PWI Magazine - Q1 2014




President's Editorial

President's welcome

Dear PWI members and readers,
First of all I would like you to join me in welcoming our new Silver corporate member Atlas Copco. Soon we will organise a networking drink for new members. You are all welcome to join! Stay tune!
Since the beginning of the year, we were pleased to propose you 6 different events. I hope each of you could find interesting topics for them in it. If you would like to suggest new topics, or if you have participate to an excellent presentation that you would like to share with the other PWI’s member...[more]

 Q1 2014





Topic of the Edition - Education


The pragmatism of the Universities of the People - The Magna Carta University of the People -

Alessandra, what are the so called “Universities of the People”?
The Universities of the People are organisations created with the main goal of providing permanent training and education services, and to diffuse culture. Their cultural scope includes different domains of knowledge, science, sport and charity.
When were they founded and how widespread are they?
In Italy the first Universities of the People were founded at the end  ... [more]
 Q1 2014



Gaelic culture as a lifestyle choice

Aideen, how and why have you adopted the Gaelic culture?
When I married my husband, Neil, I realised I would very quickly have to learn Scottish Gaelic (1) to be able to fully share in the circle of friends in which I found myself in Inverness in the north of Scotland. I didn't want our friends to have to turn to English just because I was present.
So I set myself to learning the language. I had the big advantage of already having learnt Irish Gaelic (2) which is a closely related language, like Italian and Spanish or ... [more]
 Q1 2014



What is Business English all about?


Alex, what are the necessary competences to teach Business English?
Firstly we are trainers and facilitators rather than teachers. We use professional training and coaching skills to encourage the maximum input from the course participant. We understand the business environment in which the participant operates and what their language needs are in relation to that. We are also professionals in the field of management development and business training, so we combine this expertise with our language development knowledge, this combined with a full immersion experience ... [more]
 Q1 2014





Management




Forget about balance - Try conscious imbalance

New years are often marked with resolutions - you know, the things you want to do differently or better. One of the most common resolutions we hear, especially among women, is the wish to find more balance between work and personal life.
If this is one of your resolutions, we are going to go out on a limb and suggest that you strike it from your list. Rather, we recommend you resolve to embrace conscious imbalance..... [more]
 Q1 2014



Hotels all are microcosms, open 24/7


Rodolphe, there are more and more women travelling (business and tourism): how do hotels adapt with services to support women’s specific needs (safety, hotel-taxi, hairdresser, babysitting etc.)?
Feeling safe in a town is a choice factor for many tourists and therefore through our association – the Brussels Hotels Association (BHA) – although we do not run gender specific services or campaigns, certainly we are concerned for the safety of female customers, especially those traveling alone.
Regarding safety and taxis, for example, our association’s :
... [more]
 Q1 2014




Women & Technology


The New Learning Style

The next Revolution for Higher Education?
When we think of higher education, we normally think of spending 3 to 5 years of study, in a well-known institution at a considerable cost. What if you could follow the same courses from the comfort of your home, at your own pace, and with a much lower cost or even for free? Welcome to the world of Massive Open Online Courses!....[more]
 Q1 2014




Women & Career


 Becoming a Journalist

Hanna, as a member of the EJC Online Journalism Community (1), it’s a real pleasure to interview you. Would you illustrate to our readership the concept of this community?
The idea behind the European Journalism Centre’s (EJC) Community establishment was that it would be a place for all kinds of journalists from around the world to come together, network with each other and share information. Over the years the community has grown from a small community for journalists to a bigger one that also includes media professionals from other sectors such as PR and marketing, radio, television, etc.  ...[more]
 Q1 2014




Professions

The importance of the “Recovery Time”

Tom, I was invited to one of your conferences and I learned that you are a regular speaker about stress at RadioX Brussels. Is stress so diffused in our society that you talk about it every week on the radio? (1)

One out four employees suffers from work stress and 75% to 90% of all illnesses are related to stress.
I think those two figures (2) alone tell how important it is to put health back on everyone’s agenda.
At RadioX, where I present the weekly feature ‘Health Matters’: this program is a good medium for giving the message that we have to take stress more seriously. On ‘Health Matters’ I share    ...[more]
 Q1 2014



Miscellaneous

Virtuous-eclectic or Neo-realistic?  - Profile of a Berlin Painter in Brussels -

Bettina, could you tell us briefly about yourself, your origins, your culture and your family background?
I was born in 1965 in East-Berlin. I had a happy and quiet childhood; I lived before and during perestroika as a student and experienced the fall of the Berlin wall. Then I was a university teacher during the "cleaning" of the public organisations in Eastern Europe.
It was a period of change where a lot of new businesses sprung up like mushrooms. But at University there were 10 times fewer staff members for two times as  ...[more]
 Q1 2014



 

If you’d like to comment on it, or contribute to the next issue, please get in touch by emailing Alessandra Zocca at editor@pwi.be


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