outpaced the resources available to them, from employment that provides income and status, to freedom, participation, and agency,” added Fargues, who in a recent paper suggested that the “youth bulge” will reshape the Arab world.

Frustrated Arab youth, he argues, have been left with two options: stay in their countries and protest, or leave to seek work and opportunity abroad. The number of people in the 15-29 age range is the largest the Arab world has seen.

The latest figures from the Palestinian Bureau of Statistics put 21.7 percent of the population out of work. This breaks down to 30.8 percent of the population in Gaza and 17.4 percent in the West Bank.

According to the UN, 43.4 percent of the Palestinian population is under 15, and in the Gaza Strip 63.4 percent of 15-24 year-olds are unemployed. This figure rises to 75.8 percent among women.

Few options

And yet, since the Israeli blockade was imposed in 2007, migration has not been an option for the vast majority of Gazans. As a result, there are few options left for young people looking for a job.

“This generation faces many more difficulties than we did,” said Mahmoud Abu Libda, a supervisor in an engineering workshop supported by the ACT Alliance in Khan Younis, south Gaza.

Libda trains young men to be mechanics – perhaps the only trade still flourishing in Gaza. Continual electricity cuts and a reliance on generators mean that mechanics are rarely in want of work. Every year there is a huge demand for places at the workshop, with at least 150 applicants for 22 places.

“The most important thing for them is to find a job,” he added. “We could work in Israel, Gulf States, but with the blockade we are living in a prison here. Being part of a political faction [Fatah or Hamas] or joining the extremists [Al Qaeda] are the easiest ways to be supported and earn money in Gaza.

“I brought my son to work [at the workshop] to avoid him getting drawn into an extremist group – to protect him. It is dangerous working with the resistance.”

Abdullah Nam Rooti, 21, who is in his final year of training with Libda, said: “I was very excited to get my place on the course. Most people I went to school with are unemployed. Most who can’t find work are working in the tunnels, although work has slowed down since Israel’s slight easing of the blockade.

“One time, a tunnel collapsed at two points and trapped three of my friends inside,” he added. “If I had not got on this course I would have worked in the tunnels too and I would have been very scared. It would be better if we could work outside. I would go any place that offered me work, although prefer to live and work here.”

Too many checkpoints

Chris Gunness, spokesperson for the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), told IRIN: “Young people in Gaza face a double whammy – high educational achievement and no work. Having a highly educated, unemployed population is a recipe for discontent, frustration and worse. This is in no one’s interests, least of all Israel.”

In the West Bank, the economic situation is different but still bleak. There is no blockade but the Israeli occupation means the job market cannot support this generation of job seekers.

“In the West Bank we have heard much about economic success but years of occupation have set the base line very low. Nor is this economic success spread evenly across the population,” says Gunness.

“Running an economy and empowering young people with employment is a huge challenge when road blocks and checkpoints make getting to and from work difficult and products must be exported through a regime of occupation. In the West Bank it is really very difficult to get a proper career and work life. That’s why we have so many micro-finance projects there.”

Ironically economic migration for most Palestinians in the West Bank means working, often illegally, in Israel.

According to the bureau of statistics, the number of Palestinians employed in Israel and Israeli settlements had risen from 75,000 to 78,000 in the third and fourth quarters of 2010, of whom 17,000 have no work permit and 50 percent work in the construction industry.

In Gaza, international observers predict that the recent opening of Rafah border crossing by Egypt, may see a flood of workers leaving the Gaza Strip to seek employment opportunities abroad.

Ever since protests started across the Arab world earlier this year, the Hamas authorities have so far managed to dissolve any efforts towards spontaneous protest swiftly.

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– Provided by Integrated Regional Information Networks.

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COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (IRIN) – As the Sri Lankan government launches a cash-for-work program in areas hit by recent flooding, following similar schemes in the former conflict areas in the north, experts warn of potential pitfalls of such schemes.

