Working Abroad - A Guide For Engineers

For United Kingdom chemical engineers, the worldwide marketplace is predominantly focused on the oil and gas and petrochemical industries with comparative consistent demand for applied scientists with both on and offshore experience to work in countries such as as as the Center East, Africa, Caspian Sea Regions and Horse Opera Europe.

Other active industries for Expat applied scientists are in the pharmaceutical and life scientific discipline sectors - but indicants propose that demand is from scattered countries such as Singapore, Scandinavian Peninsula and the Benelux regions.

Overseas work for United Kingdom applied scientists is available on both a contract and lasting footing - and it is the nature of this work that is all covered within this unsmooth guide.

How make I cognize I have got the necessary skills?

From a professional position industry cognition and experience - specifically in the Oil and Gas sector, is the most of import accomplishment requirement. Traditionally, United Kingdom applied scientists have got been very highly respected for their makings and trusted by clients to finish a occupation efficiently and effectively.

Generally, former abroad work is desirable (inducing a Catch 22 situation) but with solid, relevant United Kingdom experience a United Kingdom applied scientist will still be in demand for employment overseas.

Qualifications and industry experience are necessary traits for an Expat engineer, but linguistic communication accomplishments are not essential. Professional capableness is only half of the picture, as it takes a peculiar type of individual to suit into the life style of work overseas. It is great to have got a sense of adventure, but working abroad necessitates much more than than this. You should believe long and difficult about whether this is the right move for you or not.

Benefits of working overseas

Apart from the raised profile of going to work overseas, there are some other very existent benefits. For most engineers, the most important is the chance to acquire involved in the operational side of things and acquire out of the designing office. A good trade of abroad contract work, particularly in the oil and gas sector, necessitates land site visits and a hands-on management attack that is often not possible workings in the UK.

There is also the possible for significantly higher wage rates to be negotiated. Exile applied scientists can command a wage charge per unit premium, which can also be additional escalated if the undertaking location is classed as a adversity area, such as as Federal Republic Of Nigeria and Iraq, where there may be personal hazard involved.

A concluding key benefit is that of the experience of the duty assignment itself. The ability to come up into contact with different civilizations and nationalities and broaden 1s cognition is a cardinal determiner in attracting contractors to work overseas.

Pitfalls to look out for when considering abroad work

Generally, there is a misconception that all work abroad includes tax-free pay. In fact, there are only a smattering of states where wage is completely tax-free and very often there is a liability to local taxation. The bulk of states will implement some sort of revenue enhancement structure, but this changes from state to country, and in the lawsuit of the United States from state to state.

As sees United Kingdom taxation liability, the basic opinion is that United Kingdom Expatriates can only pass 90 years in the United Kingdom in any 1 taxation twelvemonth to continue their position as "non-resident" for taxation purposes.

There are other full general considerations to working abroad that should be thought about as well - including: work topographic point climate, adversity locations, and how being away from place will impact on household life. Adequate research through speech production to colleagues, consulting with a enlisting agency, and investigating yourself using online resources will all assist to construct a image of whether an duty assignment or location is suitable for you.

Services an federal federal agency can offer

Securing work overseas is a more than complicated procedure to determination a suitable contract in the UK. There are a figure of reputable enlisting federal agencies in the United Kingdom that have got active abroad enlisting squads and solid experience of providing international enlisting solutions to worldwide clients.

When you work through a enlisting federal agency on an abroad placement, further services, such as as insurances, healthcare and in-country orientation can be expected on top of the criterion arrangement service.

Overseas employment can be an first-class experience for the well-prepared engineer. Having both a certain sense of escapade and conducting adequate research are requirements for experiencing an gratifying and rewarding placement; and contacting a reputable federal agency to turn up suitable chances is a good first measure in achieving this.

Obama again stirs up decades-old debate on Cuba

By Toilet King CNN American Capital Bureau

Washington (CNN) -- As Ronald Ronald Reagan might have got set it, here we travel again.

Sen. Barack Obama political campaigns in Ioway last week.

What to make about Fidel Fidel Castro is a inquiry that days of the month back five decennaries and 10 U.S. presidencies.

