Exploring Early Years Practitioners’ Perspectives and Practices on Pre-Schoolers’ Physical Activity, Fundamental Movement Skills and Eating Behaviours

Exploring Early Years Practitioners’ Perspectives and Practices on Pre-Schoolers’ Physical Activity(PA), Fundamental Movement Skills (FMS) and Eating Behaviours.Childhood obesity prevalence in the UK is worrying as 9.9% and 13.1% of 4-5 year old children are obese and overweight, respectively. The number of children attending early years settings’ (EYS) is gradually increasing and the habits young children acquire are heavily dependent on the opportunities provided to them in the environments they spend the most time in. Therefore, the aim of this study was to explore early years practitioners' (EYP), working in Startwell EYS in Birmingham, knowledge and perspectives on practices related to promoting pre-schoolers' physical activity, healthy eating and motor competence.METHODS: An anonymous, cross-sectional 24-item online survey was used to explore EYPs’ (n=77) working in Startwell EYS in Birmingham (West Midlands, UK) practices, knowledge and perspectives on pre-schoolers' PA, FMS and eating behaviours. Descriptive and thematic analyses were administered to analyse the results. RESULTS: Early years practitioners’ knowledge on Startwell-specific nutrition and physical activity for pre-schoolers' guidelines was adequate with 89.6%, 84.4%, 71.4%, 83.1% and 62.3% of EYPs answering correctly in relation to fruit and vegetables (F&V) portion, snack serving, plate size, daily overall as well as high physical activity, respectively. Almost half (41.6%, n=32) of EYPs said they have not heard of the FMS term before. Main barriers when promoting PA and healthy eating behaviours included a lack of EYPs’ confidence and parental support. CONCLUSIONS: This study explored important EYPs’ perspectives and knowledge that can aid and further shape the Startwell programme in relation to promotion of EBRBs and motor competence in EYS. Overall, the knowledge demonstrated by EYPs on pre-schoolers' nutrition and PA guidelines was an indicator of successful Startwell provision. However, some findings highlight areas for improvement, especially in EYPs’ training on FMS concept and its application in EYS

The cultural and geopolitical dimensions of nation-building in the Ukraine

Ukraine belongs among those young countries where the beginnings of democratisation and nation-building approximately coincided. While the development of nation states in Central Europe was usually preceded by the development of nations, the biggest dilemma in the Ukraine is whether a nation-state programme — parallel to the aim of state-building — is able to bring unfinished nation-building to completion. Ukraine sways between the EU and Russia with enormous amplitude. The alternating orientation between the West and the East can be ascribed to superpower ambitions reaching beyond Ukraine. Eventually, internal and external determinants are intertwined and mutually interact with one another. The aim of the paper is to explain the dilemmas arising from identity problems behind the Ukraine’s internal and external orientation

Corporate brand portfolio management

Thesis (M.M. (Strategic Marketing))--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, Wits Business School, 2016Many organisations consider their brands strategic assets and want to manage them accordingly. The adoption of a corporate brand strategy is one way in which organisations show their commitment to being a brand-focused business. Organisations do however often find it difficult to translate the theory on corporate branding into practice. There are a number of reasons for this; in essence, brands are not always created equally due to the fact that organisations often inherit brands through mergers and acquisitions, each bringing with them a different degree of equity and strength to the brand portfolio. Aligning and strategically managing the brands in the portfolio is the end goal, but before that can happen, a good understanding of what each brand contributes to the brand portfolio and how best each brand can be leveraged to ultimately support the growth of the corporate brand is required. This is followed by identifying who is responsible for managing the changes in the portfolio and communicating them to the stakeholders. The research explored the above process and entailed conducting a literature review on the evaluation and analysis of corporate branding and corporate brand management and the basis on which brand decisions are made and the scope of their influence. This was followed up by in-depth interviews with ten purposefully selected, information-rich participants within Tsogo Sun, a pre-selected organisation that comprises a multi-brand portfolio, with the aim of gaining information on their understanding of corporate branding and corporate brand management in practice. iii Following the interrogation of the data, it was confirmed that corporate branding in practice cannot always follow the strict approaches proposed by the theory, resulting in a gap between the literature and the practical solution required in order to be suitable for organisational implementation. The result of the research proposes a framework that aims to address this gap with the intent that the application thereof would make decision-making pertaining to branding easier and keep branding on a strategic level within an organisation.DM201