Monday, January 28, 2013

Do The Most Expensive Fees Necessarily Mean The Best Education Provider?

As a parent, it is natural that you want only the best for your child and this is essentially why you go to all those lengths helping your child to achieve their maximum potential. On top on that, you have our modern society showing you on a daily basis that second best is just not going to cut it - the result, pressure.

Well, let's get down to earth for a second here. Do you honestly believe that paying three thirds of your monthly income is all it takes for your child earn the success you always dreamed about? Sure, that might be the very best school in whole state or the finest program for a certain career - however, sometimes opting for the second-best choice might bring forward several advantages for both you and your child, as you are about to find out.

1. The finest school 

Granted, your friends are all sending their kids to a certain school renowned for the quality of its programs, prestige and high test scores. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean that it is also the best choice for your child or that your search is over. What if, for example the minor advantages that a certain school provides are not worth time and money? The best approach in this case is to scoop around, learn more about your options and verify whether the offers of your first and second choice are close when comparing the entire package of what each school can offer your child. Perhaps your second choice might offer a more vocationally based program than your first, or excel in sports and place a higher emphasis on fitness and physical activity within education, better suiting your child’s personality.

2. The best college

Without a doubt, going to Stanford, Harvard or Yale will certainly have a positive impact on anyone's career. But, considering the competition and limited spots, have you ever taken the time to consider what would happen if you pressure your child into getting in the aforementioned universities and he/she would fail? Be sure to keep in mind that not making it onto the spots of these prestigious universities is not the end of the world and there are thousands of successful people across the US that stand proof of that! The bottom line is that if you truly want your child to succeed in life, you should pay more attention to their needs and requirements; simply because they’re not doing so well in math doesn't automatically make them a failure. Sometimes, all they need is a little support and perhaps a new way of dealing with studying and managing their time properly, both of which can easily be learned via an efficient enrichment program.

3. Top-notch extracurricular activities

By now, you’ve probably understood that higher prices do not necessarily come with significantly improved quality and the extracurricular activities your child completes when part of the education system are no exception to this rule. As a matter of fact, it is necessary to mention that in most parts of the US, the expensive off-school programs often come with more restrictions, such as attending a pre-established number of training sessions and mandatory presence in various academic competitions. Given the school schedule and homework, does that extracurricular activity really leave any room for the important quality time your child should spend at home developing their social skills and other key aspects of their personality? The key consists of knowing how to balance all of the above when making your decision.

Working with the global enrichment program provider Kumon (www.kumon.ie), Charlie sees the value that exploring these other options can add to a child’s education.

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

What Is Extended Validation and How Does It Help My Business?

When you are looking into securing your servers, SSL international recognition is hugely important. Symantec offers up to the highest level of encryption for SSL certificates to help your customers trust your business. But what is an Extended Validation - or EV Certificate and how can it help your business increase profits?

Extended Validation provides the same standard of security as a normal SSL certificate offers, but they are much harder to attain. Historically, certificate authorities (i.e. the companies who issue SSL certificates) would freely issue SSL certificates to anyone, meaning that fraudsters and unscrupulous companies would easily attain SSL certificates and pose as secure services, such as setting up a phishing site for banking. This worked because website users were familiar with simple visual indications that a website was secure, such as the padlock symbol and the “https://” in the address bar. This meant that users who weren’t aware of how phishing attacks worked were more convinced of the con.

In order to combat this nefarious activity, Symantec’s Extended Validation SSL certificates offer a guaranteed level of identity verification. They verify that the business requesting the SSL certificate is who they say they are (for example they are a legitimate business entered in Companies House in the UK). They may verify an individual by way of passport or drivers license. Proof that the requester of the SSL certificate owns the domain they are requesting for is also required, as well as some other checks.

In return for these extended checks, web browsers show a visual indication to show the end users - your customers - a green address bar and show that the identity of your company has been verified. This improves the confidence your customers have in your business, meaning more converted sales, which in turn means a better return on investment on the Extended Validation certificates.