Known by some as the Amazon or iTunes of e-learning, Portland, Oregon–based OpenSesame offers more than 20,000 online courses on subjects such as how to develop employees’ skills, comply with regulations, and grow your business, all through its massive open online course (MOOC) platform.
Females in the business world still need just as much encouragement and mentorship as ever, as Bentley executive-in-residence Toni Wolfman pointed out — with some staggering statistics about encouragement, mentorship, and skills/ambition perception from our recent PreparedU study — in a recent Fast Company article.
An up-and-coming software company in the heart of the Silicon Prairie is not only easing the major pain point of Generation Y — finding a good job, when 40 percent of all unemployed workers are millennials — but it’s also completely built and run by millennials themselves, from the co-founders to the company’s “Job Squad” of campus intern-ambassadors.
Bentley University’s Millennial Preparedness research study raised a number of issues about millennials in the workplace. In the coming weeks, PreparedU, in a series entitled Generational Voices, will present opinions from millennials and non-millennials alike on a wide variety of these issues. These views may contrast or coincide, but each will provide perspective designed to enhance insights resulting from the PreparedU data.
This week, millennial actress and recent college graduate Emma Watson gave a powerful speech to the United Nations, launching the UN’s new solidarity campaign called He for She, which urges men to look at gender equality as more than a women’s issue — and for women to stop thinking that feminism is anti-men.
In the competitive nonprofit sector, charitable organizations constantly have to prove themselves and their relative merit, to the general public and to funders, just to survive. Some believe that this requirement to prove worth especially reflects what women in business do every day. And it may explain why many of America’s charitable organizations are (and historically have been) driven by female leadership.
Let’s not fool ourselves. Qualified women of today are unlikely to find themselves on the board of directors at top companies in Massachusetts. However sad and counterproductive, this is a statistical reality.
Yet there are reasons to hope for strong and lasting change. Every year, the business world is held accountable and pushed forward by the annual Census of Women Directors and Executive Officers of Massachusetts Public Companies.
It’s no secret that the rising cost of student debt is a growing national crisis: the latest numbers suggest that seven of 10 college seniors last year graduated in debt; the total student loan burden in America today currently tops $1.2 trillion, a number that has tripled in the last decade, and at an interest rate of up to 12 percent.
Research on millennials, conducted by Bentley University and others, consistently indicates that more mentoring, hands-on opportunities for learning, and a comprehensive grasp of technology are all initiatives that can benefit millennial career preparation while in college.
When all three come together, as they have recently at Bentley, it presents an unusual opportunity for students to gain insights into how to enhance their career success.
As Bentley’s PreparedU research revealed, a majority of managers report that most college grads aren’t ready for the workplace. That’s yet another reason why showing up for that interview or first day on the job with new ideas could help impress. This list of “how-to” books — including new reads and old standbys — goes beyond what you (and your boss) might expect.