Unit 1 (M1)

Unit 1 (M1)                                                                                                                 Scott Manton

M1 - explain mechanisms that can reduce the impact of communication barriers

Background Noise

There are many ways to overcome background noise in the workplace. If the noise is coming from a radio, for example, one of the ways is to prevent the noise from becoming an issues is to politely ask the person to turn their music down or turn it off all together. Another background noise issue which may occur in the workplace is talking too loud. If you are trying to have a conversation with a customer on the phone but there are people talking loudly it will cause you or the customer not hear what is being said and the customer will just hang up. To avoid this from happening, you could ask them to talk quieter or to ensure it will not be an issues ask them to go into another room and talk in there. 

Cultural Differences

One of the ways to overcome a potential catastrophe when it comes to cultural differences is to do some light research into your colleagues ethnic background. What people may find normal in some cultures are considered offensive in others. Greeting one another are different it different cultures too. If you go to do a handshake but the other person bows, it could cause an awkward situation which could escalate into something further. That is why doing research is important and doing research it could also lead to conversations which help to get to know your colleagues better. 

Diverse Audience

Having a diverse audience is a difficult barrier to overcome. If you're giving a speech and your audience is a mix of adults and children it will hard to make appealing for both sides. One of the ways to overcome this barrier is to keep the speech short and sweet. Having a speech that gives enough information for it to be useful and is also short enough to keep the children from becoming restless is good way of overcoming this barrier. It is one of the tougher barriers to get past but if done correctly it is a great feature to have. 

Different Meanings

You have to be wary when it comes to what you are saying because many words have two or more meanings. For example; Football. Football is the most popular sport in the world but Americans call our football "Soccer" so when you are talking you need make it clear what you are talking about. One way to ensure this is to elaborate on what you are saying, which helps to make it clear and shows you are both on the same page. Also, simply asking a question which they can answer shows they fully understand what you are talking about. 

Language

When trying to communicate with somebody who speaks little English or a different language entirely it will be extremely difficult to talk to them. A way to overcome this barrier is when sending e-mails, use Google translate to change the language from English to their first language. Not only that, but using images in e-mails is another way to communicate. When try to talk to them using hand gestures will help them to get a clearer understanding of what you're trying to say. And of course, trying to learn each others languages is great way to overcome this barrier but it could take a very long time to learn a new language. 

Unit 1 (P4)

Unit 1 (P4, M2)                                                                                                              Scott Manton

A year 7 user guide for...

Contents Page

1. Accessing Email
2. Send An Email
3. Open An Email
4. Add A Contact
5. Attach A File To An Email
6. Carbon Copy (CC)
7. Make A Message 'Urgent'

1. Accessing Email

• From the Desktop, double click on the Internet icon.
• Type in "www.Google.com."
• Once on Google; search for "Office 365."
• Click on the link that says "Sign in to Office 365."
• Enter your e-mail address and password.

2. Send An Email

• On the Outlook e-mail page, in the top left corner, click on "New Mail."
• On the right hand side where it says "To:" type in the e-mail address of the person you want to send it to. For example: Paul.Bolton@tameside.ac.uk.
• Underneath, on the blank white page, is where you type your e-mail.
• Also on the upper right hand side is where you will find the "send" button. Simply click the button and the e-mail will be sent.

3. Open An Email

• On the left hand side, of the e-mail page, click on the word "inbox" to open up your received e-mails.
• In the middle of the page is where your received e-mails are found.
• Click on which e-mail you want to read and it will automatically open on the right side of the page.

4. Add A Contact

• Click on the "People" button found in the top right hand corner of the e-mail page and a new page will open.
• Click on the "+New" button in the top left hand corner of the page.
• A box will appear with 3 different options, click on the top one labelled "create contact."
• At the top; enter the first and second name of the person you are adding, middle name is optional, e.g: Paul Bolton.
• In the middle of the page, in the first box called "E-mail", type in the e-mail address of the person you are adding, e.g: Paul.Bolton@tameside.ac.uk. 
• The second box, called "Display as" will automatically fill, you can change this or keep it as it first appears.
• Once all that is done, click "save" at the top of the page and the contact will be added. 

5. Attach A File To An Email

• Found on the right hand side of the page, click on "Insert" and a drop-box will appear.
• Click on the top option called "Attachment."
• This will bring up a box that contains all of your files, click on the one you want to attach and press the "open" button.
• This will attach the file to the e-mail. The file you have attached will appear underneath the word "subject."

6. Cc (Carbon Copy)

• Click on the line that says "To:" and type in the e-mail address of a person you want to send an e-mail to.
• Click on the line that says "Cc:" and type in a different e-mail address, of someone on your contacts list, to create a Carbon Copy. This will send a copy of the e-mail to that person as well.

