Career Opportunity in Accounting and Finance and Its Overview

I have a financial careers feature coming up next week. It would focus on accounting, banking and insurance - what range of jobs is available, how you get such jobs, what courses you need to do, what professional courses you should be doing to keep up to date, any conversion courses from other careers to financial careers etc.

The banking sector in Ireland is currently undergoing a process of commercial realignment and is bracing itself for job redundancies. There are certainly opportunities within the accounting, banking and insurance sectors, what are these opportunities and how anyone can position themselves to avail of future opportunities and be best prepared to handle the forthcoming turmoil.

As a pre-requisite, most positions within accounting, banking and insurance require an undergraduate qualification, and if you are considering this avenue, investigate the exemptions that the course offers towards professional qualifications. So, not only will you obtain a Degree but also exemptions against professional qualifications from the Certified Public Accountants, Chartered Accounts, Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants and even the Irish Taxation Institute. If you are unsure of a specific area within these career sectors, choose a generic and wider course title for example 'Accounting and Finance' and tailor your career direction when you have a greater sense of yourself versus the daily job functions of certain roles. The present growth areas within Accountancy and Finance are around auditing, compliance and risk - try and incorporate these types of modules within your degree of study or professional qualification. Within banking and investment the qualification of desire is the CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst), which should assure career progression and advantage.

If you are an unemployed engineering or construction professional, considering a career transition towards a career in Accounting or Finance you would be well equipped for a career within this sector with your exposure to high levels for mathematics and commercial experience. The soft skills and cultural awareness of a career within this sector would have to be explored before a decision is reached. There are plenty of course options, for example DIT offer a one year Conversion Post Grad Diploma course in Accounting. Ciara Murphy, from the CPA, states that 'In recent years, a huge number of people have switched careers to improve their job opportunities, especially those in the construction and services industry'. Accountancy remains a growing profession, with 40pc of today's graduate jobs based in accounting and finance. At CPA Ireland we provide flexible and varied learning options for those who want to make the change, with no previous qualification or experience needed.'

The Insurance market in Ireland contributes 9% to the national GDP and the main areas within this space are insurance/risk management and regulation. The professional body is the Chartered Insurance Institute (CII) and they offer professional qualifications in compliance, financial services and insurance up to FETAC Level 7. The Insurance sector is likely to contract in the short term however there are opportunities and labour shortages as Actuaries, Risk Modellers and quantitative analysts along with compliance skills.

If you are unsure as to what direction to take considering the investment in time and finance involved, speak to a qualified and impartial career guidance practitioner.

What Internet Marketing and Golf Have in Common - The Importance of Assessing Your Website

If you play golf, you probably know that there are more instructional gadgets, trinkets, books and equipment fads in the game than probably any other sport. Every year, a plethora of new things hit the market that we feel compelled to buy to solve our game's ills, and every year we line up to buy them having never really focused on the one thing that will improve our game most: our golf swing.

Like golf, the Internet is never at a loss for new technologies, trends, or fads on which we feel compelled to keep up. From search optimization to e-commerce and email marketing to social media channels, video syndication and analytics, we can go mad trying to understand and stay current with the latest "must dos." But none of that stuff means doodly-squat if the foundation of our Internet marketing, our base website, is fundamentally unhealthy.

Since so much rides on it, the most important thing we can do to make sure all the other things we do to market our businesses on the Web work, is to conduct--or contract for--an unbiased and sober assessment of our base website. Such an assessment should focus first on the site itself:

  • Is it properly constructed for our business purpose, our audience and to fare well on the search engines?
  • Is it aesthetically pleasing and in concert with our other branding and sales materials?
  • Is the site modern, logically arranged and intuitive or does it look dated, feel confusing and feature functional inefficiencies?
  • Where is the site hosted?
  • Who owns and administers the associated domains?
  • Do we know all the associated costs and what we're really being charged for?
  • Is it equipped with the up-to-date tracking code and, if so, do we really know what the tracking data is telling us?

Only after taking a hard look inward, and committing to the fundamental repairs this process may reveal, should our evaluation turn to the other components of our Internet marketing effort.