The new program will be operating in 12 northern and eastern districts devastated by flooding in January and February, which affected more than two million and displaced close to 700,000, according to the government.

Regional government officials have been instructed to employ those affected by flooding to rebuild rural roads, minor irrigation tanks and channels. Participants are to be paid about US$4 daily for up to four days a week.

More than $3 million has been allocated by the Ministry of Economic Development for the scheme, launched in early March.

Model

As residents started returning in late 2009 to areas formerly controlled by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels in the north, the World Bank implemented a $7.5 million cash-for-work programme. Some 28,652 families benefited between December 2009 and July 2010, according to the bank.

The programme is the largest of about a dozen, which typically run for at most a year, that have operated in the north since the 2004 tsunami.

To limit the number of participants, the Bank set wages 15 percent below market rates and allowed one member per returning family to apply.

The work involves hand-dug construction and small-scale irrigation, and repairs to roads, health clinics, community drinking water facilities or schools.

“The cash-for-work program have been quite successful, given the lack of economic activity as the war-displaced began to move back… So far the work has been completed satisfactorily,” said G.A. Chandrasiri, the Northern Province governor.

No official unemployment figures are available for the province, but some analysts estimate half the population remains unemployed or is not working enough to support their needs; when cash-for-work programmes end, permanent jobs rarely replace them.

The program was never intended to be a long-term employment solution, stressed the World Bank office in Sri Lanka. “The priority and challenge at the end of the conflict was to create essential community infrastructure, ensure returning IDPs [internally displaced persons] have short-term income-earning opportunities… so that IDPs will resume their normal livelihood activities in agriculture, informal sector activities, etc.”

But short-term cash may actually have long-term negative consequences, said local economist and principal researcher with Point Pedro Development Institute in Jaffna province (heart of the former conflict zone), Muttukrishna Sarvananthan.

“It [cash-for-work] may distort labour market wages (i.e. after the CfW [cash-for-work] ends, the beneficiaries could expect similar or higher wages than what they received under CfW), discourage labour mobility [and] self-employment initiatives. Many CfW programmes in Jaffna and Vanni run for a long time with no meaningful work done.”

Major repairs are still handled by government agencies with heavy equipment or foreign workers rather than local manual labour, he added.

“I have seen Chinese workers employed in building of cantonment for army personnel stationed in [the northern district of] Kilinochchi. Local unskilled or semi-skilled labour could have been employed for this purpose.”

Sarvananthan estimates unemployment to be above 20 percent in the areas controlled by the LTTE until 2009, under-employment to be at least another 30 percent, and that almost half the work force in these areas survived on occasional employment, earning less than $1 per day.

“There are very limited job opportunities available in this area right now,” said Manoharan Seenathamby, the World Bank’s senior rural research specialist in Sri Lanka.

This could change if the government switched from capital-intensive to labour-intensive construction, suggested Sarvananthan.

“One way to generate meaningful employment in former conflict-affected regions is to employ labour-intensive – or what the ILO [International Labour Organization] calls labour-based – technologies in rehabilitation/reconstruction of infrastructure including roads, houses, public buildings.”

Insecurity

Kathiravel Krishna, a 31-year-old father of five from the northern village of Tharmapuram, said temporary work brought cash, but little stability. “Cash for work is available only for a limited time and in certain parts. Not all the people get it and it cannot replace the security of a job.”

He survives on the odd day job on farms and doing construction work. Some of the returnees, especially those who live alongside the main highway, have used parts of their UN-funded government cash grants of $220, given to each returnee family, to set up tea shops.

As of end 2010, 76,000 families had registered with the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) to receive these grants, intended to help in building temporary living quarters, for a total of about $7 million.

Krishna said tea-shop owners and other small business vendors near the highway were the most secure financially. “But, for those living [in the] interior, there is no such option and the cash grant is now long gone.”

