November 2025

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 26 nov 2025

Education initiative founded by The High School of Glasgow (Scotland), START, is a project-based learning programme for final year high school students that harnesses the tools and mindsets of design, entrepreneurship, and storytelling to develop experiential learning about startups and equip students with entrepreneurial skills to build, pitch and create startup ideas. The programme is supported by industry mentors from Scotland's startup ecosystem through a partnership with Scottish EDGE, a startup funding competition. Phil Ford, founder of START, says, 'START is all about inspiring the next generation of business leaders and innovators. It encourages young people to draw on their own experiences and passions to identify real-world problems and to then solve them...A huge part of the confidence instilled in pupils is thanks to exposure to founders via the mentoring aspect of the programme. Architect Danny Campbell, judge on BBC Scotland's Home of the Year, founded HOKO Design in 2019 to make residential architecture simpler, more accessible and better designed for everyday homeowners. He was the mentor to students of John Paul Academy as part of the START programme. He says, 'We often talk about building future talent pipelines - this is how you do it. You open the door earlier. You build relationships that last. You give people a chance...We need a landscape where young people see multiple routes to success - whether that's higher education, apprenticeships, starting their own thing or joining a growing business to get real world experience...Spending time with these pupils gave me fresh perspective, fresh energy and a sense of purpose I didn't realise I was missing.' Read on...

Scottish Construction Now: Architect calls for more entrepreneurs to 'go back to school'
Author: NA

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 22 nov 2025

Online education took a transformatory shift during the COVID-19 pandemic. Education providers along with students faced many challenges including equipping students with quantitative skills essential for the labor market. Research study, 'Effectiveness of Online Education During the COVID-19 Pandemic - Evidence from Chinese Universities' (Authors: Shijie Lu of Notre Dame University; Xintong Han of Laval University in Quebec City; Shane Wang of Virginia Tech; Nan Cui of Wuhan University in China), published in Production and Operations Management 01 July 2025 (SSRN.com), analyzed more than 15329 course records from nearly 7867 undergraduate students across nine universities over four semesters (Fall 2018 to Spring 2020) and compared academic outcomes before and during the transition to online learning. Applying principal component analysis, authors identify four key policy measures that capture lockdown stringency: stay-at-home orders, workplace closures, public transportation suspension, and public information campaigns. Prof. Shijie Lu, says, 'Surprisingly, the undergraduates performed better in math after switching to online classes - improving their scores by about eight to 11 points on a 100-point scale...Contrary to the widespread belief that online education is less effective than face-to-face instruction, our findings show that students actually performed better online, at least in quantitative subjects during the pandemic. This challenges the traditional view that in-person learning is always superior and suggests that, under certain conditions, well-structured online environments can enhance learning outcomes... Our results show that online education when done thoughtfully can be more than just a backup plan during emergencies. It can be an effective tool for learning, especially in analytical subjects... These insights can help schools and governments better prepare for future disruptions — whether from pandemics, natural disasters or other emergencies — by understanding how to balance safety and learning effectiveness.' Read on...

Notre Dame News: Study of higher education during COVID-19 shutdowns shows certain subjects can be better taught online
Authors: Shannon Roddel, Shijie Lu

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 15 nov 2025

According to Wikipedia, 'Employer branding describes an employer's reputation as a place to work, and their employee value proposition, as opposed to the more general corporate brand reputation and value proposition to customers.' Brett Minchington, CEO of Employer Brand International and the author of many books such as 'The Business of Employer Branding' and 'Your Employer Brand: Attract, Engage, Retain', defines employer branding as, 'The image of your organization as a 'great place to work' in the mind of current employees and key stakeholders in the external market (active and passive candidates, clients, customers and other key stakeholders). The art and science of employer branding is therefore concerned with the attraction, engagement and retention initiatives targeted at enhancing your company's employer brand.' In a research paper, 'The Employer Brand' (Authors: Simon Barrow; Tim Ambler), published in the Journal of Brand Management in December 1996, define the employer brand as, 'The package of functional, economic and psychological benefits provided by employment, and identified with the employing company.' The research was the first attempt to apply the brand management techniques to human resource management. SOME EMPLOYER BRANDING STATISTICS - According to LinkedIn, good employer brand reduces attrition by 28%; Talent acquisition for a good employer brand becomes 1-2 times faster; 59% of employers see employer branding as a key to their hr department strategy; 55% of employers quantify employer branding as a key area of investment; 75% of job seekers consider the employer brand before even applying for a job; 90% candidates would apply for a company that has a well maintained employer brand; 67% employees don't mind working with a lower play for a company with a very well maintained employer brand; 88% millennials believe that being a part of the right company culture is one of the most important aspect of work-life. To get the most out of employer branding requires a well thought out strategy and execution with the goal to attract, engage and retain employees - Develop an excellent company culture and an engaged workforce that would include employeed reward, adequate recognition, employee benefits and perks, strong leadership etc; Invest in identifying and developing the company's mission statement, values and culture with focus on positive impact on surroundings and communities that it opertes in; Conduct internal and external surveys to gauge perception of the brand among jobe seekers and internal employees; A well designed and communicated career page, optimized for mobile users, is an important part of the online employer brnding strategy (94% of the job seekers first check out the job listing on their phone; 50% of job seekers complete their applications on mobile; 47% of top talents find it difficult to browse through the website on their mobile phone); Clear communication of EVP (Employer Value Proposition) that would include explanation about benefits and rewards to employees is a necessity; Include a well explained and clear job description for best match; Providing testimonials and credible experiential statements to boost trust among prospective employees; Provide a streamlined and easy to use application process (60% of job seekers quit in the middle of the application process due to the complexity of the form); Create valuable content for job applicants to enhance talent acquisition; Keep the human element alive in interactions with the prospective candidates. Read on...

Vantage Circle: Employer Branding: What, How and Everything in Between
Authors: Iftekar Ahmed