La génération Y - PAU Cantabria 2013

C’est quoi la génération Y ? Il s’agit d’un terme sociologique utilisé dans le monde de l’entreprise, pour désigner les personnes nées entre 1980 et 1999. Elle succède à la génération X : 1960 à 1979. La génération Y serait cette catégorie de jeunes salariés des entreprises qui n’hésite pas à bousculer l’ordre établi du monde du travail. Individualistes, peu attachés à l’entreprise, ils viennent au travail en jean-baskets, imposent de nouveaux horaires, surfent toute la journée sur les réseaux sociaux, le tout en… travaillant.

Contrairement à la génération X, la génération Y ne se laisse pas faire. Ces jeunes salariés baignent dans la crise économique et ne croient plus au système actuel. Pour ces férus d’Internet, il n’y a que le résultat qui compte. Très autonomes, ils ont appris avec Internet à apprendre, et communiquer pour mener à bien leurs missions.

Certains prétendent que la génération Y est un mythe, qu’elle n’existe que dans la tête des DRH. C’est peut-être qu’elle a déjà réussi à faire tomber de nombreuses barrières au point de décomplexer la génération X qui commence à adopter les mêmes codes et les mêmes valeurs.

Bien qu’issus de la génération X, les patrons d’entreprises françaises et américaines comme le regretté Steve

Jobs (Apple) ne sont-ils pas les plus fidèles représentants de la génération Y ? Ils ont troqué depuis longtemps le costard-cravate pour le jean-baskets, ont privilégié la créativité et l’autonomie de leurs employés. De plus en plus d’entreprises et de managers suivent leur exemple et parviennent à profiter du formidable potentiel des jeunes salariés DRH.

Spanish schoolboy fakes kidnap to avoid parents' evening - PAU 2014

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Police officer's 11-year-old son, who claimed he was being driven away in the boot of a car, was found hiding in family home. It was both dramatic and creative, but it was also one of the most over-the-top solutions ever invented for avoiding that well-known childhood nightmare, when parents are called in to talk to their teachers.

Early on Monday afternoon the unnamed 11-year-old son of a Spanish police officer stationed in the northwestern town of Xinzo de Limia sent a text message from his mobile phone to tell his father he had been

kidnapped. When his father phoned back, the boy confirmed the worst. He had been snatched off the street as he was putting out the rubbish, he said, and was locked in the boot of a car. He had no idea where his kidnappers were taking him, but knew that the car was a blue Seat.

It was only two hours later that the boy's father noticed the keys to a spare flat owned by the family were missing. The child was soon discovered there and reportedly explained that he had been terrified by the prospect of his parents going to school to speak to his teachers.

"The civil guard attributed the false alarm to a childish prank that had something to do with the boy's situation at school," the local Faro de Vigo newspaper reported. "The child's poor school grades in recent weeks appear to explain a form of behaviour that no one in Xinzo could understand," said the Voz de Galicia newspaper.

Adapted from The Guardian January 2012.

Spain's economic problems change traditional holiday habits. PAU 2013

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There is a sign behind the counter of Trinxant Butcher's and Delicatessen beside a row of whole legs of cured Iberian ham which reads: "This year we're not closing for holidays." It is a trend that has been noticed in towns and cities around Spain. Stores, bars, market stalls and newspaper kiosks that used to close for August have decided to stay open. Cities continue to bustle with busy workers and traffic jams that traditionally disappeared in August.

Seville's city government announced last week it would be "open and fully active" all month. The annual August exodus is said to be vanishing like that other great Spanish cultural tradition, the siesta, as companies cut lunch breaks down from two or three hours to one.

The changing attitude to summer holidays is partly due to the crisis in the Spanish economy. The country has the highest level of unemployment in the EU at 21% and even higher at 46% among those under 24 years of age. In Catalunia, the region of north east Spain that includes Barcelona, 18% of the 7.5 million population are living below the poverty line, earning less than 640 euros a month. Many small businesses are struggling in these circumstances and few can afford the luxury of a month without earnings.

