A Critical Exploration of Models of Continuous Personal and Essay

A Critical Exploration of Models of Continuous Personal and Professional Development - Essay Example These models emphasize on improving the standard of teaching in the colleges and also on creating a learning culture in the college. The creation of a culture of support and collaboration extend the possibilities for self improvement of trainee teachers (Rodrigues 2005). The models for continuous personal and professional development make use of a range of information presented in the development plan of the colleges. These models focus on the needs of the college which are identified through self evaluation. The models also take into consideration the feedback they obtain from the staff and other stakeholders like the students and parents. Performance appraisals which were conducted for the teachers also act as a source of information for these models. The national and local priorities are also taken into consideration. The skill development in the teachers through continuous personal and professional development is done on the basis on well recognized competency frameworks like Dfes Teachers Standards Framework, etc (Kumar 2008). The quality assurance departments make sure that the competency framework being used by these models are of high quality and standard. The continuous personal and professional development processes aim to minimize the hierarchical or the bureaucratic nature of working in the colleges and aim to develop a culture of inclusion. The continuous personal and professional development models are implemented by firstly nominating a leader for the college who takes entire responsibility for the implementation of these models (M.) 1978). The leader receives adequate training which is required for him to manage his responsibilities well. It is this leader who identifies the needs of the college trainee teachers and takes into consideration their performance appraisals. He is responsible to annually give a report to the management regarding the priorities which these development models must

How did the successive stages of capitalism change the UK's accounting Essay

How did the successive stages of capitalism change the UK's accounting and financial reporting processes - Essay Example Thus, the feudal lord directly appropriated surplus labour (labour on the lord’s demesne, or commodities or cash in lieu thereof) from self-sufficient peasants, so that his ‘calculative mentality’ focused on maximising his ‘consumable surpluses. He had no concept of ‘capital as money or equivalent to be invested in production and recovered with a surplus’ (Bryer, 1999, P. 59). A ‘two-step transition from the feudal to the capitalist mode of production’ began with the emergence, in the sixteenth century, of ‘capitalistic’ or ‘semi-capitalist’ farmers, who employed ‘free’ wage workers in the capitalist manner, but still thought in terms of a consumable surplus in the feudal manner (Bryer, 1999, P. 68). Semi-capitalists also give the impression in international trade, one of the leading company among these was the East India Company. These traders were the first to consider the idea of a rate of r eturn. Bryer interpreted this terms as the ‘feudal rate of return’, and well-defined as ‘consumable surplus’ divided by total capital, which developed as the leading economic term after the bourgeois revolution of the mid-seventeenth century. Throughout the period of industrial capitalism, where return was generated mainly over the production of goods, the progressions of the industrial revolution lead to a large number of new openings, that needed slight fixed capital. Later, there was a complete shift to finance capitalism, which demended more capital, and emphasis had been given to the profit generation, through the the purchase and sale of financial instruments of numerous forms, and from the growing needs of the public services. (Hawke, et al., 1981, P. 678). Edwards dates the transition to finance capitalism as 1830, the year in which the Liverpool and Manchester Railway opened for business, and argues that the most recent ‘leap forward’ in financial accounting, the change in emphasis from record keeping to financial reporting, began to take place in the second half of the nineteenth century, ‘in response to the growth of the modern business enterprise and the separation of ownership from management’ (Edwards, 1989, P 13). The substantial capital expenditures and scattered fund raising of finance capitalism in sequence raised up a number of accounting distresses, which is still prominent today, relating to the need to differentiate between capital and revenue expenditure, calculation of periodic profit, and the valuation of fixed assets. The railways, as the leading industry of the mid and late-nineteenth century economy, have generally been rendered a dominant place in the growth of financial reporting, but the canal industry has been almost unnoticed, in spite of its similar standing to the English economy and its substantial impact on the industrial revolution. This is further unanticipated move, sin ce it can be claimed that the canals, using surpluses from the use of capital in agriculture and trade and employment of capital provided by the industrialists and other investors, represent the real starts of finance capita

