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News

September 21, 2019 By Bill Hunt Leave a Comment

MBAs from £4000 from the Online Business School

Online Business School

An online business school is revolutionising business education by offering routes to undergraduate degrees and MBAs costing a student as little as £4,000 – while also enabling them to study “anywhere at anytime”.

The Online Business School (OBS), founded by distance-learning pioneer John Holden, provides ‘pay-as-you-go’ pathways to business degrees and MBAs, and is exploiting the wealth of free online learning materials.

OBS enables business students to access learning resources from some of the world’s most respected universities and earn credits to gain a university accredited qualification.

A student can study two thirds of an undergraduate degree or MBA with OBS, which can cost less than £1,000. The university top-up cost is from £3,000.

Mr Holden said: “Many universities charge £9,000 a year for a three or four year undergraduate course. When you add learning materials and transport, a student’s total costs for a university degree are more than £27,000, with MBAs as much as £40,000.

“But web-based social learning resources are revolutionising higher education – and OBS is doing this in the field of business education.

“Quite simply – why pay £27,000 for a business degree, when you can secure it for £4,000? And why pay £40,000 for an MBA when you can get one for a tenth of the cost?”

Importantly, while other online providers of business education only offer their own learning resources OBS taps into the wealth of free learning materials available online. Many universities, including Cambridge and Harvard have developed educational resources called massive open online courses (MOOCs). These are available to anyone with internet access. There is also a vast range of other learning resources on the web. OBS guides its students towards the best and most appropriate of these materials. In addition OBS provides specifically designed learning modules complete with online assessments.

Mr Holden said: “The reality is that most people just don’t realise that high quality lectures, tutorials, workshops, video and academic reports are available free. Even if they do, they don’t know where to find them.

“Plus, working people who want to further their business career by securing prestigious qualifications have constraints on their time. As well as work, they may have family commitments. This makes university attendance, even part-time, impossible.

“OBS provides the answer to this problem. We want to open up this vast business educational resource to anyone who wants to use it. OBS allows business students to study ‘anywhere at anytime’.”

OBS also enables students to enrol on a programme in just a few minutes, compared to several weeks with a traditional university.

Mr Holden said: “It can be frustrating trying to enrol on a university course and it can even deter prospective students. Plus, as OBS is online there is no limit to class numbers so there is not the problem of courses being oversubscribed.

“We are taking the painful processes out of the initial pathways of learning and providing students with a more flexible route.”

John Holden is one of the most respected leaders in higher education online learning.

In 1990 he founded Resource Development International (RDI) the world’s largest independent provider of UK university qualifications by distance learning. He sold the company in July 2011.

Mr Holden said: “OBS’s mission is to increase participation in business higher education. “We are using the latest web-based technology to offer lower fees, a huge range of learning resources, and programme flexibility. This sets us apart from other distance learning providers. OBS is the future of business further education.”

How OBS works:

* Students are provided with specially developed web-based learning materials such as tutorials and study guides. Using social platforms they study with fellow learners, similar in concept to a traditional university seminar.

* Each module receives a credit that is recognised by a range of universities for advanced entry into their own programmes.

* The equivalent of the first two years of a degree is studied online with OBS. After this students can transfer their credits to a range of universities that offer distance learning ‘top-ups’ to complete their degree. The process for an MBA follows a similar route. The MBA path provides 120 credits which requires a top up of 60 credits, usually by dissertation or one module plus a dissertation.

* Regular assessments are conducted online so students can monitor progress. If they need further help on a topic they can pay for extra resources such as one-to-one tuition.

* All OBS materials are designed and written by professional academic authors. Each interactive module is aligned against specific learning outcomes specified by OFQUAL, the Government’s body for academic standards.

* OBS’s web-based modules allow students to learn what they want, when they want and how they want. OBS has a 24/7 student networking platform, personal dashboards, 1-2-1 online tutorials, group webinars and bank of pre-recorded group webcasts.

* OBS’s entire programme is recognised by ATHE, a government recognised examining and awarding body for business and management students who are successful partners with many leading universities.