7. Make A Message ‘Urgent’

• In the upper right hand corner of the e-mail page, click on the 3 dots found next to "Insert" and a drop-box will appear.
• Hover your mouse over the option "Set Importance" and then click "High."
• This will bring up a red exclamation on the "Subject" line, showing that the e-mail is urgent.  

Troubleshoot

If you have any problems when trying to use Office 365, inside or outside of college, ask your teacher for assistance or contact the IT help desk at: 0161 908 6680 or visit http://vle.tameside.ac.uk/itservices/helpsheets.php

Unit 1 (P3)

Unit 1 (P3)                                                                                                                         Scott Manton     
Discuss potential barriers to effective communication


There are several barriers that can occur when it comes to effective communication.

One of these barriers is: Background Noise.

Background Noise

When you are trying to communicate with someone, or even a group of people, having noise in the background will make it difficult for people to hear what you are saying. If you are trying to give instructions and there is too much background noise these instructions can be misheard or missed entirely. In the work place you need ensure key instructions are given clearly to prevent any problems that can appear due to miscommunication.

Another example of a barrier is: Cultural Differences

Cultural Differences

In some cultures people communicate differently, you will need to adapt to this to help them understand easier. For example: In some cultures they read text from right to left, not only text but websites are right to left instead of our way of left to right. This barrier can cause major problems because they will not be able to read or understand what you are saying.

Having a Diverse Audience is another barrier which may occur

Diverse Audience

When giving a speech if you have diverse audience it will become difficult to keep all of their attention. If your audience is a mix of children and adults, the children may become bored of listening to you talk for a long time. If you decide to make it more appealing to children the information may not be in great depth and the adults may decide to not pay attention. Also if the subject of the speech is not what everybody in the audience enjoys, the few may become restless and start to cause disruptions in your speech making it difficult for you to deliver it.

Barriers can happen because some words have Different Meanings

Different Meanings

When talking to somebody you have to be clear with what you are saying because the same word can have two or even more meanings, for example: BlackBerry. Blackberry is not only a fruit but recently become one of the most popular mobile phone companies. If you ask somebody who is not familiar with the different types of BlackBerry's if you wanted them to buy a BlackBerry phone they could end up buying the fruit by mistake.

Another example of a barrier is: Language

Language

Not everybody can speak and understand English. If you are talking to someone who cannot fully understand what you are saying it will be difficult to give instructions. They can mishear what you have said and do something completely different to what you have asked. If you are the one listening to someone who cannot speak English, you can become restless trying to understand them and just ignore what they have said.

Unit 1 (P2)

Unit 1 (P2)                                                                                                                         Scott Manton

P2-Explain the principles of effective communication.

General Skills:

Accuracy

When delivering a presentation you have to make sure the facts and figures you are saying are accurate. If the presentation is about how good a companies' sales are giving the wrong information will have drastic effect on the companies' future. For example; if you state the company made 1500 sales, of their product, last month with a total profit of £50,000 everybody will believe the company is doing well. But if the numbers you gave are inaccurate and in actual fact you only sold 750 generating less profit, £25,000, the company will go over budget because they believed they had £50,000 to spend. 

Question and Answer

When asking a question you need to ensure the question not only makes sense but is also relevant to the topic in hand. Asking the right question at the end of a discussion, or even during, will help you to understand the information easier because the answer will be more in depth. When somebody asks you the question and you have to answer you need to give a clear, definitive answer. Giving an example with your answer will help them to understand easier, try linking your answer to something they are familiar with this makes it easier to explain.

Techniques For Engaging Audience

There are many different techniques that can be used when engaging an audience, or an individual from an audience. For example: raising your voice. Raising your voice will tell the listener that what you are saying is important and it will stick in their brain as important information they need to remember or make notes on. Another example is body language. You will use body language to point out a specific a member of an audience, this will draw all of their attention on to you and they will register what you are saying easier. 

Interpersonal skills:

Barriers

Many different barriers can occur when giving a presentation or in a general discussion. For example: if you are talking to someone but they have their back to you they will not be fully engaged in what you are saying and they could miss key information. If in the work place key information or instructions are missed it will effect the outcome of the task and the work would not be fully completed. This can simply be prevented by saying the persons' name or tapping them on the back to get their full attention.

Techniques and Cues

Using different techniques when giving a presentation will depending on, not only the topic, but the audience you have delivering it to. If you are doing a presentation for kids at a primary school using pictures and videos is better way to go instead of using a bunch of text. Kids will lose interest quickly if the presentation is boring and full of text. As well as using pictures and videos, making it fun will help to engage the kids better. Making the presentation interactive, getting them all involved, will help them to remember the information given.

