Bloomsford Academy

Better And Different (BAD)  I have noticed that many people sit around trying to figure out how they can be better at than everyone else in their chosen profession. Some even strive to become the best in their class.  In order to make your career work in the short term, you need to stand out and be better than your competitors. In the short term, you will definitely have success by being better. But history shows that being better is not enough especially in this digital age where innovation and change happen faster than the average person can keep up with. Being Better only allows you to play the game, but not only for too long because someone will eventually come along and be better than you in whatever it is you were better at. Doing things differently is the key to long term success, be it in your career or business. This is not about being different for the sake of being different. This is where you create your value- system. This is about your willingness to challenge th

LETTER TO YOUTH By Prof Benard Odoh Keep your Degree in a safe custody for future opportunity, and engage in entrepreneur skills, otherwise you will die poor. Most of the educated people in Nigeria are poor. Majority of the educated earn less than N55,000 for a salary before tax and other deductions. When the deductions are put into consideration, the net salary comes to around N50,000. The net salary then suffers from loan deductions of up to N15,000 leaving the salary at around N35,000. The landlord then demands for his N15,000 and monthly shopping takes away N10,000 leaving one with a N10,000. The bus will demand for N300 going to and from work and relatives get another N2,500. The whole salary is gone and borrowed money starts operating. The borrowed money includes short loans and salary advances. The difference between poverty and prosperity is property. A prosperous person has property to his name while a poverty stricken person has no property to show. Using this unde

Back in 1994, shop opening hours were relaxed and Sunday opening became the norm. Suddenly, there was no day that ‘forced’ us to chill out and do a jigsaw puzzle. 12 years ago, Facebook launched, which sapped any spare minutes we had left – God forbid you miss an update from a school friend from 25 years ago! Twitter launched in 2006 and Instagram in 2010, and with the now-ubiquitous smartphone, today we carry these technologies everywhere. Certainly they save us time in some ways, but there is no doubt that we’re inundated with pings and updates that occupy our brain capacity and eat up any spare time. Technology has revolutionised our work lives as much as our personal time. In the last few years, the number of new businesses in the UK has leapt to record levels, as more people take advantage of the opportunities technology presents. As competition becomes more intense, however, so does extra pressure for business owners.  gettyimages-151329130.jpg

Working the night shift has long been known to have a negative impact on your wellbeing and productivity. But what exactly is it doing to our bodies and how can we counteract the negative effects? wellbeing, banner1 Perhaps unsurprisingly, one of the biggest impacts of working overnight is disrupted sleep.  A study of police officers  found a link between working the night-time or evening shift and getting fewer than six hours of sleep a day. The research from the Workplace Health & Safety journal, also showed that there was twice as much chance of experiencing bad quality sleep when people slept for six hours or fewer. In a separate study, shift workers were also fond to have an  increased risk of diabetes  – which was especially prevalent in men who had irregular working hours. A study in the journal PLoS Medicine showed that rotating shift workers’ increased Type 2 diabetes risk was likely linked to working shifts impacting insulin activi

You may think that success will make you happy, but science disagrees: happiness makes people successful, not the other way around. Positive psychology research has demonstrated that happy people achieve more.  wellbeing, banner1 “When we are happy—when our mindset and mood are positive—we are smarter, more motivated, and thus more successful. Happiness is the center, and success revolves around it”, writes Shawn Achor in The Happiness Advantage.   Happiness can galvanise job performance , raising sales by 37 per cent, productivity by 31 per cent, and accuracy by 19 per cent. That’s all well and good, but what if you’re having a bad day or even consider yourself a ‘glass-half-empty’ person? Luckily, research has shown that you can train your brain to feel happiness . Here are a few simple tricks to help you feel happier right now. 1. Be grateful In a  study on the effects of gratitude , university professors Robert Emmons and Michael McC

What key skills are recruiters looking for in a candidate? Recruitment is all about selling. Whether you’re a recruiter, a candidate or an employer it’s all about marketing yourself as strongly as possible in order to seal the deal. Candidates need to sell themselves to recruiters, recruiters want candidates they can sell to employers and, to secure the best candidates, employers will also need to sell themselves as the right fit. As a candidate, treat your contact with a recruiter as a sales presentation and ensure the following skills are on show: 1. Making yourself the solution Always remember that both recruiters and employers want you to be the right candidate. They are recruiting to solve a problem. Make yourself the solution. If you are going for a specific role then do your homework and know what challenges the company is facing. You can then explain how you can help overcome those challenges. And the same applies if you’re looking to work in a particular ind