In the end, Internet marketing is a lot like golf. We get so bombarded with the latest and greatest equipment, instruction and gadgets that we forget to address the fundamental flaws in our base golf swing. Bushels of dollars later, we still slice nine out of ten shots into the weeds. When it comes to Internet marketing, look inward first. Absent a fundamentally sound website, all the Internet marketing trends, gadgets and fads will only accentuate its flaws and put us smack dab in the Internet marketing weeds.

HVAC School Training Is in Demand and Can Provide a Rewarding Career

What can people living in Chicago do without any heating, those in Florida work with out air-conditioning, or possibly grocery stores across the country manage to do without any refrigeration? Not much of a good deal.

Heating and Air Conditioning/HVAC Training Program Business Outlook

So, as you expected, employment prospects for HVAC mechanics as well as, workers are expected to be superb, in particular for the people with technical schooling or possibly formal apprenticeship coaching.

Simply because heating and air conditioning generally occur through the very same programs, the field is often reduced into the abbreviation HVAC. Furthermore, as our market increasingly calls for heating and cooling, Heating and cooling schooling worthy of evaluating.

Heating and air-conditioning units consist of lots of mechanical, electrical, and electrical elements, for instance, electric motors, converters, pumps, oscillating fans, ductwork, water pipes, thermostats, as well as fuses. Within central heating operating systems, for instance, a single furnace heats up air that is sent out throughout the building by way of a system from metal or abs plastic ducts.

Heating and air conditioning technicians must be able to maintain, detect, and correct complications while in the complete system.

As a consequence of growing sophistication associated with HVAC equipment, employers prefer to retain the services of those with Heating and cooling schooling. Numerous technicians and also technicians, nevertheless, often uncover the job informally at work.

Heating and Air Conditioning And HVAC Training

Various trade universities offer 6-month to Two year Heating and cooling schooling classes. Trainees study concepts, pattern, along with machine engineering, and devices. In addition they learn the core involving installations, service, as well as the repair. Good HVAC instruction courses may offer curriculum on shop math, mechanical illustrating, implemented science as well as chemistry, circuitry, plan examining, and computer systems.

Technicians may work for big or small contracting firms as well as exclusively for a vendor or dealer. Many employed by small-scale operations often perform both installation and servicing, and work with heating systems, a / c, in addition to refrigeration hardware. Service contracts-which involve heating, as well as a/c regarding individual home owners on the frequent basis-are getting more common. Services deals help to reduce any temporary fluctuations with this work.

Prior to selecting a great HVAC school, it is vital that your particular college you decide on is accredited. Exclusively certified HVAC universities offer the degree of education that is actually congruent along with the standards set forth written by the numerous Heating and cooling accreditation institutions. Credential via a good recognised training course will be one particular need intended for individuals HVAC School graduates who favor that will carry on with HVAC certification in the future on. At present, there are solely three accrediting establishments for HVAC Training: HVAC Excellence, The National Center for Construction Education and Research, and the Partnership for Air-Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigeration.

Anaerobic Adhesives Reduce Costs and Increase Reliability For Industries

Anaerobic Threadlocking Adhesives

Threaded fasteners set and hold tolerances on assemblies ranging from light duty equipment to heavy machinery. In many cases fasteners that self-loosen during equipment operation may contribute to wear and fatigue, and result in poor operating tolerances, misalignment, and sometimes catastrophic equipment failures that cost millions of dollars in unscheduled downtime each year. Various types of differential stresses such as vibration and shock, thermal expansion and contraction, and micro-movement reduce clamping force on the assembly and ultimately cause machine failure. Case after case, anaerobic threadlocking adhesive technology has proven to be more reliable and cost efficient to prevent the loosening of threaded fasteners and leakage in a variety of applications versus mechanical fasteners such as spring washers, wire retainers and nylock nuts.

Liquid threadlockers have become one of the most reliable and inexpensive ways to ensure that a threaded assembly will remain locked and leak proof for its entire service life. Applied drop-wise to fastener threads, liquid anaerobic adhesives fill the grooves of the threads and cure to a hard thermo-set plastic when exposed to active metal ions in the absence of air. Anaerobic adhesives lock the threaded parts together, ensuring that mating parts will ultimately act as one conjoined part that resists failure and delivers the greatest possible reliability.

Mechanical devices such as spring washers, wire retainers and nylock nuts are costly and are ineffective in preventing loosening of threaded fasteners caused by side sliding motion. They also do not seal or prevent corrosion within the fastener assembly and must be sized appropriately for the specific fastener, resulting in large and costly parts inventories.