* OBS has no term dates. Courses are offered as and when a student requests. A course can begin any day of the year.

* OBS will added IT and hospitality courses to its prospectus in 2015.

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September 21, 2019 By Bill Hunt Leave a Comment

Taking Bank Holidays Costs UK Small Businesses Over £2,500 Each Year

The month of May each year sees two Bank Holidays, but British small business owners stand to lose an average of £506[1] during May and £2,163[2] annually by choosing not to operate and instead take the extra day’s rest over long weekends.

A study of 1,500 UK small business owners by Yell Business reveals that ‘shutting up shop’ on any given Bank Holiday costs an average of £253[3] per day, with 62 per cent[4] of the nation’s small business owners choosing to do so.

On average sole traders lose out on £263, which is £105 more than micro businesses owners[5] who lose £158 by closing their services.

  • Nationally, Scotland is the most expensive country in the UK for small business owners to take Bank Holidays at £479 per day, or £4,311 annually[6].
  • England comes next at £256 per Bank Holiday or £2,048 annually[7].
  • Northern Ireland is third at £139 per day or £1,390 annually[8].
  • But it’s business owners in Wales who lose out on the least revenue, at £123 per Bank Holiday, or £984 every year[9].
  • However, 38 per cent of small business owners remain open over the Bank Holiday weekend.

Mark Clisby, Marketing Director at Yell Business said: ‘Although small business owners can lose out on revenue by closing for the Bank Holiday, it’s important to balance this with the benefits that ‘time off’ can have. As a small business owner, taking a break from the day-to-day responsibilities of work, allowing time to clear your head, spending time with your family or maybe even focusing on how you want to develop your business, are all important things to take into consideration.

However you plan to spend your time over the Bank Holiday, if you are choosing to close, our advice would be to ensure you update your website and social channels with your opening times so it’s really clear to customers when they will be able to use your services again.’

[1] Nationwide average
[2] Nationwide average (taking into consideration variable numbers of Holidays per country in the UK)
[3] Nationwide average (taking into consideration variable numbers of Holidays per country in the UK)
[4] 925 of those who were surveyed choose to close over Bank Holiday. 43% of these said they do lose money, 57% said they don’t
[5] Businesses employing 2-10 people
[6] There are 9 Bank holidays in Scotland annually
[7] There are 8 Bank Holidays in England annually
[8] There are 10 Bank Holidays in Ireland annually
[9] There are 9 Bank Holidays in Wales annually

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September 17, 2019 By Bill Hunt Leave a Comment

27th January Marks Holocaust Memorial Day

I’m privileged to have worked as photographer for the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust.

Holocaust Memorial Day is the day for everyone to remember the millions of people murdered in the Holocaust, under Nazi Persecution, and in the genocides which followed in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia, and Darfur.

In addition to singling out Jews for complete annihilation, the Nazis targeted for discrimination and persecution, anyone they believed threatened their ideal of a ‘pure Aryan race’.

Nazi beliefs categorised people by race, and Hitler used the word ‘Aryan’ for his idea of a ‘pure German race’. The Nazis believed Aryan people were superior to all others. Their devotion to what they believed was racial purity and their opposition to racial mixing partly explains their hatred towards Jews, Roma and Sinti people (sometimes referred to as ‘Gypsies’) and black people. Slavic people, such as those from Poland and Russia, were considered inferior and were targeted because they lived in areas needed for German expansion.

The Nazis wanted to ‘improve’ the genetic make-up of the population and so persecuted people they deemed to be disabled, either mentally or physically, as well as gay people. Political opponents, primarily communists, trade unionists and social democrats, as well as those whose religious beliefs conflicted with Nazi ideology, such as Jehovah’s Witnesses, were also targeted for persecution.

Holocaust Memorial Day Photography

Hundreds of thousands of lives were destroyed because of Nazi persecution, and many groups did not receive acknowledgement of their suffering until years after 1945. (credit: hmd.org.uk)

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“Venerable publishing house Penguin Group … made a tech-savvy move through a partnership with teen-oriented community site Piczo.”
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