Education Translation

ITS Tutorial School in Hong Kong is a registered school with the Hong Kong education department. ITS provides a wide variety of different education and support services to the Hong Kong community. ITS clients include primary age students, secondary school students, students studying tertiary courses and clients form the Hong Kong business community and for English language tuition.

ITS has been developing its website as an education resource portal where students, parents and the community can gain access to a large range of useful resources and links to other top quality education websites. The desire to provide free open access web based resources to the community is part of ITS over philosophy.

Some of the resources that are available include:

A comprehensive Accounting, Business Studies and Economics Dictionary for students. This dictionary has over 3000 terms defined. This dictionary is primarily aimed at supporting secondary and tertiary students who are studying business and commerce related subjects.

The definitions of terms that have been included are most of the major subject specific words that students will come across in secondary level accounting, business studies and economics courses. This dictionary / glossary should also be of great use for introductory tertiary level students studying business related courses.

ITS has also developed a very detailed geography dictionary It covers:

• Physical Geography
• Human Geography
• Related disciplines

Over 1400 terms have been defined and all cross referenced with live linking, primarily aimed at supporting students who are studying Geography or related subjects such as Earth Sciences. The definitions of terms that have been included are most of the major subject specific words that students will come across when studying Geography from the school years in the age range 12-18. First year undergraduates may also find it a useful reference point for topic areas that they did not cover at secondary/senior/high school.

ITS has developed a detailed guide to problem solving covering topics such as:

• What are problems?
• The stages of problem solving
• The skills of problem solving
• Why people fail to solve problems effectively
• Barriers to finding the best solution
• Overcoming the blocks to problem solving
• A good climate for problem solving
• Company policies and procedures effect on problem solving
• Style of management effect on problem solving
• Physical environment effect on problem solving
• Does your organisation support problem solving? 15 telling questions to ask!
• So what’s the problem?
• Defining problems - closed and open ended problems
• Finding possible solutions to your problems
• The Road to a Solution - Using models to represent a problem
• The Road to a Solution - Generating ideas
• Solving problems using a group - advantages and disadvantages
• The ‘unlucky’ list to bad decision making
• Evaluating the solution
• Getting your solution accepted - Reasons for opposition and how to plan your presentation
• Getting your solution accepted - Making your presentation
• Implementing your solution
• The Action Plan

Also a range of science resources for students which includes tutorial exercises for GCSE and IGCSE Physics. And a vast collection of other resources and articles. Visit ITS website to see the full collection of resources.

The process of selecting and implementing a business critical system, such as HR Software, must take into account a number of different elements:

Selecting an HR Software System

Does the Software meet your individual needs?

Nowadays, HR providers offer a wider range of products than ever (that can typically all function together or alone), to try and fulfil the growing needs of an organisation - These can range from basic personnel administration modules to time & labour scheduling management.

However, an HR system must be selected based upon your individual organisation’s requirements - it must fulfil all of your specific organisational needs. Does it provide the functionality required by the organisation now, and also meet the anticipated scope of requirements for the future? System flexibility is an inherently critical factor - no organisation is the same.

System Integration

Another important element is - is the HR system compatible with 3rd party applications? Modern HR software should be developed on platforms that integrate easily with other software systems, allowing HR to streamline otherwise time-consuming and laborious processes - for example, the development of import and export tools between business systems. The ability to integrate your most up-to-date source of people-data with other systems can lead to huge reductions in operational costs.

Managing Time & Budget

The implementation of HR Software requires (of course) both time and money, typically the two biggest restraints to any project. It’s important to build contingency time into the implementation of HR Software, as all organisations’ requirements and expectations will be different - and therefore the cost of each project can vary considerably. One highly beneficial option worth considering is to undertake a scoping project with various providers prior to committing to a system purchase. The Scoping process involves an HR Systems Consultant meeting with you and determining your organisation’s exact needs and requirements (which will often only become evident after a process such as this) against a standard implementation. The result will be a far more accurate determination of the project costs, and a better idea of the timescales that can be expected.

