In a similar fashion, a chart can convey real-time data today. We regularly receive reports showing our cell phone use every week. Putting the weeks together, we can easily see how our use of this service changes over time and why our rates increase as our usage increases, helping us understand a higher bill at the end of the month.

Charts can help us learn, and they often spare the learner from reading endless pages about a subject with little or no understanding. Charts, in fact, provide avenues for differentiated learning or style-based instruction enabling different types of learners, such as visual learners, to easily grasp the ideas being put forward.

In business, not only is it critical to have both basic and advanced chart interpretation skills, but it is also essential to be able to design a chart and include that chart in a presentation. This skill can be a game-changer as the chart or graph will engage and allow for greater understanding. Well-designed charts call for skills in numeracy, arithmetic, geometry, data analysis, and money management.

There are several types of charts used in the business world, including bar graphs, pie charts, line graphs, and Cartesian graphs, but regardless of the type, well-designed charts and graphs will demonstrate what you want the reader to know and understand. The usefulness of the chart or graph is critical to its success.

Examining free charts will help you understand how to create charts that illustrate aspects of your business organization, including its function, authority, and growth.
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While an Internet search using the terms ‘free charts’ will yield any number of sites where you can download anything from free charts for teaching mathematics to learn about cooking and maybe even how to double a recipe, it’s also interesting to check under “free U.S. government charts.” For example, by searching “U.S. government weights and measures chart,” you will be directed to https://www.govinfo.gov, where you will find charts for measures of length, capacity, etc., as well as photos that could be used in charts for historical purposes. Further, using your favorite Internet search engine and typing “data visualization,” you can find such government sites as the Centers for Disease Control web site at https://www.cdc.gov, and there you will discover the latest graphics associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, as an example. The federal government’s open data site https://www.data.gov provides access to nearly 200,000 datasets, making it easy to search, understand, and share government data.
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As a life-long learner, I recently checked to see what free charts the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has, and I found many interesting line charts, including one entitled: “Arctic Sea Ice Minimum.” I invite you to take a look to see if you, too, could learn something for free.

This post was written by Business Reference Librarian Nanette Gibbs and was first published in the Library of Congress

The guide “Skills Development and Lifelong Learning: Resource Guide for Workers’Organizations” , published by the ILO’s Skills and Employability Branch and Bureau for Workers’ Activities (ACTRAV) addresses key challenges facing workers’ organizations, including best practices, key priorities and main challenges. It also outlines why trade unions should be involved in skills development and lifelong learning.

According to the guide, building the capacity and engagement of workers’ organizations in skills development and lifelong learning, based on a human-centred approach and International Labour Standards, will help build a ‘better normal’ in the post-COVID-19 World.

“What matters in the end, is that ALL workers can acquire the skills of their choice to get jobs and to keep jobs, and to be equipped to face the transitions they will be confronted with over the working life. Skills development and lifelong learning are essential to enhance workers’ capabilities to participate fully in decent work, to contribute to human development, active citizenship and the strengthening of democracy,” said Maria Helena André, Director of the ILO’s Bureau for Workers’ Activities.

The guide is designed for workers’ organizations, trainers, facilitators and ILO officials. It is part of a comprehensive programme of support for workers’organizations in preparation for the 2021 International Labour Conference (ILC), which will discuss skills and lifelong learning. It also paves the way for the general discussion on standing setting for apprenticeships, which takes place at the ILC in 2022 and 2023.

“If the lifelong leaning notion has to become a reality, the link between the world of education and the world of work needs to be very strong, bringing these together, through a process of social dialogue where governments, employers, and workers organization jointly formulate policies and programmes,” said Srinivas Reddy, Director of the ILO SKILLS Branch.

A Global webinar  bringing together workers’ organizations, technical experts, academics and senior ILO officials was held on the November 18th 2020 to launch the guide.

“If we do not protect journalists, our ability to remain informed and make evidence-based decisions is severely hampered”, Secretary-General António Guterres spelled out in his message for the day.  

And when they cannot safely do their jobs, “we lose an important defense against the pandemic of misinformation and disinformation that has spread online”, he added.

Free press ‘essential’ 

There were at least 21 attacks on journalists covering protests in the first half of 2020 – equal to the number of such attacks in the whole of 2017, Mr. Guterres said.

As the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted new perils for journalists and media workers, the UN chief reiterated his call for a “free press that can play its essential role in peace, justice, sustainable development and human rights”.

“Fact-based news and analysis depend on the protection and safety of journalists conducting independent reporting, rooted in the fundamental tenet: ‘journalism without fear or favour’”, he concluded.

Adverse consequences

In her message, Audrey Azoulay, Director-General of UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), maintained that through accurate reporting, journalists “bring truth to light”.

However, she noted that for too many “telling the truth comes at a price”.

While journalists are in “a unique and compelling position” to “speak truth to power”, the UNESCO chief observed that the two “do not always see eye to eye”.

Between 2010 and 2019, close to 900 journalists were killed while doing their job, according Ms. Azoulay – more than 150 in the last two years alone. 

Journalists in crosshairs

Although many have lost their lives covering conflicts, far more are being killed for investigating issues such as corruption, trafficking, political wrongdoing, human rights violations and environmental issues. 

And death is not the only risk journalists are facing.

“Attacks on the press can take the form of threats, kidnappings, arrests, imprisonments or offline and online harassment with women being targeted in particular”, the UNESCO chief elaborated. 

Preserving freedom

Even though the 2019 death toll for journalists was the lowest in a decade, the UN official pointed out that wider attacks are continuing “at an alarming rate”. 

States have an obligation to protect journalists -- UNESCO chief

She noted that in seven-out-of-eight killings, the perpetrators go unpunished, and asserted: “We can and should do more”.

“Journalists are essential in preserving the fundamental right to freedom of expression, guaranteed by Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights”, she explained. “When journalists are attacked with impunity, there is a breakdown in security and judicial systems for all”. 

End impunity

UNESCO commemorates the day annually on 2 November to raise awareness and highlight some of the specific risks that journalists face in their quest to uncover the truth.

“On this day, I call on…all Member States and international and non-governmental organizations to join forces to guarantee the safety of journalists and root out impunity”, said the UNESCO chief.

“Only by investigating and prosecuting crimes against media professionals can we guarantee access to information and freedom of expression”. 

Unleashing information

UNESCO also marked the day by releasing the brochure Protect Journalists, Protect the Truth.
Among other things, it revealed that most journalists were killed in countries with no armed conflict. 

And while impunity for crimes against journalists continues to prevail, in 2020, 13 per cent of cases worldwide were reported as resolved in comparison to 12 per cent in 2019, and 11 per cent in 2018.

The findings also showed that in 2019, Latin America and the Caribbean region represented 40 per cent of all killings registered worldwide, followed by the Asia and Pacific region, with 26 per cent. 

“States have an obligation to protect journalists”, and judges and prosecutors must promote “swift and effective criminal proceedings” to ensure that perpetrators of crimes against them are held accountable, upheld Ms. Azoulay.