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Marietta, GA, United States (AHN) – Workers returned to work on Monday at Lockheed Martin’s plant in Georgia following a union vote to accept the defense contractor’s final compensation offer.

Despite the urging union leaders to authorize a strike, members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers in Marietta voted 1,366-1,006 to ratify the company’s final offer.

The contract would give workers hired before Monday a $2,500 ratification bonus and wage increases totaling 8.5 percent in three years.

New hires, however, will not have a pension plan but a 401(k) to which the company will contribute $350 every quarter.

In addition, employees will not receive bereavement benefits and will see no increases in early medical retirement monthly contribution nor in normal retirement medical monthly contribution.

Lockheed previously offered a ratification bonus that was lower by $500. Moreover, the wage increases in the ratified contract are “substiantially less” than in the previous two contracts, according to the union.

The Bethesda-based Lockheed is working to remain competitive following the decision of Congress to end the government’s use of F-22 Raptors to focus on developing what military officials say is a more nimble and versatile fighter jet, the F-35.

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Jyvaskyla, Finland (AHN) – A study nearly 30 years in the making has found poor work ability in middle age can be linked to an accelerated deterioration of health and functioning in old age.

Finnish researchers studied middle-aged white-collar and blue-collar employees and found a person’s work ability in midlife might predict their risk of death or disability.

“We found that work ability in midlife predicted decline in health and functioning among men and women during the 28-year follow-up even after adjustments for health and lifestyle factors,” according to one of the co-authors, Dr. Mikaela von Bonsdorff with the Gerontology Research Centre at the University of Jyvaskyla.

The risks were similar for both blue- and white-collar employees; however the risk of death was generally higher among blue-collar employees. The findings show that perceived work ability in midlife correlated with mortality among blue-collar and white-collar employees, and work ability in midlife can be an early predictor of functioning in old age.

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Many people are not aware that there often is funding from your place of employement for college advancement for yourself. Some companies also will have tuition reimbursement opportunities for children of employees as well. For existing employees, companies often prefer to advance people within who are familiar with the services, products and work environment. Go to the human resources department to find out what is available. You may be able to move up into supervisory or management position with more schooling and if you have a good track record with the company this can be to your advantage. One additional benefit for the company is that it can be a tax break for them as well as nice publicity in a press release.

There may be certain terms you’d need to fulfill upon completion of your education in terms of future work with the organization. Be sure to read the agreement to see what time of work you may need to do once you complete your degree. What are they asking in return? Also, you will need to get letters of recommendation often and fill out an essay plus show your employer your past academic records.

One advantage to helping existing employees further their education by giving a company scholarship is that they will not have to train a new employee from scratch. This can be very time consuming and often requires the use of a worker’s time to familiarize a new person with the company’s routines. Hiring from within saves a company on this additional training expense.

If your child is the one looking for a scholarship, check to see if your company has a tuition reimbursement program for them or offers scholarships for children of employees. Both Boeing and Walden Security are two companies that have a program for children of employees to help with college fees.

What is a graphic artist? A graphic artist utilizes their own creative and artistic skills in tandem with acumen with computer software to develop images and visuals for use by their clients for promotional and communicative purposes. A graphic designer is an artist who blends their avant-garde, inventive creative skills with their technical skills in order to generate visuals for their customers and their customers’ varied audiences. The use of technology is dominant when it comes to graphic designers expressing their creativity in commercial ways.

In order for a designer to change text or images, they use publishing software from their computer. A typical day for graphic designers involves sitting at their monitors for long hours. There are still a lot of graphic designers who coalesce freehand drawing, computer-based plans and board work.

Since there are so many people who use the Internet to find information, graphic designers who can use online systems have been in high demand. Graphic designers work with content professionals to orchestrate and design an Internet website’s appearance. When you peruse through a newspaper or magazine or receive a newsletter, the reason behind it looking so good is the graphic designer that created the layout.

