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Cisco, AIESEC Open International Exchange for Malaysian Students

August 12, 2009 12:45 by jllorens

Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) and AIESEC, the world's largest student-run organization, have launched an innovative program to provide Malaysian students with the opportunity to expand their skills and gain valuable international work experience. The initiative is in line with the Malaysian government's call for more public-private sector collaboration to support the education and development of a highly skilled, technology-savvy workforce that can compete in the global arena.

Open to qualified students currently enrolled in the Cisco® Networking Academy® program, the professional internship program will transform the selected students' classroom knowledge to practical work-based skills. The internships vary in duration from six to 18 months.

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Categories: International | News

Survey: Global Companies' HR Moving in the Right Direction, Could Still Improve

August 12, 2009 11:55 by jllorens

LINCOLNSHIRE, Ill.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--As business globalization and cross-border trade and investments have accelerated over the last decade, companies have a more globally dispersed workforce than ever before. According to a new survey by Hewitt Associates, a global human resources consulting and outsourcing company, human resources (HR) departments have made steady progress in their ability to support the shift toward a more global business model and workforce. Yet, for many companies, questions remain on how exactly HR should be aligned from a strategy, organizational and delivery perspective. This issue is even more pressing in the current economic environment, as HR departments are being challenged to improve the effectiveness of their global HR programs and reduce global HR delivery costs.

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Categories: News

Categories: News
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Uganda: 1,000 women get business skills

August 3, 2009 11:41 by jllorens

OVER 1,000 rural businesswomen have been trained in entrepreneurial, management and leadership skills.

Twenty-one selected women groups from across the country also got business counselling and advisory services.

The training was conducted under Enterprise Uganda’s Strengthening Women Entrepreneurs Project (SWEP), a report indicated.

“The training has improved the operational efficiency of the women-owned enterprises and increased revenue collection,” the report said.

It added that household incomes of the rural women, purchasing power and jobs had increased because of the women’s involvement in economic activities.

“This has improved Uganda’s balance of payments because of increased export of locally-produced goods. This has also improved food security.”

Enterprise Uganda said as a result of the training, four women groups were engaged in agro-processing, while seven were involved in crop husbandry. “Seven others are involved animal husbandry, while three are engaged in making textiles, arts and crafts.

“We conducted business health checks on all the groups to identify their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats,” reads the report, adding, “The common challenges we discovered included limited entrepreneurial skills, lack of capital, weak group management structures and leadership, lack of strategic planning and market access.”

Read it here.


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Categories: News

Categories: News
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Worldwide, lack of skills remains the basic problem

August 3, 2009 10:38 by jllorens

(From The Times) Global research commissioned by KPMG reveals that the economic slowdown has cooled the overheated project market to some extent, especially for large physical projects.

But the research finds that there are still fundamental problems with undercapacity.

“The performance of many projects has not been good as a result,” said Jeff Shaw, director for major projects at KPMG. “There is a shortage of skilled project managers globally, which has been alleviated only temporarily during the recession.

“We cannot rely on importing skills and it’s still expensive to cherry- pick, so we have to develop home-grown project managers.

“There is considerable concern about the industry’s ability to deliver on infrastructure requirements around the world in the medium term,” Shaw added.

“Our advice is that if projects repeatedly form part of your core business you ought to build a core capacity to have internal skills to deliver. Then, outsource to supplement your capacity during peaks as a one-off.

“Government is a particularly significant problem area; our research shows that, globally, 70% of infrastructure providers (whoever feeds into major projects) cite a lack of government effectiveness as a major constraint on delivery.”

Shaw said this was not the case in South Africa alone — in the US the rate was 72%.

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Categories: News

Categories: News
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Survey: Interest in Outsourcing on the Rise

June 29, 2009 17:25 by jllorens

Minneapolis, MN (PRWEB) June 29, 2009 -- Ceridian, a leader in managed human resource outsourcing solutions, announced today the release of the results of a survey on outsourcing conducted by the American Payroll Association (APA). The Ceridian-sponsored Trendline Survey was conducted in April 2009 and quantified the opinions of more that 1500 HR and payroll professionals. Some of the more interesting results involved the propensity to outsource, which continues to run very high, and respondents’ recognition of numerous outsourcing benefits.

The survey found that almost one quarter (24 percent) of those taking it were employees of companies who outsourced more today than in the past. The growing number of companies using outsourcing as a way to gain a strategic advantage in the marketplace is another indicator of the widespread recognition of its value.

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Categories: The Economy

Categories: The Economy
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