In more than than recent times, it have go somewhat of a litmus diagnostic test test in presidential politics, dating back to Reagan's heavy accent on the Cuban-American vote in the 1980s.

The inquiry have more significance now, perhaps, because of Cuban leader Fidel Castro's failing health.

"Even though it is not the figure 1 issue for the bulk of electors in Florida, for a very vocal minority, it is an incredibly passionate issue that have a batch of history," states Washington-based Democratic strategian Mare Cardona. Don't Girl /n /n

The argument was stirred Tuesday by an op-ed essay Sen. wrote for the Miami Herald. In it, he called for the lifting of two Shrub disposal limitations on Cuban-Americans. Obama wrote that he would let Cuban-Americans "unrestricted rights to see household and direct remittals to the island."

A prima Republican candidate, former Bay State Gov. was speedy to pounce, saying in a statement "unilateral grants to a dictatorial authorities are counterproductive" and that Obama's place turns out the Prairie State senator "does not have got the strength to face America's enemies or support our values."

Current limitations allow Cuban-Americans to direct household members $300 a one-fourth and bounds visits to up to 14 old age once every three years.

Among the other Democratic candidates, New United Mexican States Gov. already was on record in favour of alterations along the lines outlined by Obama.

Former Sen. split the difference; he prefers limitless traveling by household members but opposes "raising the bounds on sending American dollars back to Republic Of Republic Of Cuba at this time."

Sen. would make more; he prefers allowing all Americans unrestricted traveling to Cuba.

Democratic front-runner Sen. prefers no alterations to U.S. policy and said through a spokesman "we cannot talking about alterations to U.S. policy" unless and until Fidel Castro go throughs from the scene and a new government shows its intentions.

On the other end of the spectrum, Rep. prefers lifting the trade embargo outright.

Most interested in this argument is a bantam piece of the U.S. electorate. Nationally, Cuban-Americans business relationship for less than 1 percentage of the U.S. population. But they are heavily concentrated in the cardinal presidential battlefield of Florida, where they represent 8 percentage of the state's electorate. (The victor in Sunshine State was decided by 537 ballots in the 2000 presidential election.)

Cuban-Americans are the most reliably Republican of the nation's Spanish American voters, leading some strategians to inquire why Obama would be interested in inflaming the passionatenesses of the Republic Of Republic Of Cuba debate.

"Non-Cuban-Hispanic electors make not appreciate a presidential campaigner coming down and once again making Cuba the issue. They desire to hear about other things," Cardona said.

Others saw a deliberate attempt by Obama to switch attending away from unfavorable judgment in Miami's Cuban-American public for his talking of being willing to ran into with Fidel Castro and leadership of other so-called rogue governments in his first twelvemonth in office.

The op-ed piece made no reference of such as a pledge. Instead, Obama talked of isobilateral negotiation in a "post-Fidel" Cuba and said his disposal would do clear that if such as a authorities would follow democratic reforms, "the United States is prepared to take stairway to normalise dealings and ease the trade embargo that have governed dealings between our states for five decades."

Obama's stirring of this argument goes on a subject of taking an irregular -- challengers would state inexperienced -- attack to foreign policy issues. It is also an issue that could prove how the actions of President Bill Clinton's disposal affect the campaigning of his wife.

Her hubby made courting Cuban-Americans A priority, and received nearly 40 percentage of Miami's Cuban ballot in the 1996 presidential election.

But President Clinton's determination to go back Elian Gonzalez to Castro's Republic Of Cuba provoked indignation among Cuban-Americans, and, according to a Sunshine State International University Study, Republican campaigners received more than than 80 percentage of the Cuban-American vote in Sunshine State in the 2000 presidential and the 2002 gubernatorial elections.

Training Needs Analysis (TNA) - The Use Of Online Surveys In The Training Needs Analysis Process

To most organisations, the benefits of investing in ongoing staff training are clear. They include:

• Process improvements: reduced duplication of effort, less time spent correcting mistakes, faster access to information, etc.
• Cost savings: lower staff turnover, lower recruitment costs; reduction in bad debts; reduced customer support calls; reduced help desk calls; reduced need for supervision; reduced downtime; increased staff productivity; fewer machine breakdowns; lower maintenance costs, etc.
• Improved profitability: increased sales; more referrals due to better customer service; new product ideas; improved customer satisfaction and retention, etc.
• Performance improvement: in quality, quantity, speed, safety, problem solving, etc.
• Behavioural improvements: in attitude, ethics, motivation, leadership, communication, reduced staff conflict, etc.
• Increased staff satisfaction: Well trained staff tend to be happier, stay longer, and are more loyal.

