3 . Elm Professional Services owner Mia Van Tubbergh had plenty of business smarts—but no social media know how. So she turned to the younger generation and took on the two high school students who knew their stuff.

“Social media is foreign to many older professionals—but very important for connecting with today’s customers,” Ms Van Tubbergh said. “We have this workforce sitting in schools doing this already but they’re doing it for fun.” Ms Van Tubbergh’s company, which helps launch products to market, took then Year 10 students Braith Mansfield and Tahmana Rudolph on for two weeks’ work experience.

Ms Van Tubbergh said with a bit of guidance and help with spelling and presenting in a professional environment, the boys now do about 80% of Elm’s social media marketing work for online customers. The pair work one day a week with Elm at Gosford and the rest at Kariong High School. Their duties include stand-alone posts on social media platforms, videos, stories and website headers. They recently finished a hard copy flyer（传单）for a major retailer that will be seen by every consumer who visits the website.

“I am so impressed by the performance of the two teenagers, who have helped grow the company’s social media following by 600%,” said Ms Van Tubbergh. “Braith, 17, and Tahmana, 16—now in Year 11—came into the business with a lot of unexplored social media experience. Working at Elm has provided them with a ‘digital platform of work that is worth its weight in gold’—a valuable resource they can show other employers when starting a full-time career.”

Braith and Rudolph are among 42 NSW Central Coast students doing Year 11 and 12 as part of a School-Based Apprenticeship and Training（SBAT）program. NSW Education SBAT strategic officer Cecile Oakes said they needed more companies like Elm to take on students and give them the benefit of real world experience.

5 . Inside а tiny shop in Manchester, Adam Birce carefully carves at а woodblock. He looks carefully at each piece to ensure they fit and match before gently setting them together. Adam Birce, the owner of Four Strings, restores stringed instruments like violins and his passion is in restoring and appreciating what has already been crafted and loved.

Birce started playing the violin in grade school and grew to truly appreciate it. He played semiprofessionally out of high school and later got his degree in music at Virginia Commonwealth University as a violinist. After graduating, he landed a job selling violins. “As fate would have it, I was asked by my employer to learn to fix violins 15 years ago,” he says. “I soon moved off on my own to do restoration.” Since 2014, he’s been on a mission with Four Strings to provide excellent fine-instrument restoration for the commonwealth.

Violin restoration isn’t a self-taught skill. Each summer for the past decade, Birce has traveled to the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts for up to two weeks to study under famous violin restoration expert Hans J. Nebel. Here, students learn everything from delicate edging repair to violin identification. “A lot of the work itself is learning as you go,” Birce says. “It’s a lot of problem-solving and critical thinking, like coming up with a woodworking context.”

How long а job takes varies. “Most are about 3-6 months for major work, unless a full top-to-bottom restoration is needed, which can take even longer,” Birce explains. “I leave that up to the client if they want to commit to that.” One of his longest jobs was working on a Scottish violin from the early 1800s that had been water-damaged. “I had to use every skill in my toolbox to fix it,” Birce laughingly recalls. “It was a very onerous job.”

If there’s one thing to be learned from Birce’s passion, it’s that each violin is unique in its own right. He compares the fine instruments market to the fine arts market. “A lot of these instruments are fine art,” he says. “I kind of say this is a Picasso I’m playing or a Degas. I’ve worked on a few, which is always a joy.”

7 . The British Council builds connections. understanding and trust between people in the UK and other countries through arts and culture, education and the English language.

We work directly with individuals to help them gain the skills, confidence and connections to transform their lives and shape a better world in partnership with the UK. We support them to learn English, get a high-quality education, gain internationally recognized qualifications and eventually build networks and explore creative ideas.

We are looking for people who believe in the integrity and value of what we do. In return, you will get the chance to try new ideas, develop your skills, and think independently. You will be part of a rapidly changing organization with global influence and impact.

