Identify industry Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Identify industry - Essay Example Despite of number of economic and social benefits of education, spending on education is experiencing increased pressure these days. As economies are finding ways to recover from global financial crisis, they are shrinking budgets, resulting in scarcer funds left for education sector. Economic complications are also resulting in tightening of enrolment levels in large numbers of institutions, as students proceed for less expensive educational programs or opt out for any educational program altogether. The aim of this paper is to identify top challenges that are facing the educational sector nowadays; however identifying challenges is merely a first step in fundamental transformation of educational sector. Issues in Education Sector The first issue in education sector pertains to over budgeting and underfunding. The impact was global financial crisis was detrimental on education sector. Private and public schools saw their endowments declining. It affected private donors as well who l ost their capability of investing significant sum of money within the industry. Another issue is related to intensification of rivalry. As competition intensifies, higher education looks for ways to differentiate themselves by attracting students and top faculty. Some schools are enhancing their curricula to attract students in fields of engineering or science. Others schools are gearing programs to target specific groups such as high-school dropouts or adult learners (Deloitte., 2001). Technological upgrade is another emerging challenge for education sector. Schools that have invested in latest technology are not utilizing its full capacity. Office systems, used to manage information of students, human resource and finances, are woefully outdated. Many schools have homegrown IT departments that make it complicated to centralize or upgrade the parallel system that causes inefficiency or redundancy (Deloitte., 2001). Education sector need to reconsider infrastructure. In order to red uce the cost of infrastructure, institutions are heading for partnerships with private sector to develop share facilities that can be utilized by citizens and students. A strategic approach is essential if schools intend to keep costs aligned in the upcoming years (Deloitte., 2001). Reporting and regulatory requirement oblige the education sector to invest strategically. Cost containment and funding constraints are not the only byproducts of financial crisis. Due to international economic meltdown, governments globally have been speeding up oversight in educational industry by flexing the muscles of regulatory authority. In numerous other cases, antagonism has caught educational sector. In order to differentiate themselves from crowded marketplace, educational institutions need to invest in information systems that are more sophisticated (Deloitte., 2001). Leadership Process: A Catalyst for Change in Educational Sector These critical issues call for assistance from the side of leade rs in educational sector. According to Heifetz, (1994), leadership is a process â€Å"to address conflicts in the values people hold, or to diminish the gap between the values people stand for and the reality they face† (p. 22). Noonan (2003) in ‘The Elements of Leadership’, states that, â€Å"Leadership is developing potential and building community† (p. 3). Conventional views referred school leadership as operational or

Wind Energy (Is wind energy really that cheap Is it effective Is it Research Paper

Wind Energy (Is wind energy really that cheap Is it effective Is it practical) - Research Paper Example Wind is also a form of solar energy, because winds are mainly produced because of the temperature irregularities in the atmosphere caused by the sun, the unevenness of the earth’s surface and its rotation. Then this energy is used to turn the turbines and produce electrical energy. Basically the wind turbines are used to convert this wind energy into mechanical energy, which is later on used to transform it into electrical energy via generators or alternators. If we go through a brief history of electricity generation from wind turbines, Denmark was the first one to do it, who was able to produce 5 to 25 kW by 1910. Then in around 1925, wind-electric plants ranging from around 200 W to 3 kW were commercially available in the American market, and then in that era, the largest wind turbine was made in 1941 by Palmer C. Putnam with a capacity of 1250 kW. It was a hybrid hydro-electric capacity, in which, wind was the main source of energy, but in the absence of wind, water could also be used to turn the turbines. ... y unlike conventional power plants, which usually use furnace oil, diesel and coal, emitting a lot of pollution, thus badly affecting the environment. In 1990, according to the US Energy Department, the production of electricity using wind energy reduces the production of about 2.4 billion pounds of carbon dioxide and around 14.9 billion pounds of other pollutants. The cost of wind energy is reduced up to much of the extent in last 10 years, but still, it requires higher initial investment as compared to fuel generators. But the main cost is the machinery cost, which is around the 80% of the total cost. Whereas the running cost is almost free as compared to other sources of generating energy. So if we examine the total overall initial and total cost of the wind systems with other fossil fuel systems, then the cost of wind systems is quite competitive with other systems because on one hand where it saves the running cost or reduces it to the minimal, it also saves the fossil fuels, wh ich are reducing in the earth’s crust day by day. Thus the energy produced from the wind also provides a soft edge against the increase in electric power prices as the prices of fossil fuels are increasing gradually. Another major issue, that we have to face while using wind as a power source is that wind is an intermittent source, for it is sometimes available at the required rate and sometimes it is not available. So it may or may not work, whenever electricity is needed, or at places where electricity is needed at every time. Though electrical energy produced by the wind mills can be stored in batteries, but wind itself cannot be stored anywhere to be available at the timing of electricity demands. And usually wind blows at faster rate in remote locations, which are usually far away