Many companies use different types of printed material and it was a graphic designer that came up with these marketing products. The materials that graphic designers can develop for advertising a product can range from simple advertisements to giant promotional displays. Some graphic designers are limited to computer-based creation, however others put their artistic skills to good use by creating original and unique logos and drawings for their clients’ projects. Animated options and designs can also be used not only for web-based promotions, but also in video games, television, commercials or even films. Interactive CDs, which are highly popular right now, use graphic artists who are able to work with text and pictures to develop effective and attractive content.

Graphic designers can be employed in an assortment of settings and industries. Every organization needs to communicate and to do this they use an art department and graphic designers so that the goals are met. There are entire firms whose sole goal is to provide advertising and marketing materials for an assortment of clients. For the most part, however, graphic designers work as sub-contractors or own their own business and get hired on for a specific project or are on contract with clients.

For the foreseeable future, the need for experienced graphic artists is only going to expand. While new concepts in visual means are contrived (i.e., 3-D animation and the Internet), graphic designers who possess technical abilities will be required for work on imagery production that connects on a universal level with people. Graphic design positions typically require training in design or art in a college setting. Numerous community colleges and technical schools provide associate degrees or certificates in the field of graphic design. There are even some schools that offer specialized, high-tech training for artists who want to work in graphic design.

There is a number of establishments and corporations that are keen on employing graphic designers who have undergone and achieved a four-year degree in the fine arts. If you are looking to work in graphic design management, there are also courses available that will get you an arts administration degree. You will take courses, on the road to your degree, that include desktop publishing and design, as well as classes that focus on art and design in a studio.

A great way to get some experience is to do some internships. Lots of companies have unpaid interns and some companies even have paid internships as well. Internships help aspiring designers create a portfolio, which includes samples of their work that they can display when attracting new employers. Scholarships, work study, grants and loans can be granted to students. If you’re interested in financial aid, you must complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FASFA), which you can find in your high school guidance counselor office, your college financial aid office, or online.

The vocational need for graphic designers is projected to rise more than ever when contrasted against different professions, particularly the computer-related ones. How you should dress for work is going to depend on the place you get hired. Some places only allow professional dress and others will allow casual dress; it really depends on the organization.

London, England, United Kingdom (AHN) – A report released Thursday by the Department for Work and Pensions found that about 1.5 million Britons abused the country’s welfare system the past decade by claiming welfare payments, but refusing work.

According to the report, about 750,000 of them were given sanctions and had their benefits cuts because they refused to follow regulations that would help them get jobs. Another 177,000 got Jobseeker’s Allowance and turned down offers, 444,000 more quit their work voluntarily and filed for Jobseeker’s Allowance and 123,000 were sanctioned because they claimed allowance after they were fired because of misconduct.

Employment Minister Chris Grayling said because of these abuses of Britain’s welfare system, the coalition government will impose tougher rules. Among the regulations the government is considering is to introduce fixed-term cuts in benefits beginning at three months and going up to three years for Britons who repeatedly refuse to obey regulations.

Another investigation the DWP initiated is on Britons receiving welfare, but who have moved overseas to warmer countries such as Spain and Thailand, or other western nations such as the U.S. and Sweden.

The department is also running after relatives who claim benefits of dead welfare recipients, those who have unreported assets such as property, savings or even yachts and those with exaggerated disability.

Minister for Welfare Reform Lord Freud estimated the cost to taxpayers for welfare payments to Britons living overseas at $99 million (GBP 66 million) in 2009.

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If you want to go into social work but you just don’t have the money to fund a college education, you will certainly want to think about getting a scholarship. By getting one you will be able to help your costs associated with going to a college or university. These entail tuition, books, and other expenses. The NASW scholarship an option and they are a prestigious organization for those in the field.

There are some general qualifications that you will want to understand to help determine if you are eligible to get funding for your college education. One of the requirements is that the student who applies show motivation and leadership skills which are required for this type of career. You must also have a GPA of at least 2.5 or above in order to be considered for this scholarship. A third requirement is that you must be accepted into a graduate or undergraduate program at an accredited university.