Most assemblies held together by threaded fasteners will at some time be dismantled for repairs, maintenance or adjustment. For this purpose, industrial anaerobic adhesives are available in differing grades: low strength threadlockers for easy removal, medium strength threadlockers that can be removed using common hand tools and high strength or "permanent" threadlockers suitable for very demanding assemblies with minimal service requirements. Even the high strength threadlockers can be removed with standard hand tools following direct exposure to 232 - 260°C (450-500°F) high temperatures for about five minutes.

Using Anaerobic Adhesives Reduce Cost and Increase Reliability for Industries

Several case studies from various industries manufacturing and maintenance applications show that anaerobic threadlocking adhesives increase the reliability of threaded fasteners and reduce the cost associated with downtime and unscheduled callbacks.

In one case study with hydropulpers - machines designed to agitate a mixture of paper pulp and water to prevent dewatering until this mix can be used in the papermaking process extreme vibration incurred by the machine resulted in problems with keeping the mounting bolts for the gearbox tight. Even with proper torquing procedures, the bolts needed to be retightened every two weeks - requiring additional labor costs and downtime. Unplanned loosening caused misalignment problems and equipment failure resulting in severe productivity loss and maintenance costs. Once anaerobic thread locking adhesives were introduced to all the mounting studs and nuts during a recent downtime, loose bolts were no longer causing problems and held the hydropulper gearbox tight until the next scheduled annual preventive maintenance.

In another case, a pump manufacturer had problems with gland studs and adjustment nuts that either broke during assembly or loosened during adjustment. Gland studs were made to Class 5 interference fit tolerance of 0.0254 - 0.213mm (0.001" to 0.0084") To achieve this, special oversized studs with 0.0762mm (0.003") tolerance pitch diameter were used with a Class 2 tapped hole. Stud drivers were used with a capability of driving M12 (½") studs up to 111.6 kg/m (75 lbs/ft) and M20 (¾") studs up to 282.7 kg/m (190 lbs/ft). Any deviation from tolerance resulted either in broken studs during assembly or loosened studs during gland adjustment with the retaining nut. If studs loosened, the whole pump needed to be disassembled for repair. The heavy interference fits caused high flange stresses which warped the end plates and gland box causing power loss, excess wear, and shortened pump life. The manufacture utilized threadlocking adhesives to solve this problem.

When threadlockers were applied during assembly to Standard Class 2 studs up to and including M12 (½"), over M12 and stud nuts, cost savings were immediately achieved because the manufacture of studs now requires only standard tolerance and standard gauges, while assembly is easily done by hand. The locking ability of the threadlockers exceeds the interference fit strength by about 20% and adjustments of the gland nuts are easy and precise because the studs are never loose. Finally, all housings are now stress and warp free.

A traffic infrastructure tunneling solutions manufacturer, uses threadlocking adhesives to lock all the screws, hydraulic motors, hoses and fittings in their tunnel boring machines, which have to withstand enormous pressure while eating its way through rocks underground. In this case, threaded fittings have to resist up to 350 bar oil pressure. "An insane piece of engineering" is how the Discovery Channel describes the machine that drilled a 5.4 and a 3.9-kilometer tunnel in Kuala Lumpur in 2006. The 82-meter tunnel boring machine is as tall as a high rise building with 20 floors lying on its side. Imagine this machine moving through the ground, encountering a variety of soil types and loading conditions, hard rock or loose rock, working under tremendous pressures, high stresses, torques, rotating and twisting forces. Threadlocking adhesives are able to resist the extremely high oil pressure and provide reliable locking, sealing and long-term vibration resistance.

Liquid threadlockers were also applied at a hydraulic lift manufacturer for forestry, mining and construction use. M16 structural bolts on the base turn table of the lift, which holds the boom & bucket loosened when subjected to severe vibrations, impacts & shear loads. Previously nyloc nuts were used to prevent vibrational loosening of these bolts but they failed to retain clamp load over long periods. Bolts also had to be retorqued frequently. After threadlockers were used, the bolts retained clamp load under severe conditions without any loosening while protecting threads from rust and corrosion. Re-torquing of bolts was no longer needed and safety and equipment reliability were improved.

