Emirates has partnered with LinkedIn to provide select LinkedIn Learning courses on ice, its award-winning inflight entertainment (IFE) system.
Emirates, which offers five daily New Zealand services operated by double-decker A380 aircraft, is the first international airline to make these courses available on board.
The new offering on ice is available from this month and is part of Emirates’ continued commitment to providing new and diverse IFE content. The free expert-led LinkedIn Learning courses range from 20 minutes to over two hours long and cover topics such as Leadership, General Management, Marketing, and Creative Lifestyle.
The courses feature high-quality, personally curated and easily digestible information to cater to varying interests and profiles of customers on board. Among the featured content are courses such as Managing Stress and Learning from Failure by Todd Dewett, TEDx speaker, writer and coach in the leadership and life skills space.
For those looking to improve their photography skills just before landing at their holiday destination, David Hobby, photographer and author of the Strobist.com lighting blog, hosts two courses - The Traveling Photographer: Dubai and The Traveling Photographer: London for quick tips and tricks.
Other courses available include lectures on productivity at the workplace by David Allen, the creator of GTD®, the popular Getting Things Done methodology and Gretchen Rubin, writer of the New York Times bestsellers Better Than Before, The Happiness Project, and Happier at Home. The LinkedIn Learning courses will be regularly updated to include new topics.
This year, Emirates clinched its 12th consecutive World’s Best Inflight Entertainment award at the Skytrax World Airline Awards. The courses complement the current IFE offering of up to 2,600 on-demand entertainment channels including the latest blockbuster movies, award-winning television series, dedicated children’s entertainment, a huge music library and seat back games.
Currently, 85% of Emirates’ fleet is equipped with free Wi-Fi on board, including all A380 aircraft. In addition, 108 aircraft are equipped with live TV, which has up to nine channels of live news and sport.
New Zealand has enjoyed good growth in average income since the global financial crisis. Labour participation is strong and our public finances are in relatively good shape. But one area holding the economy back is our persistently weak labour productivity, with the OECD estimating that New Zealand had the fourth lowest labour productivity growth of OECD countries between 1995 and 2014.
Fortunately New Zealand is in a good position to address this area of persistent weakness.
Achieving New Zealand’s productivity potential is the Productivity Commission’s commentary on New Zealand’s productivity performance. The report shows that New Zealand needs to shift from a model based on working more hours per person to one that is focused on generating more value from time spent at work. “With labour force participation forecast to decline with population ageing, the focus now needs to go on lifting productivity” says Paul Conway, Director of Economics and Research at the Productivity Commission.
The report draws on powerful new data (the Longitudinal Business Database) to provide a fresh and practical insight on New Zealand’s productivity performance.
“There is a view that some businesses stop growing once the owners achieve ‘the three Bs – a bach, boat and BMW’. But new evidence means we can look beyond this and better understand what in the business environment is holding back some Kiwi firms. We can measure the impact of small domestic markets, low levels of competition in services, and the role of barriers to export success, like market knowledge and financing.” says Mr Conway.
With technology creating new opportunities for small and remotely-located firms, an important challenge is to improve the flexibility and resilience of the economy to make the most of important changes in the global economy. The Government has implemented a Business Growth Agenda (BGA) with the aim of building a more productive and competitive economy. The report’s analysis shows that the BGA is targeting the right areas.
“The BGA is subject to annual review. This means that it can respond and evolve as knowledge of the New Zealand economy deepens. Our report gives the Government further insight into why our productivity performance is not as good as it could be and informs possible changes to the BGA that could make a difference” says Mr Conway.
The report highlights several areas for further work, including housing market reform so that people can live where their skills are most valued, and lifting the skill composition of migrants. The report also emphasises practical measures to lift competition in the services sector. Connections across the innovation system could also be strengthened, and the Foreign Direct Investment regime and remaining tariffs need review in the context of growing international trade in services and digital products.
Palace of the Alhambra, Spain
By: Charles Nathaniel Worsley (1862-1923)
From the collection of Sir Heaton Rhodes
Oil on canvas - 118cm x 162cm
Valued $12,000 - $18,000
Offers invited over $9,000
Contact: Henry Newrick – (+64 ) 27 471 2242
Mount Egmont with Lake
By: John Philemon Backhouse (1845-1908)
Oil on Sea Shell - 13cm x 14cm
Valued $2,000-$3,000
Offers invited over $1,500
Contact: Henry Newrick – (+64 ) 27 471 2242