2016 – Page 6 – CADDTechzette

Five ways to ensure that your corporate training initiatives are effective

1st February 20161st February 2016 CADD CENTRE

To fill up the competency gap towards building a productive workforce to meet global business challenges, companies now devote a lot of efforts, time and money to corporate training. But with less meaningful assessment and little follow-ups, 90% of the new skills were lost within 1 year, some researchers say.

According to experts, what happens before and after training program is as important as the actual instruction itself. Furthermore, effectiveness of the corporate training can be ensured by following:

Analyze your needs: The corporate first should analyze what their training needs are, simply by carrying out training needs analysis. This involves figuring out clearly who needs to be trained and what kind of training is required. A training program without a pre-analysis may not prove to be that effective as it was meant to be.

Focus on Design: The training design needs to be focused for the training – things you do before, during and after the training sessions. The design includes- which technology(s) will be used for training, how the organization will allow the employees to practice the skills and how engaging the learning will be. However the training should be job and result oriented i.e. the employee should not think after the training “So why did I go to the training. I won’t be able to use that in the next three years.”

Select proper guide: Choosing a proper guide for the training program plays a vital role in corporate training programs. The training party or professional should adhere to the following considerations before the company decides to offer training through them:

• Should be approved and authenticated by other organizations to ensure quality of training.
• Should understand day-to-day reality of the organization.
• Should be able to customize their content for the specific firm.

Follow Up: Experts from The Society of Training and Development says that by the time employees go back to their jobs, they’ve lost 90% of what they’ve learned in training. If they don’t use the skills very quickly, they will face big decay very quickly, hence the skills needs to be reinforced and practiced in order to retain the training they received.

Talk to employees: The perspectives and opinions of the employees can be extremely beneficial in shaping the training program making it more effective and company specific. A survey should be conducted at the end or at the later phases if the training to receive feedbacks on what worked and what didn’t.

CADD provides quality training services in a variety of dimensions. Having the biggest network of CAD Training Centres across Asia Pacific and Africa is a training arm of CADD Centre Group, we provide turnkey in-company skill building services and standardized quality development of the employees.

Need for Technical and Vocational Skill Development in Africa

1st February 20161st February 2016 CADD CENTRE

The term Technical and Vocational skills Development follow the 1997 UNESCO International Standard Classification of Education definition, which is education and training to “acquire the practical skills, know-how and understanding necessary for employment in a particular occupation, trade or group of occupations or trades.” Africa has roughly 200 million people aged between 15 and 24 that are required to be trained to develop skills so that they are either employable or can start their own enterprises. In order to train and modernize their technical labour pool for rapid industrialization and national development, African countries need to embrace Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET). The skills shortage is a priority that the Africa’s leadership in various sectors will need to address urgently, otherwise the country would be forced to ease restrictions for foreign workers to be able to meet the human resource requirements. Education and skills can open doors for economically and socially rewarding jobs and can seek growth for small-scale unofficial enterprise. The development of job-related skills therefore, should be a part of Africa’s human resource strategies and its poverty-reduction strategies.

Characteristics of Technical and Vocational skills Development systems:

TVET delivery systems are placed to train the skilled and efficient entrepreneurs that Africa needs to create wealth and thus emerge out of poverty. It can respond, not only to the requirements of different types of industries, but also caters to the needs of the learners from different sections of the society, and prepare them for a meaningful and supportable life while giving them employment.

The Impact of Technical and Vocational Training in Africa at present:

With the turn of the century, a fresh awareness of the analytical role played by TVET in economic growth and national development has been perceived by policy makers in many African countries and within the international contributing community. In its poverty reduction strategy document, Cameroon for example intends to develop vocational and professional training to promote union into the labour market; Cote d’Ivoire talks about strengthening vocational training; Ghana has associated vocational education and training with education of the youth and the development of technical and business management skills; Lesotho and Rwanda focus on linking TVET to businesses while Malawi emphasizes that it is required to promote self-employment through skills development. Other countries that have prioritized TVET initiatives in their national development policy documents including Chad, Ethiopia, Guinea, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Uganda and Zambia. Below is a graph showing the decrease in unemployment rate from January, 2014 to January,2015 from the data collected by Federal Reserve Bank.

The Education minister of Rwanda in Africa, Musafiri stated that expanding the training for technical and vocational skills development will bring innovative solutions to various challenges in the country which is its top priority requirement. The growing youth population of Africa comes with high energy, creativity and talents and the time has come to be able to utilize it by the development of their technical and vocational skills.