New Innovations in Anaerobic Threadlocking Technology

New technological advances in anaerobic threadlocking adhesives have also provided many advantages previously unavailable including surface insensitive, high temperature, and chemically resistant materials, as well as formulations engineered to withstand extreme vibrations. Semi-solid threadlocking formulations in a stick format that complement their liquid counterparts have also been developed to work well in overhead or hard to reach applications where liquids might be too messy or potential migration might be a concern.

Since its invention in 1953, liquid anaerobic threadlocking adhesives and thread sealants have become the most reliable and cost efficient methods for sealing and securing threaded fasteners and pipefittings in a variety of assemblies in many different industries. Many case studies have demonstrated that these innovative anaerobic adhesives and sealants are better able to withstand various types of differential stresses such as vibration and shock, wide range of temperatures and micro-movements that reduce clamping forces than traditional mechanical threadlockers to reduce downtime, unscheduled maintenance and costs.

A Quick History of Ballooning and Modern Hot Air Driven Gadgets

In fact, the history of aviation and flight always fascinated humanity since the tale of Icarus and Daedalus. Today, flying is no more something extraordinary and available for everyone who pays the required money. Whether it is helicopters, jumbo-jets, private jets, private jet hire or fighter jets humanity dreamt of flying and indeed realized it nowadays. However, we often forget that the first steps were not easy - especially in the domain of ballooning. The history of ballooning, both with hot air and gas, now spans many centuries. Indeed, this fascinating technical achievement and its visionaries were already in play before Christ. However, until the challenge was completed, the history of ballooning know many firsts, including the first misfortunes, the first human flights, first flights to North America and over the English Channel, and, of course, the first major aircraft disasters.

Pre-Modern and Unmanned Balloon-Flights in Ancient China

Already 220 - 280 AD hot air balloons were a popular topic in ancient China. Several Chinese kings and famous warlords used airborne lanterns for military signaling for instance. Such lanterns were later known as the Kongming lanterns.

Ballooning in Europe came much later into play. In fact, the first balloon was let gone in 1709 in Lisbon, Portugal. A man called Bartolomeu de Gusmao managed to lift a small balloon made of paper full of hot air about four meters. The Portuguese king as well as the Portuguese court were witnesses and great respect followed Bartolomeu over the next years. This even is, according to old documents, the first and earliest recorded model balloon flight known until that time.

The next Attempts: First hydrogen Balloons

In 1766 the world-famous Henry Cavendish published his pioneering essay on hydrogen. Based on this, the Professor Jacques Charles who has studies Cavendish's work for years, conceived the idea that hydrogen would be a suitable lifting agent for balloons and consequently Charles used this notion for designing and constructing the first hydrogen balloon. The Robert brothers, who worked closely with Charles, invented the methodology which was the construction of the lightweight-principle everybody knows today: airtight gas bags. How did they do it? In fact the principle was quite facile. They dissolved rubber in a solution of turpentine and varnished the sheets of silk that were stitched together to make the main envelope. Indeed, this led to another characteristic even children associate with ballooning nowadays: the red and white coloration as the Brothers used alternate strips of red and white silk which left a red and yellow result due to the varnishing and rubberizing processes.

On August 27 in 1783 Charles and the Robert brothers launched the world's first balloon filled with hydrogen (in fact they launched from the Champ the Mars, an area on which later the Eiffel Tower was constructed). The famous Benjamin Franklin was witness to this beside a huge crowd that enjoyed the spectacle.

How did the balloon work? In comparison to modern balloons this one was relatively small. It was 35 cubric metre sphere of rubberized silk and only capable of lifting about 9kg. However, it was filled with hydrogen which was gained by pouring almost a quarter of a tone of sulphuric acid onto half a tone of scrap iron. The hydrogen gas was fed into the envelope through lead pipes. One of the "child-problems" however was, that it had not yet a cooling system. Therefore, the gas got quite hot when it was produced but contracted drastically when it cooled down.

The balloon was able to fly 45 minutes long in which it passed distance worth of 4 kilometers.

The First unmanned Flight in the History of Ballooning

A sheep, a duck and a rooster were the first living "persons" that enjoyed the pleasure of being in a balloon high up in the air. The world-famous Montgolfier Brothers launched their balloon Aerostat Réveillon on 19th of September 1783, including those animals. King Louis the 16th and his wife Queen Marie Antoinette were witnesses to this spectacle. The Montgolfier brothers were clever and applied the principles of scientific methodology: The sheep was believed to have a reasonable approximation of human physiology. The duck was expected to be unharmed by being lifted aloft. It was included as a control for effects created by the aircraft rather than the altitude. And the rooster was included as a further control as it was a bird that did not fly at high altitudes.