Supplier Pedigree & Existing Clients

Once you’re narrowing down the number of suppliers that you’re seriously considering based on product functionality, carry out some background research on the providers in question. How long have they each been in business for? Are all of their products developed in-house, or do they work closely with strategic business partners to deliver a wider scope of products? Do they serve other organisations in your own industry?

Any provider worth considering will have a range of Client case studies available, so ensure you request these up-front. In addition, the supplier should be able to provide you with existing Client contacts that will be willing to speak with you about their experiences with both the system and provider. Any supplier without these kinds of contacts in place should be of concern; why would existing Clients be unwilling to share their experiences?

Training & Support

Current HR Software technology is designed to be easy to use - However, the sheer amount of functionality available in modern systems will guarantee the need for users to undertake system training.

Questions to ask the potential suppliers should include:

• Does the supplier offer full product training?
• Is the training available on-site or just at regional training centres - would this be convenient for your organisation?
• Can the supplier provide technical product training to your IT department?
• Does the supplier have a helpdesk in place, to ensure the users have full support available to them at all times?

• Counseling
• Counseling
• Marriage Counselor
• Marriage Conflict
• Psychiatrist
• Psychologist
• Therapist
• Marital Therapy
• Love in Marriage
• Sex in Marriage

Taken all together, the psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, and marital counselors-regardless of their qualifications for the job of treating sick marriages-are not numerous enough to take care of the public’s needs, especially in areas outside of the large metropolitan cities. This unfortunate picture is likely to persist for many years; for some time to come the overflow of couples seeking therapy will probably be handled by nonprofessional counselors.

Experiments have already been started, especially at the National Institute of Mental Health under the direction of Dr. Margaret Rioch, in the training of lay persons in basic counseling. Dr. Rioch first selected a group of mature women who were eager for pursuits other than keeping house and who had demonstrated some ability in managing their own lives successfully. She found that the group as a whole developed fairly rapidly skills which allowed them to be useful to other people in counseling, without assuming those responsibilities that a psychiatrist would ordinarily shoulder.

Another trend of particular importance is developing in some primary and secondary schools. A child’s performance in school and the state of the parents’ marriage are often intimately related. In some schools, when a child appears to be troubled the counselor attempts to see the parents as well as the child. This is an important trend, and one which may gain momentum-partially because it is relatively easy to detect problems in children in the early grades. Spouses who have been delaying their efforts to improve their marriage may be motivated to do so when they learn that their difficulties are interfering with their child’s school performance. But here again, there is the problem of finding sufficient individuals to fill the jobs as school counselors, and of providing better training centers for them. In particular, they will require training that concentrates on marital problems and not on long-term individual psychotherapy, still the primary focus of training in most centers.

The possibility that television might become a source of help for unhappy couples has been largely unexplored. The success of the Purex Corporation programs for women suggests that even marital problems might be discussed in some detail and intimacy if the programs were scheduled for the evening and a couple could watch them together after the children were in bed. The development of this type of program would be a most valuable project for educational television, especially if the right teachers could be found and the material could be presented in a compelling fashion.

Another method of helping troubled spouses is the formation, possibly under the auspices of an organization such as the YMCA, of groups in which married couples meet together for joint discussions. When four to six couples get together weekly to discuss marital problems, the presence of the group has the effect of containing the individual couples’ quarrels and bitterness. Thus the meeting can be reasonably orderly, and yet a good deal of feeling can still be expressed, providing the leader is experienced. The spouses learn that theirs are not the only hates and hurts, and are often able to say things to each other that they cannot mention in private.

There is an increasing tendency for psychiatrists and psychologists interested in marital problems to conduct sessions of this sort, in which four to six couples meet regularly with a therapist. This can be a relatively economical way of obtaining therapy for the couples, but the successful management of this situation is difficult, and requires considerable experience. So-called leaderless groups have been tried, but to our knowledge have not worked out well. Generally, one couple tends to dominate the rest, and the group breaks up as a result of bickering and boredom.