How Employability skills are essential for African Youth

1st February 20161st February 2016 CADD CENTRE

Need for Employability Skills for African Youth:

“Employability Skills can be defined as the transferable skills needed by an individual to make them ’employable’.” The future economic growth of any nation is determined by the potential skills of its youth, and not by its capital or material resources. In Africa, the number of highly qualified, skilled yet unemployed youth is increasing to one of the greatest populations in the world. “The current trend indicates that this figure will double by 2045”, according to the 2012 African Economic Outlook report prepared by experts from the African Development Bank (AfDB), the UN Development Programme (UNDP), the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and the industrialized countries’ Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), among others. The Youth accounts for 60% of all Africans that are unemployed, according to the World Bank. In North Africa, the youth unemployment rate is 30% which is even worse in Botswana, the Republic of the Congo, Senegal, South Africa and several other countries. South Africa has one of the highest unemployment rates in the world (29.8 percent) approximating to roughly 4.5 million unemployed people, of whom the majorities are young people (Census 2011). According to the African Economic Outlook, “on average, more than 70% of Africa’s youth live on less than US$2 per day, the internationally defined poverty threshold.” Despite the complex and unclear relationship between education and employment, post-basic education in employment skills development programs have been identified as potential solutions for the African youth that is facing employability challenges. If youth skills are accessed with the purpose of empowerment, the youth would be able discover new domains while getting employment. CADD Centre is the prime solution provider for the industries in Africa giving them a strong base to be able to compete in the global marketplace. This results in the development of the economy of Africa as well as employability skills in individuals.

Impact of Employability Skills in African Youth:

They are extremely important as jobs today require individuals to undertake multiple tasks at once and these skills develop broader range of job-specific competencies in individuals. Education and skills can open doors for economically and socially rewarding jobs and can seek growth for small-scale unofficial enterprise. With the establishment of various government entities and SETAs, the opportunities of youth employability have been improved through their skills development process .Youth employment challenges will be handled and economic growth will be promoted through the construction of these skills. Thus, it is imperative to teach youth employability skills in order for them to sustain and progress in an information economy and thus eradicate unemployment and poverty.

Since drafting is not a preferred job by other elite countries, it gives them ample scope to get into professional career. In the words of Zambia’s Prime Minister, “Youth unemployment is a ticking time bomb,” which now appears to be perilously close to exploding thus Africa’s education curricula should include skills and enterprise development.

Top Ten Technology “Game-changers”

6th January 20166th January 2016 CADDZOOM

Perhaps technology is the fueling agent responsible for a transformed living in the modern world. Although the technical quantum leaps are never without risks, they provide innovative solutions to the most pressing global challenges of our time. From computer chips modelled in human brain to zero-emission card fueled by Hydrogen, this year’s 10 emerging technologies offer a vivid glimpse of the power of innovation to transform industries, to improve believes and to safeguard our planet.

FUEL CELL VEHICLES

Fuel Cell Vehicles are zero emission vehicles that run on hydrogen. Having many advantages over electronic and hydrocarbon powered vehicles, the “Fuel Cells” have been proved to be more environment friendly. However the technology has only begun to grow, many automobile companies are planning to launch them. The initial cost of such may be high but is expected to come down significantly as volumes increases within the next couple of years.

NEXT-GENERATION ROBOTICS

Introduction of robots in everyday life has encouraged human- machine collaboration in daily lives. Advanced and cheaper sensors make robots capable to understand and respond during interactions. Robot bodies are becoming more adaptive, flexible with time. They have replaced many human counterparts in industries, mainly automotive where repetitive or dangerous tasks are involved. Using GPS like smartphones, robots have also begun to be used in precision agriculture for weed control and harvesting.

RECYCLABLE THERMOSET PLASTICS

Thermoset Plastics unlike the thermoplastics cannot be recycled and reshaped many times. Heating or reshaping of thermoset plastic for recycling process makes it lose its molecular orientation. This durability is on one hand includes it into our daily life and on the other ending them up as land filling material. Thus critical advances are made in this area introducing new classes of recyclable thermoset plastics, called as poly(hexahydrotriazine)s, or PHT’s which can be dissolved in strong acid and ultimately reassembled into new products.

PRECISE GENERIC-ENGINEERING TECHNIQUES

Techniques are now emerging to directly change the genetic code of plants to make them more nutritious and better adaptable to environment. Genetic engineering has led reliable and harmless methods to make changes in the genetic orientation of agricultural crops make them less prone to diseases and preventing them to fight against viruses. Another aspect of genetic engineering that holds for a major advance is the use of RNA interference (RNAi) in crops. RNAi is effective against fungal pathogens and viruses, and can also protect plants against insect pests, reducing the need for chemical pesticides.

ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING

Additive manufacturing is all about building materials from loose materials such as liquid or powder building three dimensional shapes using a digital template. An important stage in additive manufacturing in near future would be building integrated electronic component such as circuit boards. 4D Printing is also expected to emerge in building materials that can change themselves in response to environmental changes such as humidity and heat.