In summary this balloon flew for eight minutes, three kilometers long and reached an altitude of 460 meters. It landed safely and the animals were not hurt.

First Attempts to Fly with Humans

France is also the birthplace of the first manned flight in a balloon. Again the Brothers Montgolfier were pioneers in that respect that they were the first to carry passengers using hot air to generate buoyancy. How did they know what buoyancy is and how to use it? The answer for the Brothers was quite simple: they had observed ash rising in paper fires (the Montgolfier family traditionally was a family of paper manufacturers). After having demonstrated that the technique works and that they were able to transport animals in a balloon over a distance of several kilometers and at an altitude of several hundred meters they now aimed at doing the same with humans. And in fact they managed to do so. The first free flight with human passengers was on 21 November 1783. Monsieur Rozer along with Marquis Francois d'Arlandes were the first passengers, entering the hot air balloons (King Louis the 16th originally wanted to use condemned criminals for the project but was eventually convinced not to do that). The first hot air balloons were essentially cloth bags with a smoky fire built on a grill attached to the bottom. Therefore it is not surprising that they were susceptible to catching fire, often upon landing. However, this did not occur very often. Such pioneering work of the Montgolfier Brothers that had managed to invent a hot air balloon that could carry both animals and human beings successfully eventually found its major recognition by this type of balloon being named Montgolfère after them.

First Manned Flight in a Hydrogen Balloon

Just shortly after this spectacle Jacques Charles and the Robert Brothers managed to launch a new manned hydrogen balloon in Paris. The crowd yelled of excitement. Jacques Charles was pilot of the hydrogen-filled balloon. The envelope in this case was fitted with a hydrogen release valve and was covered with a net from which the basket was suspended - quite similar to those balloons we have nowadays. They also had sand ballast to control the altitude - another milestone in the history of ballooning. In total the balloon managed to reach the altitude of 550 meters and flew for more than 2 hours long, covering 36 kilometers. In another try the same balloon ascended to about 3000 meters - a new world record.

New Inventions New Challenges

Such new extraordinary inventions also led to new challenges. It was again in France when Jean-Pierre Blanchard saw it as his next great challenge to fly across the English Channel - he managed to do on January 7, 1785.

However, that was also the time when the first major aircraft disaster occurred. In May 1785 a balloon crashed down in Tullamore, Ireland and seriously damaged the village. More than a 100 houses caught fire and burned down, making the town home to the world's first aviation disaster.

In the following years Blanchard searched for new challenges and found it in his try to fly a balloon in the United States. On January 10, 1793 Blanchard entered his hydrogen balloon in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He reached about 1,770 meters and landed in Gloucester County, New Jersey. President George Washington was among the guests observing the spectacle.

Between the 1790s and 1960s gas balloons became the most common types of balloons used. The first balloon driven by a steam engine (it was very slow but effective) was flown by Henri Giffard in 1852. Paul Haenlein flew the first internal combustion motor-powered balloon in 1872. And Alberto Santos Duman was the first to fly in an untethered airship powered by an internal combustion engine in 1898.

Ballooning in the 20th century

During the Second World War balloons were especially used as shields in London against the attacks of the German Luftwaffe. They had the task to obstruct any incoming fighter plane. Although their effectiveness was debatable, they were a cheap protection.

Hydrogen balloons were used particularly in upper atmosphere research projects during the first half of the 20th century. Thus they more and more were used to execute research projects in the air. However, they more and more lost their prestige as new planes and jets, companies were invented and became products of mass production and private jet hire companies became reachable for people. Some people were still into ballooning and sought further pioneering challenges such as the first balloon to cross the Atlantic Ocean or the first to circumnavigate the world. Both were successfully done around the 1950s.

Ballooning in Modern Times

Modern hot air balloons with an onboard heat source were pioneered by Ed Yost in the second half of the 20th century. The first successful flight was on October 22 1960. However, high-altitude balloons working with hot air are nowadays primarily used for recreation. They more and more lose their attraction and are today more the work of adventurers or researchers.