It is interesting that although we have Alcoholics Anonymous to help unfortunate alcoholics, Gamblers Anonymous to aid those who can’t help throwing away their money and Parents Without Partners to enable divorced individuals to share their difficulties, there is no comparable group for those with marital problems. Apparently a marriage is regarded as almost sacrosanct until it has broken up. A Save Our Marriage Society might not be a bad idea; it could offer spouses in difficulty the opportunity .to attend group meetings, learn how much their problems resemble or differ from those of other people, find out what others have done to solve such problems in the past, and generally benefit from a clearing of the air. One possible shortcoming in such meetings, we would expect, is that much of the discussion would deal with the battle of the sexes. However-and this would be fortunate-it might occur to someone among the participants that the caricature of men by women or of women by men is highly ridiculous. Such an organization could sponsor educational films for engaged couples, and a marital checkup clinic for spouses not yet in serious trouble. Corporations now spend millions of dollars a year on periodic medical examinations to guard the health of their executives. The malignant marriage is probably the most frequent source of executive ill health, and yet little, if anything, is done about it. Unfortunately, one must start by admitting that the problem exists.

• Engagement Rings
• Diamond Engagement Rings
• Design Your Own Engagement Ring
• Engagement Rings With Matching Bands
• Engagement Rings
• Pre-set Engagement Rings
• Three Stone Engagement Rings
• Solitaire Engagement Rings
• Diamond Rings
• Diamond Accent Engagement Rings

Clarity refers to how free the diamond is of blemishes and inclusions when viewed with your own eyes and when viewed under lOX magnification. Blemishes are imperfections on the outside of the diamond, for example: pits, chips, nicks, scratches. Inclusions are inside the diamond: carbon, fractures, and breaks. The following scale is the GIA (Gemological Institute of America-I will give you more details on GIA later in the book) grading scale. You will use this scale to compare one diamond to another.

Flawless: Free from blemishes and inclusions when viewed under lOX magnification. Internally Flawless: Free from inclusions, but it might have some slight blemishes when viewed under lOX magnification.

VVSl and VVS2 (Very, Very Slightly Included): Has minute inclusions or blemishes the size of the head of a pin when viewed under lOX magnification.

VSl and VS2 (Very Slightly Included): Has inclusions or blemishes smaller than a grain of salt when viewed under lOX magnification. There can be no carbon, fractures, or breaks in a VS stone.

SI1 (Slightly Included): Has inclusions or blemishes that are larger than a grain of salt when viewed under lOX magnification. These inclusions can be carbon or fractures; 95 percent of all SIl diamonds are eye-clean. *

SI2 (Slightly Included): Has inclusions or blemishes that are larger than a grain of salt when viewed under lOX magnification. Some of these inclusions or blemishes might be visible without magnification when viewed.

I1 (Imperfect): Has inclusions and blemishes visible to the naked eye.

I2 (Imperfect): Has inclusions and blemishes visible to the naked eye that can make as much as 25 percent of the diamond appear cloudy or lifeless.

I3 (Imperfect): Has many, many inclusions and blemishes visible to the naked eye. A very unattractive diamond with very little luster or sparkle.

For recommendations of which clarity grade is for you, review “Step Four: Know What Kind of Customer You Are and What Quality You Should Buy.” The average clarity grade purchased in the United States is, sadly, an 11 to 12. Most people purchase this quality unknowingly. Only lower quality diamonds are 11-12. Don’t make the same mistake. Careful shopping will allow you to purchase an SI1 stone for the same amount that most 12 stones are sold for. On the following pages are some typical stones when viewed under lOX magnification.

Blemishes

1. Chip: A little nick, a piece missing from the outside of the diamond. A chip can be caused through wear or during the cutting process.
2. Scratch: A line or abrasion on the outside of a diamond.
3. Fracture: A crack on the outside of the diamond.
4. Polishing Lines: Lines on the outside of a diamond that were formed during the polishing stage of the diamond.
5. Natural: A part of the diamond that was never polished, usually on the girdle.
6. Extra Facets: Areas where additional polished surfaces are placed on a diamond that shouldn’t normally be placed there. Example: The typical diamond has 58 facets; a diamond with an extra facet would have 59.
7. Bearding: Very small little fractures on the edge of a diamond.