EMERGENT ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Artificial Intelligence can be simply defined as the science of making computer do the things that humans can do. Artificial intelligence is expected to change our world with self-driving cars, intelligent war fare robots, mechanical arms for complex surgeries and even super machines to explore the universe. Artificial Intelligence enables the machines to learn things and respond to environment in response, in contrast to normal hardware and softwares.

DISTRIBUTED MANUFACTURING

Unlike the traditional methods of bringing the raw materials to a centralized place and then carrying out manufacturing, distributed manufacturing instead encourage materials and good to be manufactured locally with local resources using specialized software and technologies. Instead of raw materials travelling through roads and other transport lines, it focuses on digital data travel through web.

‘SENSE AND AVOID’ DRONES’

Advancement in the rapidly growing technology is the use of drones. Drones are none other than flying vehicles without a pilot. The pilot remains on the ground and monitors the drones. They can be great help in surveillance for large agricultural lands, to monitor electric lines, to supply food and medical help in disaster struck areas, etc.

NEUROMORPHIC TECHNOLOGY

Neuromorphic chips are computer chips that intend to mimic the logic and structure of functioning of a human brain. Engineers and researchers are now trying to build computer chips that can capture, store and process information without further transferring it to another processing unit. This process can be more efficient as a lot of time is consumed and heat generated in the transfer of data in traditional computer chips.

DIGITAL GENOME

Today, genome can be easily sequenced and digitized in minutes at a cost of only few hundred dollars. The results can also be delivered to your laptop or shared via internet. This ability to quickly and cheaply determine our genetic makeup can bring revolutions in more effective medical treatments. This individual genome can help people save from deadly diseases such as Cancer by providing the accurate genetic information about the tumors.

Stay tuned for living the “transformation”. A decade back, who knew that I would be able to pay using my mobile phone? Every invention changes the way people live and some of those transform the lives. Ten technologies discussed above are anticipated to revolutionize human life not only in the medical or health domain, but in agriculture, space sciences, robotics as well as warfare.

Image courtesy: www.cdn.bmwblog.com || www.wedemain.fr || www.blogs.exeter.ac.uk || www.popsci.com|| www.designboom.com|| www.monkeytoldme.com|| www.asymmetrex.com|| www.unmannedsystemstechnology.com|| www.bp.blogspot.com|| www.tu-braunschweig.de|| www.images.clipartpanda.com||

Perform Finite Element Analysis With NX CAD/ NASTRAN Software

6th January 20166th January 2016 CADDZOOM

Delay in finding problems or errors in a product may be the most challenging and time consuming task during product development lifecycle. NX Nastran help companies to point out problems even before the prototype of the product is developed saving physical testing and further modification into the product.

Nastran was basically a project developed by NASA. It is an industry standard for many firms for over 40 years and present. It is used in analysis of stress, vibration, structure failure, heat transfer, acoustics, and aero elasticity analysis. Widely used in aerospace, automotive, electronic, heavy machinery, medical device and other industries, Nastran ensures safe, optimized and reliable design with comparatively shorter design cycles.

The Nastran Software provides all advance solutions to all structural analysis problems for all linear and nonlinear analysis, dynamic response, rotor dynamics, aeroelasticity and optimization. The important feature set can be discussed as:

Linear Analysis: This features solves the static problems faced by the engineers. Durability of a structure under a prescribed load or change in load over a time are some of its concerns.

Non-Linear Analysis: Non-Linear Analysis is carried by this software as simple as plastic catch and as complex as post-buckling analysis.

Rotor Dynamics: Rotating systems such as shafts and turbines are analyzed in rotor dynamics understanding rotation-induced gyroscopic and centrifugal forces and also help determine dynamic stability.

Dynamic Analysis: Dynamic Analysis concerns about effect of vibration on performance of consumer products and other hi tech consumer devices.

Aero-elastic Analysis: Structural models can be analyzed in the presence of an air stream. Analysis of structures such as helicopters, missiles, suspension bridges, tall chimneys, power lines and so on.

This tool enables the engineers to know how to perform structural analysis for linear and non-linear analysis, dynamic response, rotator dynamics, optimization and aero elasticity. The highly specialized tool also deals with issues concerning noise, vibration and harness problem analysis in specifically automotive products.

Composites Analysis which is used in aerospace industry dealing with the responses of the product with respect to forces, pressure, accelerations, temperatures, contact between components, fiber delamination can also be studied and analyzed under the NX Nastran Software from CADD CENTRE.

Along with aerospace design issues, Nastran also deals with

complex coupled-physics problems occurring in electronics industry.

NX Nastran is a premium, Computer Aided Engineering tool that a major number of manufacturers worldwide rely on for their critical engineering product development.