Curated by the Knowledge Team of ICS Career GPS
Career
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Booming demand: Is baking the new engineering?
Excerpts from article by Niklesh Sharma, published in The Hindu
With the COVID-19 lockdown gaining steam, many people started learning new hobbies and skills. One that witnessed a huge spike among the young generation was baking. Even before the pandemic, many had let go their cushy jobs to follow their heart and whip up breads, cakes, desserts and more. A humongous change in consumer habits and lifestyles has shaped the baking industry in India.
Here are a few reasons why baking as a career is perhaps the new engineering:
1. Robust growth in the industry
Baking is one of the largest segments in the food processing sector and is witnessing a robust growth recently. There has been a proliferation of bakery chains and a myriad companies that offer baked products alongside a line of biscuits. With huge growth potential, capacity for innovation, and job opportunities, a career in the industry is rapidly becoming more feasible and rewarding in India.
2. Flexible schedule
While the majority of the bakeries and restaurants are open all day, a baker who supplies them can schedule work shifts according to their convenience. One has the freedom to finish a week’s work in three days and take off the other days.
3. Instant feedback
The customer’s reaction determines a baker’s success, and feedback is immediate. Learn from the faults and work on improving. Keep track of the best-sellers and see which ones the customers are ignoring. This will tell you what you need to work on.
4. Be your own boss
Working as a baker involves gaining hands-on experience in managing supplies, maintaining hygiene standards and dealing with people. All this helps develop solid skill-sets to run a business. You can bake and be your own boss.
Therapeutic medium
Baking can be both addictive and meditative, as it requires time, concentration and patience to get your products to be the way you want them. The process helps manage and reduce stress and anxiety and is therefore therapeutic as well.
Despite the challenges, the industry forecast is positive and is likely to exceed. The demand for healthier products from the health and fitness industry offers a chance to produce guilt-free products. Apart from the health aspect, there’s also the fact that baking involves fun and creativity in equal measure.
Education
Handling challenging behaviour in children
Excerpts from article published by the India Today Web Desk
In the changing times where children have been home for close to a year, they have missed the opportunity to socialise, especially with their peers. Children are reported to be having many challenging behaviours like stubbornness, temper-tantrums, aggressive behaviours, misbehaving purposefully, having lower tolerance and early levels of frustration.
It has become vital to talk about these behaviours and what parents need to change to support their children during their small struggles and build resilience via easy positive parenting tips.
Some parenting tips that can prove helpful
- If you wish to grant your child’s wish it is necessary to remember that delivering that wish shouldn’t be immediate, rather when it’s appropriate.
- Instability of parental decisions can set the wrong behavioural conditioning. Do not act when the child reacts.
- The consensus amongst parents, grandparents, all the adults, and caregivers of the child is essential. One parent approving while the other disapproving can create a conflict in the child’s mind. Avoid inconsistent parenting to prevent confusion in the child’s mind.
- Avoid 3D games before 12 years of age as they trigger quick reflexes. Encourage 2D games and logical puzzles. Monitor the screen content and allow only age-appropriate viewing.
- Sharing with your child is the key to bond, as it opens up the child to expressing his/her emotions. Sharing doesn’t mean asking or telling the child what to do and what not to. Simply talking to your child can help your child open up with more information on what’s happening in their lives and can lead to effective control by the parents.
- Pay more attention to their positive and appropriate behaviours than punishing them for inappropriate ones.
- Acquire the art of praising, be specific when you praise, always praise the efforts, not the results. Appreciation must be genuine and sincere. Acknowledge the positive behaviour of the child & don’t forget to praise in public and correct in private.
- Redirect inappropriate behaviour by telling the child what to do. Focus on wording positive directions like telling them what you want them to do rather than what not to.
Listen to the small things that your child wishes to express. Good parenting is not what we do for our children, rather what we have taught them to do by themselves to be successful humans.
(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in the article mentioned above are those of the author(s). They do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of ICS Career GPS or its staff.)
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