Location: London, UK

Role Purpose

·To maintain and improve professional development and academic quality in the teaching center

·To promote and ensure quality teaching and effective learning of English

·To provide learners with a rewarding and interesting English language learning experience. To support the wider aims of the British Council and its cultural relations mission

Requirements

Essentia

·A minimum of 3 years’ full-time(or equivalent part-time) teaching experience to children.

· High proficiency in English (IELTS 8.5, TOEFL 120 or equivalent

· Effective communication with young learners and their families

Desirable

· 2 + years’ experience as an IELTS examiner

· Experience in an operational or educational management position

Enquire about the post can be sent to BC Teacher Recruitment@ British council. org. cn.

8 . At Beijing’s Palace Museum, it sometimes seems that time stands still, but the clocks keep ticking at a small workshop there. This is where clock conservator (文物修复员) Qi Haonan works. .

As part of the fourth generation of conservators to repair and restore antique (古老的) clocks at the museum since 1949, Qi has returned more than 100 clocks to their former glory.

After having majored in mechanical automation during his university studies, Qi joined the cultural relics restoration department at the Palace Museum in 2005. “In the beginning, everything in the palace was new to me. It made me excited to even think about repairing antique clocks,” the 41-year-old told China Daily. But reality soon weakened his warmth. There is a rule at the museum: For the first year you can look, but not touch. From 8 a. m. to5 p. m. every day, he checked and took apart watches and clocks collected from his friends to practice. After a year of repeated work, he could finally get his hands on the clocks in the museum and get a better understanding of the job. To him, restoring such clocks doesn’t mean making them look brand-new. Through cleaning and restoration, he tries to keep them in their original form, bringing back their former function.

Qi still remembered the excitement he felt when the hands of his first repaired clock began to move. It was a French clock, which took him a month to restore. “What amazes me most about these clocks is that they combine the scientific advances, technological precision (精确) and trends in decorative art of their particular times,” Qi told China Daily.

Although the antique clock repairing special skills at the Palace Museum were listed as a national intangible (非物质的) cultural heritage in 2014, it was still a little-known skill and the specialty was in short supply of professionals. Until 2016, a 3-part TV documentary, Masters in the Forbidden City, made it possible to the public.

Qi started posting videos about the antique clocks on social media in 2019, giving viewers a look into the work. “With rising attention and influence, antique clock restoration can not only be further developed, but also expanded to more museums which house antique clocks and watches,” Qi told China Daily.

10 . From the time I was a young girl, all I wanted was to play outside. I used the ferns (蕨类植物) in my childhood backyard to raise myself up muddy Pacific Northwest slopes (斜坡), sat by the edge of the property’s wooded stream and imagined it was a winding river.

Hours were spent on horseback, prepared with bags and snacks to ride the same path over and over, always dreaming up a new experience. As an adult, my interests are consistent, though the landscape has shifted. For the last four years, I have had the opportunity to explore our Earth’s most remote cold water locations as an underwater videographer and ocean-focused naturalist, developing an appreciation and understanding for challenging corners of the globe. Though my travels have taken me from Antarctica to the Arctic, it’s the temperate in-between that captivates me. During the last four years, Southeast Alaska, particularly the Inian Islands in its incredible wildness and productivity, has stolen my attention. My name is Alyssa Adler, I am the Inian Islands Institute’s 2019 Scientist in Residence and National Geographic grant recipient for project Tall Trees in Cold Seas.

The natural beauty of the Inians is pure, but the environment works for it. Massive rushing tides (潮水) flood the Hobbit Hole twice daily, like an angry river. Sometimes I learn some meaningful and useful lessons the hard way. Transportation of extensive dive equipment required the help of people in Ketchikan, Gustavus and other places. These lessons only allow my respect for this region to the full, teaching me how to be successful. I need to learn and understand the power and network of Southeast Alaska, both in the water and out. It’s all worth it to roll into the salty Pacific Ocean, turn on my cameras as I sink to the seafloor, and shine my lights on early spring in the Inian Islands.