Adapted from The Guardian August 2011

Spanish school is good for your kids - PAU Cantabria 2013

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Studies have shown there are significant long term benefits to moving a child abroad and the younger the children are, the easier it will be for them to adapt to school in Spain.

Researchers from University College London conducted a study in 2004 which revealed that children who had moved abroad and learned a second language were more intelligent. A further study showed that children who had lived abroad had higher levels of resilience, a better understanding of the world and were more compassionate to people of different ethnicities. In simple terms, living abroad can increase both the intelligence and social capacity of a child.

Psychologists have found that the best age to move a child is either before the age of two or between the ages of six and eight. Between three and six, children seem to suffer a great deal of homesickness and after the age of eight they tend to struggle far more with the language barrier.

The number of foreigners in Spain is continually rising. Kids are surprisingly resilient and adapt quickly to their new lives. Those who have made the move often say that the quality of life for their children is far better in Spain than at home, due to more leisure time, an outdoors lifestyle and less crime.

Adapted from an Article by Jennifer Sheen from Spanish Living.com June 2011.

South Korea switches to digital textbooks in the classroom. PAU 2013

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Image by Lee Jin-man/AP

South Korea is planning to change from paper to digital textbooks in the next few years. The content of South Korea’s school subjects will be available on PC’s, iPads and mobile phones by 2015. The education department has announced that South Korea is preparing for a new digital revolution that will change schools of the future.

The project was started last summer. Classrooms throughout the Asian country will be equipped with wireless LANs so that students can access learning materials whenever and wherever they want. Pupils will no longer have to carry heavy schoolbags.

Compared to South Korea, western nations lag behind. American president Barack Obama has announced that the United States is installing a national learning centre to improve teaching standards and develop new teaching methods.

Educational experts are currently discussing whether digital technology in the classroom makes a great difference. Some argue that bad pupils will stay bad even if they have a computer in front of them. They agree, however, that going digital could motivate children and help schools save money. The biggest problem is how to get teachers to integrate new technologies into their lessons.

Other experts focus on a social problem. Introducing digital learning materials to the classroom could create two groups of children; those who have access to these new technologies and are able to use them and those who do not. The first group will have advantages in getting a good job, the others will stay behind.

Critics also fear that digitizing all learning materials will result in lack of trust. People have more confidence in textbooks simply because content is written in print, whereas material published on the Internet is subject to scepticism.

Adapted from an Article by Liz Dwyer from Good Education July 2011.

The Playmobil theme park that's a different kind of adventure. PAU 2013

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Yes, the rumours are true. Playmobil which makes ambulances, dragons, princesses and pirates for millions of children, is going to bring its theme park to Britain. The German toy company has announced that it is “a matter of when, not if”. For many parents going to theme parks, with their queues, expensive burgers and alarming rides, is awful. However this is not an ordinary theme park.

In fact, it is not a theme park at all as it does not have any traditional theme park rides. Hans Beck, the original designer of Playmobil believed that children’s greatest gift was their imagination. The moment a little plastic figure, with arms and legs, was in their hands, they would make up stories. Playmobil is what all toys were before video games, television or the cinema; a way for children to enter a world entirely of their own making.

Playmobil theme parks are the Playmobil universe but in human size. There is a pirates’ ship on a lake, whose rigging can be climbed, a knights’ castle, from whose walls children can shout and scale, located next door to the cowboy area, with Playmobil horses and wagons which can be ridden.

Herr Beck’s legacy was his strong belief that his toys must not encourage violence or horror. Horst Brandstatter, who owns the company has always refused to make Playmobil tanks or warplanes although he knows it would be a lucrative option.

Horst Brandstatter says, “I hope that there is enough fantasy in the Playmobil world that children can make up and play out their own story. That’s what we want. I hope we can perpetuate that.” .

Adapted from The Daily Telegraph 2011.