Critically analysing the issues and effectiveness of the Code of Essay

Critically analysing the issues and effectiveness of the Code of Sustainable Homes and their contribution to helping UK Government to achieve the reductions in CO2 required - Essay Example necessitates the need to formulate strategies, framework, policies, regulations and any other method to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases in to the atmosphere (Bergman et al, 2007). Presently the world is going through the global warming phase; the cause has been attributed to increasing green house gases from industrial, commercial and various other residential activities. Goodall (2007:3) mentions that fewer people know the details regarding the amount of carbon dioxide are generated in their day to day activities. It is further mentioned that only air travels, each person travelling by air is responsible for 12.5 tonnes of greenhouse gases per year in United Kingdom. It is important to mention that half of the total carbon emissions results from the way in which we live i.e. running our homes and getting from place to place in car or plane. Bergman et al (2007) states that household ownership of electronics, such as televisions, domestic IT and other gadgets has increased ra pidly and expected to continue to rise over the next years making the consumer electronics, the biggest single sector of home electricity consumption. And moreover, the number of households is increasing with the increased growth in population year by year causing an increased environmental burden and introducing social sustainability issues. It is further mentioned that the one person household in the UK has grown from 18% in 1971 to 30% in 2001 and are predicted to constitute 38% of households by 2026. In view of the involvement of residential activities in carbon emissions and other greenhouse gases, the governments from different countries evolved and formulated different strategies to cope with the increasing problem. The present paper looks into the policies adopted by United Kingdom to reduce the carbon emissions the residential sector by providing carbon free homes as stipulated in their Code for Sustainable Homes. According to the report for World Business Summit on Climate

Nucor Corporation Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Nucor Corporation - Case Study Example Generically, a value strategy is the pattern of decisions and actions that constitute the firm's overall approach toward providing realizable net value to customers. A value strategy inherently involves all parts of a firm's functional and organizational strategies that provide value realized by customers or require sacrifices by customers (see Appendix Table 1) Nucor follows a four-part growth strategy to increase its production capacities and quality that improve product quality. This strategy: "involves new acquisitions, new plant construction, continued plant upgrades and cost reduction efforts, and joint ventures" (Thompson et al 2008 p. C 115). Despite the use of strategic management process and content models, many managers fail to maintain or improve their firm's competitive position. The new globally competitive context requires that top management alter its current predispositions toward certain stakeholders and financial performance measures and refocus on continuously improving net customer value. "By 1985, Nucor had become the seventh largest steel company in Alnerica, with revenues of $758 million. With 18 plants having the capacity to produce 25 million tons of steel annually, 2006 revenues of$14.8 billion, and net profits of$I.8 billion" Thompson et al 2008 p. C-113). These changes suggest new strategic management processes and new strategy content paralleling those in current models. All firms have a value strategy, but few have completely conceptualized and clearly articulated value as the basis for competing. In fact, many firms are more competitor-oriented than customer-oriented. As a result, many managers are more familiar with their firm's competitive strategy than its strategy for improving customer value. Some inadvertently compromise net customer value either by producing products/services perceived to be of low quality or by requiring excessively high sacrifices of customers. Ironically, the most competitive firms are the customer-oriented, not the competitor-oriented firms. In financial terms, "new plant construction and boosting tons sold from 11.2 million in 2000 to 22.1 million in 2006" (Thompson 2008, p. C114). The uniqueness of Nucor is the synergistic combination of low cost and differentiation that may come with a value-based strategy is a direct result of managing critical systems that contribute to value. For Nucor, the acquisition process is limited to broadening the product line is erroneous (Nucor Corporation 2008). Many other business goals can be fulfilled by acquisition. These include strengthening the company's financial position, procuring the services of one or more key personnel or new executive talent, obtaining land, buildings, and equipment for expansion, stabilizing cyclical or seasonal types of business, avoiding concentration in a government-regulated area of industry, acquiring the technical skills of highly trained scientists, and many other critical elements in business which determine growth and success. The process of acquisition, then, is one that ought to be considered by the management of any enterprise as its plans for growth are executed (see Appendix Table 3, 4). Acquisition is one way to be considered in achieving the complete set of defined objectives. And many companies have found it a very satisfactory way. Annual report shows that acquisition strategy allows the company to achieve a steady growth and increase its