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So what is Skills Development?

Kerrin Badham - 2025-04-17 11:50:48

Apart from the obvious, literal answer, in the South African landscape, Skills Development is a loaded term and means a lot.  Let me break it down for you. Historically, South Africa entered our new democracy in 1994 with some major skills deficits, and these affected previously disadvantaged population groups such as black, coloured and Indian people, who together make up a substantial segment of the population.  There was an urgent need to assist and upskill people to enter the job... Read more

How Do Interruptions Affect Our Situational Awareness?

Andrew Badham - 2024-11-26 15:53:32

We know interruptions can have an impact on our focus, but how does it impact our situational awareness? Situational awareness is important when you have multiple potential tasks and you need to quickly decide which one needs your urgent attention. Air traffic controllers need this more than most people, which is why this study published in November 2024, wanted to know how interruptions affected their situational awareness. As you can imagine, interruptions severely affected their situationa... Read more

To Abbr. or not to Abbreviate: Should We Use Them and How do They Affect Our Business Writing?

Andrew Badham - 2024-11-19 13:55:00

To abbr. or not to abbreviate. The communication of our digital world is heavily based around texting, and we need to understand how the way we communicate with each other impacts our relationships. This study, published in October 2024, wanted to find out how using abbreviations might impact how sincere a sender looks and how likely a receiver is to respond. Through a combination of surveys, field and lab studies and even archival conversations from Tinder, they found that abbreviations make... Read more

Should You Finish That Project Early, Late, or On Time?

Andrew Badham - 2024-11-12 14:32:34

Should you be Mr Early, Mr On-Time, or Mr Late? Should you rush to get a project in ahead of time, stick closely to the deadline, or miss it if it means making your project that little bit better? These are the questions a paper published in November 2024 wanted to answer. Specifically, they wanted to know how the person receiving your work changes their perception of your work depending on when you hand it in. To do this, they used 8 lab and field experiments and 10 supplemental studies to m... Read more

Does having a growth mindset actually help you learn more?

Andrew Badham - 2024-11-06 08:13:33

Does having a growth mindset actually help you learn more? That was the exact question a paper published in May 2024 sought to answer. If you’re unfamiliar with the growth mindset, it’s an idea popularised by psychologist Carol Dweck which describes whether people believe they can improve, become smarter, and overcome challenges through effort. This study looked at over 200,000 students in grades 4 through 7 and monitored their progress over a year. The students had all completed... Read more