Actors in Long Life Learning Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Actors in Long Life Learning - Essay Example The global economy is highly influenced by transitions and adjustments challenges at the social, business and cultural levels. Knowledge is not just the power, but a property to highly be marketed and commercialized. Lifelong learning is considered to be a vehicle that can enable immigrant community to adapt the challenges of new global economy. Human brain is perceived to represent a new ‘grey capital’ as it is set alongside the familiar economic resources such as land, labor and finance (Field, 2006, p. 9). This piece of research work presents the concept of lifelong learning and analyzes how this can help immigrants improve their personal and professional development and as a result improve the economic prosperity of country they migrated to. This paper investigates the role of lifelong learning in contributing to the economic and social prosperity and reflects on the personal experiences of lifelong learning in terms of personal and professional development. Lifelong Learning and implication on immigrant community In today’s competitive knowledge economy, lifelong learning has become a critically important strategy to make people highly competitive and productive. (World Bank, 2003). Lifelong learning is a human process and a metaphor to describe societies, regions and organizations. Lifelong learning is described as an ideal goal for better education (Parson, 1990), as a human process (Parson, 1990), as a product (Hatton, 1997) and moral duty of people (Wain, 1991). Learning is a human process and it requires consciousness and the capacity to utilize their knowledge. Lifelong learning is a continuous learning throughout one’s life directed by the individual needs and intentionality mediated by the capacities and interests (Billett, 2010, P. 402). World Bank (2003) explained that lifelong learning refers to learning throughout the lifetime including formal, non-formal and informal education and training. Formal education and training are structured programs recognized by formal education system. Non-formal education is structured education system but not recognized by national systems. Informal education and training are fully unstructured education or training systems that can take place anywhere such as home, organizations, workplace etc. Lifelong learning aims at positively influencing the inexperienced people in changing their career targets and making them highly demanded individuals by taking the self-responsibility of their learning and education. It thus assists them in developing their own learning skills (Uzunboylu and Ursen, 2011, p. 450). Technology in modern society plays significant role in lifelong learning. Distance or online-education facilitated by colleges and universities can be considered as examples for how modern technology assist lifelong learning.

The Pursuit of Quality at AT&T Universal Card Services Essay

The Pursuit of Quality at AT&T Universal Card Services - Essay Example In order to monitor the performance of employees in dealing with the customers, the business organization has set up a unique and multifaceted measurement system. With these thrusts, the company is seen to surpass the industry standards. The creation of a process measurement system enables AT&T "to locate problem processes; to promptly address any problem discovered; to constantly asses how well customers are being served; and to reward exceptional performance" (Rosegrant 3). It should be noted that AT&T's motivation technique is primarily through the use of monetary benefits. Customer service representatives who are in forefront of the company's operations and are directly dealing with AT&T's customers are given financial incentives like bonuses if they achieve the goal set by the management. In order to monitor performance, managers, team leaders, and top executives are tasked to listen to the telephone associates' conversation with the customers in varying degrees. AT&T also conducts daily meetings in order to discuss the daily performance of the customer service representatives. This becomes the important venue for the discussion of how service quality can be continuously improved. The product offered by AT&T in the market together with the company's extension of exceptional customer service has gained it the largest market share in the credit card industry. AT&T has become the youngest business organization to be awarded the sought after Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. Despite this success however, both external and internal pressures are forcing AT&T to institute changes in its business operation. II. Statement of the Problem Looking at the external environment, competitors have recognized the huge profit potential in the market served by AT&T. The product which was pioneered by AT&T has become common in the market. New players have tried to offer their own no-fee, low interests credit card making it difficult for AT&T's product to stand out. Thus, the business organization opts to emphasize its thrust of providing above industry standard customer service. With this, AT&T's executives are faced with the challenge of identifying the ways on how to boost and enhance customer service provided by their telephone associates. This is even worsened by the fact that the company growth has slowed down and will not be able to accommodate the ascent of telephone associates to the corporate ladder. Externally, there is a strong pressure for managers to take the quality measurements a step further. The current system fails to correctly indicate customer satisfaction. It has been found out that the telephone associates' performance is not directly correlated to the quality of the service extended as perceived by the customer. There has been a consensus that the current system is not adequate to meet the more intense rivalry in the market: "Moreover, the current measurements no longer seemed to be driving the quest for improvement, and Davis and others had become convinced that it was time to retool a system that no longer fits the needs of the company" (Rosegrant 12). However, there is no consensus on what ought to be done in order to improve the process. Changing the process will also post problems within the workforce. It has also become apparent that changing the system