Methods

Using different methods when communicating with an audience or an individual will prevent it from becoming boring and losing the interest of the listener. This links in with using different techniques, such as using videos and pictures instead of text. You could also do a presentation in a different style. For example: have the audience asks you questions for you to answer making it more interactive and engaging the entire audience. This will make it easier for your audience to understand what you are talking about your answers will be question specific.

Written communication skills:

Spelling and Grammar

When writing out documents you need to ensure your spelling and grammar is correct. If the spelling is incorrect it will confuse the reader and they will not fully understand what you are trying to say. The same principle applies when it comes to grammar. Your grammar needs to be correct to make it clearer as well as making it easier to read. An example of a simple grammar mistake that could effect the reader is "Your" and "You're." "Your" meaning something belongs to you is different to "You're" which is "You are" meaning you need to do something. 

Proofreading

You need to proofread your document to make sure there are no spelling and grammar mistakes and also to ensure what you have said makes sense. If what you have said does not make sense the reader will find it difficult to understand and they may stop reading it all together. Proofreading ties in with spelling and grammar, you need to make sure you check everything is correct.

Note Taking

Note taking is important when it comes to presentations, because you may need to remember what information was given a number of months down the line. Not only is it important; it is also very useful because when it comes to doing a task yourself you have your notes there to read instead of trying to remember everything that was said. When note taking, make sure your notes are structured and clearly written so you can understand them easier when you come back to revise or use them.

Unit 1 (P1)

Task 1 – What Employers want?

P1 explain the personal attributes valued by employers.

When you're looking to be employed by a company, the company will look for specific attributes in different areas. Such as; 

Technical knowledge (hardware, software and security)

When you're looking for work in IT you are expected to have understanding of the hardware, software and security procedures used. The company is looking to employ someone who is going to make them money, your knowledge of the software used is crucial. For example, if you're a web developer you will need to know about coding and what tools you will need to use when designing the website. 

Planning and organisational skills.

Planning and organising are crucial skills that required in the work place. Planning and organising your work will make the tasks much easier to complete. It will also help to reduce stress as you won't have to worry about missing deadlines or forgetting equipment you may need on a specific day. Planning and organising your work will also help your colleagues if you're working in teams for a task as it will help them to understand what needs to be done.  


Team work

In any kind of work place, being able to working in teams is a must. Without communication with your colleagues work will not be completed to acceptable standard, if at all. Having the ability to work in teams will also make your work easier; being able to bounce ideas off one another will ensure the tasks are completed quickly and correctly. Not being able to work in a team can mean you being isolated from the rest of the employees making work much harder to complete and leaving you to fall behind and miss deadlines. 


Dependable

Having the ability to have your colleagues depend on you is another key feature in the work place. This gives them confidence in you for work being completed without having to worry about it not being up to an acceptable standard or even missing the deadline completely. Being dependable can also mean your colleagues can come to you for advice with problems they're having, whether it be work related or personal, this will help you to earn the respect from your colleagues and become friends with them, another key attribute in the work place.


Confidence

Being confident, when it comes to work, is essential. If you have present a presentation to your boss and other employees, being confident will help to project your voice and get your point across without anyone missing what you have said. Being confident links in with team work, when working in teams being able to give your ideas and asking questions will help the group as oppose to just sitting in the corner keeping to yourself. In that respect, being confident will help when it comes to your own work and working independently. Confidence in your own ability will ensure you get work done and you won't have to worry about it not being up to the correct standard. 


Working procedures

In the work place, getting to know the work procedures such as; Health and Safety, Data Protection and, perhaps most importantly, Company Policies. Being aware of the health and safety procedures is one of the first things you should be aware of, knowing where the fire exits/extinguishers and medical kits are an essential. Also knowing the correct uniform to wear, for example: steel-toe cap boots, hi vis jacket, hard-hats and goggles. Knowing the companies' policies is vital; violating a company policy could result in you being suspended from work or worse losing your job all together.


Time management

Time management is similar to planning and organising, in the same respect it keeps you up to date with tasks and making sure you are meeting deadlines. Another key feature of managing your time it ensures you're not late for work. Being late for work, especially on your first day, doesn't make a good impression and if it becomes a recurring problem you could be fired. Being late for work could also mean you fall behind on work or miss meetings about the day's tasks in which you would have to make up for in your own time. 



Leadership skills

If you're working in a team, being able to take charge of the group could help further your career. Showing you have the ability to control a team will make your boss take notice and maybe think of giving you a promotion. Having leadership skills links with confidence, you must have confidence to take over a group activity. If you're leader of a group and the work is completed to a good standard the whole team will receive praise but most of the praise will go towards you. On the flip the side of that, you must be make sure the work is completed otherwise the boss could blame you for the whole thing, this could potentially hindering your career.