Guest Blogs
Knowitall.ch often invites local experts in their field to contribute to their own blogs on our site. This means not only you will benefit from the useful recommendations that we make on our News pages, but you can also profit from some of the great advice and tips that these experts have to make on their favorite subjects. Whilst each of these bloggers has been recommended to us at some point during the evolution of Know-it-all passport and knowitall.ch, obviously we are not able to test out all the suggestions they make on their blogs, nor do we necessarily agree with all their opinions. So if you do find one of their tips useful (or not!), do let us know!
To make these blogs more accessible to you, we have now decided to group them altogether in one section, entitled Guest Blogs, accessible from our main menu bar. We will also post the most recent blogs on the home page of our site in the right hand column.
We are still building up this area of the site, and are looking for bloggers in a number of sections, including Your Home, Travel, and Leisure, so if you feel you have a useful contribution to make in either of these areas, and have the time to submit blog entries approximately every month, then please get in touch!
Image courtesy of hywards at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
By Debbie Croft, Croft Coaching / Geneva Coach Alliance
So, firstly, what is networking why even bother with networking? According to the Oxford English Dictionary, networking is:
“A group of people who exchange information and contacts for professional or social purposes: a support network”.
Why do it - networking is key to success during a job search process here in Switzerland! It is said that over 80% of the jobs secured tend to be a result of networking, as opposed to directly responding to a job opening. So, to maximise your job search, it is very important to build a strong and varied network.
Networking is also a very effective way of overcoming the challenges when transferring into new roles/career, or if you have had a career break; where you may have the skills and capability but not the ‘x number of years of specific experience’ in that field. On a CV/application, that can be harder to communicate. When one is ‘face to face’, connections are made and it is the personality, attitude and skills that become more important.
By Nicola Ogilvie, Just Sew
For my first blog I am going to answer the question I am asked most frequently: “Where do you buy your fabric?”
My first answer is usually “England”, as the prices are considerably higher here in Switzerland! Having said that, the immediate urge to make something today has led me to scour the area for fabric shops. I live near Nyon so have not explored the other side of the lake fully. For this post I have limited it to traditional fabric shops - there are a host of quilting shops with beautiful and interesting cottons that I will cover another time.
In my opinion the shop with the biggest selection and most reasonable prices is TISSUS MONDIAL, near Annemasse in France (see addresses for all shops listed at the end of this blog). This has a large range of fabrics and haberdashery. It also sells some curtain fabric, mostly Swiss style, but what is wonderful about their curtain fabric is that it is extra wide. This means, if you are making curtains, the need to join the fabric will be minimised, not only saving money, as you will not have to worry so much about pattern repeats, but also time.
By Hiba Giacoletto, Healthwise
This is a healthier version of gnocchi than the traditional white potatoes, white flour and eggs that are make up this Italian alternative to pasta. Instead of normal potatoes, I used sweet potatoes - a completely different vegetable despite the name which is significantly higher in vitamin C and vitamin A. Vitamin A is key for eye health and the immune system and just 1 medium-sized sweet potato covers more than 200% of your daily needs in vitamin A and 50% of your daily needs of vitamin C. (source). I have also used a gluten-free, whole grain flour which is a much better option than nutrient-void white flour.
Start by cooking 2 medium sweet potatoes.
By Sabine Hutcheson, Education Consultant at TutorsPlus
Earlier this year the Economist Intelligence Unit compiled a report for Pearson which showed the UK coming into the top 10 education systems in the world. This is a much better score than last year’s PISA report which can be partly explained by the fact that Pearson looked at the rate of students continuing into higher education; a mere detail perhaps but a significant one. This poses the question of an education system’s raison d’être. If we explore this issue, the English curriculum, on offer in many private schools in the Switzerland, certainly ticks all the boxes.
The English curriculum does not grade students in the same way they are graded in Swiss or French schools. It is based on a set of competences that each individual child acquires throughout their education. These translate into levels. At the end of primary school some children may have ideally reached a level 5, while others are at level 3. The levels pertain to a child’s acquired skills in literacy and numeracy. Because students are rated against their own progress and achievements, as opposed to a benchmark or their peers, they move on unhindered until the age of 14. At this point, they will be guided to a choice of qualifications suitable for their academic level and/or vocational aspirations, most of which can lead to university.
We have all heard of the importance of learning CPR (Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation) - we see it in the movies, we read of amazing success stories in the news, a lot of us have even been on a course years ago. But somehow it can be just a bit too scary to think about - anxiety, fear of facing such an emotional subject or just that life gets too busy with other things.
Sometimes reading the objective scientific evidence and gaining an overall view of exactly what happens when a person's life is saved, can dissolve the anxiety and result in determination to understand more. Read on....