* Not possible to see inclusions or blemishes with your own eye when viewing the diamond without a jeweler’s loupe or microscope.

Inclusions

1. Carbon: A black spot or spots inside a diamond.
2. Feather: Slight to heavy crack inside the diamond.
3. Crystal: A white spot or spots inside a diamond.
4. Pinpoints: Small dot like spots in a diamond. (A pinpoint is smaller than a crystal.)
5. Cloud: A group of pinpoints gathered together, giving the impression, in some cases, of one large inclusion.

An untrained person will have a very difficult or impossible time trying to find the inclusions or blemishes in a VVSl, VVS2, internally flawless, or flawless diamond. Unless you’re a gemologist, don’t expect to. These top four grades will appear, to the average person, perfectly clean. You should only be purchasing one of these grades if you’re buying the diamond for investment purposes. In my opinion, these grades are too high a quality to be worn. That would be like circulating a proof coin: it would ruin your investment. Diamonds can get abrasions or even chipped through normal wear and tear. Some people find this hard to believe. They say that since a diamond is the hardest thing in the world that must mean it’s very tough and cannot be damaged. The truth is that even though a diamond is hard (hardness being a stone’s resistance to being scratched, and the only thing that can scratch a diamond is another diamond), that doesn’t mean a diamond is tough (toughness being a stone’s resistance to breakage). You see, a diamond can cleave in four directions, meaning it can be damaged. A diamond is the hardest thing in the world but not the toughest. And it is possible for someone to buy a VVS or flawless diamond and through normal wear lower the clarity grade to a VS or even a SI grade. I don’t recommend wearing such a high grade diamond. But if you do decide to buy one of these grades, I highly recommend that the diamond purchase be accompanied by a GIA certificate. * Since I stated earlier that an untrained person can’t pick out inclusions and blemishes with his own eyes, the GIA certificate will be your only guarantee that you are truly getting one of these grades.

Engagement Rings

• Dog’s Paw
• Dog Health Issues
• Dog Training
• Life Companions
• Choosing A Dog

As soon as you get your puppy you can begin to housebreak him but until he is five months old or so. A baby puppy just cannot control himself, so it is best to give him an opportunity to relieve himself before the need arises.

Don’t let the puppy wander through the whole house; keep him in one or two rooms under your watchful eye. If he sleeps in the house and has been brought up on newspapers, keep a couple of pages handy on the floor. When he starts to whimper, puts his nose to the ground or runs around looking restless, take him to the paper before an “accident” occurs. After he has behaved, praise him and let him roam again. It is much better to teach him the right way than to punish him for misbehaving. Puppies are naturally clean and can be housebroken easily, given the chance. If a mistake should occur, and mistakes are bound to happen, wash it immediately with tepid water, followed by another rinse with water to which a few drops vinegar have been added. A dog will return to the same place if there is any odor left, so it is important to remove all traces.

If your puppy sleeps outside, housebreaking will be even easier. Remember that the puppy has to relieve himself after meals and whenever he wakes up, as well as sometimes in between. So take him outside as soon as he shows signs of restlessness indoors, and stay with him until he has performed. Then praise and pat him, and bring him back inside as a reward. Since he is used to taking care of himself outdoors, he will not want to misbehave in the house, and will soon let you know when he wants to go out.

You can combine indoor paper training and outdoor housebreaking by taking the puppy out when convenient and keeping newspaper available for use at other times. As the puppy grows older he will be able to control himself for longer periods. If he starts to misbehave in the house, without asking to go out first, scold him and take him out or to his paper. Punishment after the fact will accomplish nothing; the puppy cannot understand why he is being scolded unless it is immediate.

The older puppy or grown dog should be able to remain overnight in the house without needing to go out, unless he is ill. If your dog barks or acts restless, take him out once, but unless he relieves himself right away, take him back indoors and shut him in his quarters. No dog will soil his bed if he can avoid it, and your pet will learn to control himself overnight if he has to.