Jackie Hartley’s BLOG

Received notification today that the Learning and Skills Development Agency (LSDA) is now being called the Learning and Skills Network (LSN) and consequently all the training materials we have been asked to used have now been rebranded and reissued. There is no doubt but that this group does a good job (they used to be […]

Decided to rearrange the furniture in the main sitting room the other day (following a visit by plumbers to change the radiators) and the new layout looks much better. When Mike came in from the garden I said ‘Look at this room, doesn’t it look better laid out this way?’ He studied it for a […]

As part of my Personal Branding training I had to find out how other people around me, saw me. So off I went to the University (where I work one day a week as a Careers Adviser and lecturer) and asked my colleagues 'What do YOU think is my greatest strength?' and 'What sort of […]

I started work on my Personal Branding workbook last night, as part of the Reach Branding programme, and quickly found myself struggling to work out what my brand is. I thought this would be easy but it isn't. Anyway, I had to break it down into a number of component parts starting with 'What are […]

… you might want to try you hand with this ArtPad painting site. Make you picture, then frame and hang it in a gallery. The 'throwing paint pot' tool is particularly good.

Ever dreamt of being a musician or composer but never learnt to play an instrument - well you might want to try your hand with this Indian Shankar Drum Ganesh Machine. It is good fun but confirms for me that I need to stick with careers work!

Now that we are back in the office it is surprising how hard it is to stick to our resolutions and focus on the things that we wanted to change following the conference. It has reminded me how hard it is for people to make big changes in their lives when they are battling with […]

… and what a thought provoking experience that was. How nice to be surrounded by people who make it their business to help others transform their lives. No if, no buts just careers advice and practical support provided with lashings of enthusiasm and confident self belief. Now as we travel across California, driving through awesome […]

The final speaker of the conference, Lynn Joseph, talked about Mental Imaging Technology (MIT) and began by asking us to write a vision statement for our futures. We were told to:

stretch ourselves and our dream
describe it in as much detail as we liked
make it compelling and motivational (bringing in the feelings and quality of life […]

The next speaker, Lynn Guillory (VP Human Resources at Foxworth Galbraith Lumber Company) spoke about the coming labour shortages due to demographic changes. The USA has a population of 300 million people but of those, 78 million were the baby boomers (people born between 1946 and 1964). The next generation, known as Generation X, has […]