Furthermore, research undertaken to uncover the financial impact to an organisation of investing in staff training shows a clear and quantifiable link between an above average investment in staff training and superior bottom line performance:

• Based on the training investments of 575 companies during a 3-year period, researchers found that firms investing the most in training and development (measured by total investment per employee and percentage of total gross payroll) yielded a 36.9% total shareholder return compared with the 25.5% weighted return for the S&P 500 index for the same period. [1]
• Firms that invest $1,500 per employee in training (per year) compared with those that spend $125 experience an average of 24% higher gross profit margins and 218% higher revenue per employee. [2]
• Just a 2% increase in productivity has been shown to net a 100% return on investment in training. [3]
• A Louis Harris and Associates poll reports that among employees with "poor" training opportunities, 41% planned to leave within a year, whereas of those who considered their company's training opportunities to be "excellent", only 12% planned to leave within the same period.

So, if we accept the findings above that support the case for investing in a formal staff training program, how does one go about identifying staff training requirements and putting a suitable program in place?

Enter The Staff Skills Audit:

If a company's strategic plan involves doubling the workforce size within 3 years and opening two completely new divisions during that period, then you would hope that the company's HR Management team have a good handle on what skills the company currently has, and what new skills it needs to obtain in order for the company to meet its business objectives. As such, a staff skills audit (uncovering current situation) and training needs analysis (guiding future direction) is a vital first step in obtaining company-wide quantitative data on what skills an organisation's workforce currently has, and (based on the company's business objectives) where the skills gaps lie.

Whilst conducting face-to-face meetings with a select few staff members to discuss training requirements, or ensuring training needs are raised with staff at their annual performance reviews can both be a worthwhile exercise, neither approach will give you an accurate company-wide picture of the organisation's skills status and future training requirements at one point in time. As such, an annual or bi-annual online staff training needs survey is becoming an increasingly popular approach to address this requirement.

When assessed against the alternatives of paper-based or face-to-face training needs analysis surveys, we find the online approach has a number of clear advantages. These include:

1. Speed and ease of reporting: online survey results are generated instantly, and anyone given authorisation can access the results from any web browser in the World, at any time, with the data securely held on encrypted servers. If the same survey is used results can also be compared from month to month, or year to year to help spot trends and assist with budgeting and planning. The online approach also saves significant time with distributing and administering the survey as a survey link is simply e-mailed to employees.

2. Data entry time/expense/errors: the online survey quickly stores the exact data and scoring entered by each employee. Management's data entry requirement is removed.

3. High cost: compared with the paper or face-to-face alternatives, the online TNA process has been shown to cost up to 80% less, and reduce decision making time by up to 90%.

4. Consistency: when a decentralised, verbal training needs analysis system is replaced by a centralised online process, the training survey issued is the same for all employees and comparison of like-for-like results made easy.

5. Interviewer bias or interpretation errors: the 'interview' is in the form of an online survey and what the employee types is exactly what HR report on.

Once the company-wide survey has been conducted, the next steps in the training strategy development process include:

• Analyse the survey results.
• Create a staff training profile.
• Develop a training development plan.
• Communicate the training development plan to all employees.
• Implement the training.
• Evaluate the training effectiveness. [4]

It is recommended that this process be conducted on a 12 monthly cycle at a minimum. In short, a well constructed skills audit and training needs analysis process will provide a fast and accurate snapshot of workforce training requirements, assist with training vendor selection and budgeting, and ultimately help improve employee retention levels and overall staff satisfaction.

Research sources:

1. American Society for Training and Development (ASTD).2. Laurie J. Bassi et al., "Profiting From Learning: Do Firms' Investments in Education and Training Pay Off?" American Society for Training and Development, 2000.3. "The 2001 Global Training and Certification Study," CompTIA and Prometric.4. EOWA.gov.au - 'Training Needs Analysis and Skills Audit'.