The Unemployment Issue in Macedonia
Friday, January 27
Vesna asked me to meet with her and help her with a project. Finally! To make ends meet and help her son pay for college, Vesna is involved with literally 5 or 6 positions or contracts, through the university, the government, the Soros Foundation or through EU grants. She is working on a project proposal for EU funding to create a network of training centers around the country for the unemployed, all directed at giving people the basic skills to start their own companies. Vesna is convinced that this is the way – by developing entrepreneurship in Macedonia and creating SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises) – to develop the country’s economy. She has asked me to help her develop the proposal for the infrastructure and wanted to know if I could do some research on similar things that exist in the US. I was on the Board a while ago of the Training Resource Center and am familiar with the work of the Workplace Learning Center that the University of Southern Maine has thanks to its work at National Semiconductor and Fairchild Semi, so I enthusiastically said yes. I let her know what I already new about networks that exist through state Bureaus of Labor, the federal Dept. of Labor and Universities and sent her some web links ot take a look at. I wondered a bit whether this is the way to help the 37% unemployment rate, since there is so little money in this country to buy things or services, but I’ll leave that for another morning’s worth of cigarettes.
We talked about the logistics of how to get people enrolled in training classes and the need here for certificate programs that are shorter and more affordable that diploma programs. That led to a conversation about the ethics training I have done at St. Joe’s and how much the students like the certificates I give them at the end of the semester, evidencing their participation in the Ethics training. Vesna asked me if I could do the training for the Institute’s Master’s students (I said “yes” of course), so I am now sure that I will be teaching Business Ethics, somehow, sometime. There is a possibility of a business communication course, as well as an HR course, but I am guessing here. I had been asked via e-mail to teach undergrad courses, but the Institute’s under grad program won't get going until the fall. However, they are very active in getting Junior Achievement going in the high schools, so I'll help out with that, as well as curriculum design for the undergrad program, as they want something very similar to what we have at St. Joe's. Flexibility is definitely the key to being fully, or at least partially, utilized.
Vesna asked me to meet with her and help her with a project. Finally! To make ends meet and help her son pay for college, Vesna is involved with literally 5 or 6 positions or contracts, through the university, the government, the Soros Foundation or through EU grants. She is working on a project proposal for EU funding to create a network of training centers around the country for the unemployed, all directed at giving people the basic skills to start their own companies. Vesna is convinced that this is the way – by developing entrepreneurship in Macedonia and creating SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises) – to develop the country’s economy. She has asked me to help her develop the proposal for the infrastructure and wanted to know if I could do some research on similar things that exist in the US. I was on the Board a while ago of the Training Resource Center and am familiar with the work of the Workplace Learning Center that the University of Southern Maine has thanks to its work at National Semiconductor and Fairchild Semi, so I enthusiastically said yes. I let her know what I already new about networks that exist through state Bureaus of Labor, the federal Dept. of Labor and Universities and sent her some web links ot take a look at. I wondered a bit whether this is the way to help the 37% unemployment rate, since there is so little money in this country to buy things or services, but I’ll leave that for another morning’s worth of cigarettes.
We talked about the logistics of how to get people enrolled in training classes and the need here for certificate programs that are shorter and more affordable that diploma programs. That led to a conversation about the ethics training I have done at St. Joe’s and how much the students like the certificates I give them at the end of the semester, evidencing their participation in the Ethics training. Vesna asked me if I could do the training for the Institute’s Master’s students (I said “yes” of course), so I am now sure that I will be teaching Business Ethics, somehow, sometime. There is a possibility of a business communication course, as well as an HR course, but I am guessing here. I had been asked via e-mail to teach undergrad courses, but the Institute’s under grad program won't get going until the fall. However, they are very active in getting Junior Achievement going in the high schools, so I'll help out with that, as well as curriculum design for the undergrad program, as they want something very similar to what we have at St. Joe's. Flexibility is definitely the key to being fully, or at least partially, utilized.
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7:25 AM
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