You must be enrolled in school the semester the funds are awarded in order to receive any funds from the scholarship program. This means you can’t be taking a semester off. You must be an incoming or continuing student. It can be helpful to be a student who belongs to the NASW. You can be an U.S or non-U.S citizen and out-of-state students may apply to certain schools which are not located in the state they are currently living in. I attend my local NASW meetings and input from students that are members is always helpful. Their enthusiasm and energy always enhance the meetings.

If you are awarded funds through this scholarship, you will be able to receive up to $500 per academic year, which can be really helpful, especially considering the rising costs of tuition and other college fees. By having the funds you need to go to an accredited college or university, you will be able open a number of doors in terms of the career you have chosen for yourself. Obviously, not everyone will receive an award, but if you meet the requirements, it is worthwhile to fill out an application for consideration. The national association of social workers has been around for a number of years and helped bring about many positive changes in our country.

By doing an online teaching degree programs, you are able to jump start your teaching career in a very advanced and unique ways compared to other programs.

You are able to even pursue a paraprofessional education which is a form of aid work where by you can be able to do a couple of aide work on all the degrees that are gotten online.

When you visit the internet in order to get familiar with online teaching degree programs, you will be able to come across a couple of details and tips that will be important to you in being able to unearth the possibilities and opportunities that are provided by internet learning programs.

You will also be able to come across diverse dictionaries of relevant resources and providers. You might be able to make more informed decisions if you are ready to learn about different degree programs on teaching work.

For example, the conventional classes are totally different from the tuition classes.

The knowledge in differentiating this can end up helping you in wise decision making process at the end of the day by making a convenient learning timetable, and being able to attend into any other private business that you might be doing on the side.

By attaining a degree without doing a coursework, then your education credibility and business experience will be valuated including any other mechanism that you might have used in attaining the online teaching degree programs.

This mostly applies for the people who were not able to attend this program and they still don’t have the time but they badly need the certificate to boost their career.

Another bunch of people who might need to apply the mechanism are the immigrants whose certificates might not be compatible in their new country of residence.

You must be sure of what online degree program you want because of the so many programs that are offered online by different institutes all over the world.

This is because you might get confused and end up enrolling in a program that you did not want from the very beginning.

For the people who might not be close to a college or university but want to pursue online teaching degree programs online, they should not hold back because the exams offered online are just the same as the ones that are offered in ordinary universities through out the world.

Discover what are the best online teaching degree programs online. Learn what are the best college teaching degree programs at my site.

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Once you’ve gathered together standardized requirements such as your transcripts and your GRE scores, you will in most cases have to finish off your grad school application with a few letters of recommendation and an admissions essay. The two components of the application process are incredibly important, as they are any easy way to give you an edge over other competing applicants. They will give your straightforward, black and white application a personal touch, so be sure to plan ahead.

Letters of Recommendation

During your undergraduate career, it is important that you make connections with your professors and research faculty. They will be the best people to ask for letters of recommendation. Meet with your professors during their office hours and participate in additional research so that you can form a good relationship with at least 3 faculty members. A well-written letter will really give your application an edge, so be sure to choose people that know you and your work well. A neutral or poorly written letter will certainly detract from your application to graduate school, so choose carefully. You may also include letter from current or previous employers. These letters should detail your work ethic, work quality and work duties, especially if they pertain to the field you are interested in. Never include letters from friends, family, spiritual leaders or that guy who installed your BMW rims, as they will not help your application.

Admissions Essay

Your admissions essay is the best opportunity you will have to truly stand out against your competition. It should be creative, well thought out and informative. You will need to introduce yourself and explain why you want to enter graduate school. Make sure to carefully construct and structure your essay. You should explain your qualifications through relevant experience, skills and past accomplishments. Make the focus of your essay on how your past educational and employment experiences have led you to applying for this specific program.

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