• A: Since you have not mentioned your present qualification or field of work, let me give you a general picture. The International Labour Organisation (ILO) is a UN body. Its primary aim is to promote opportunities for men and women to get decent and productive work in conditions of freedom, equity, security and human dignity.

India is one of the founding members of the ILO and has been a permanent member of its governing body since 1922. The ILO recruits in two categories:

The general services category is concerned with three major occupational groups such as administration related support work, technical support work, and manual trades and other support work. The basic requirement is a good knowledge of the prevailing labour issues and laws, nationally as well as internationally. At the national level, applicants must preferably have local expertise / experience in a labour organisation, for example, lawyers specialising in labour issues, social scientists and people associated with labour organisations.

The professional services category deals with the theoretical or practical aspects of finance and accounts, law, education, social science, economics, business and administration, managerial and other technical specialisations.

The ILO also conducts an internship programme for undergraduate and postgraduate students to enable them to complete their studies by acquiring practical knowledge and a better understanding of ILO policies and programmes.

For ILO’s associate expert programme, you must have a bachelors or masters or an equivalent technical qualification along with some years of work experience. The age limit is 32 years. The assignment varies from two to five years depending on the policy and financial possibilities of the donor.

Success comes at a price

• Q: What is the cost of acquiring a Seibel administration certification and how do I get it? Do I need to attend a training programme organised by Oracle or can I do it by myself? Is there any bar on the number of attempts to clear the exam?

—Fanish Sharma

• A:You’ll need to do the ORACLE Siebel 7.7 Essentials course and the Siebel 8.0 Case Study course to be able to take the certification test. You can’t do it by yourself, you’ll have to take coaching from Oracle University and this can be pretty expensive.

I think $195 is just the exam fee and $2,625 is the training fee. You can get the exact prices on the Oracle / Siebel website or on https:// metalink3.oracle.com.

As far as the number of attempts is concerned, you can try as many times as you want, but you’ll have to wait for a period of 14 days between tests.

Family no bar for MBA studies

• Q: I have been working in a pharma company for nearly four years after completing my BPharm. I have always dreamt about pursuing an MBA, but my wife is now expecting, so I’m in two minds about going to a B-school for two years. Should I opt for a distance MBA instead?

• —Lalit Guha

• A:I should think not. A good MBA degree coupled with the opportunity to spend time with one’s family have prompted mid-career professionals to bring their families along to B-school campuses. Increasingly, experienced married executives who want to pursue an MBA are taking their families to the campus so that they don’t miss out on spending quality time together. An evolved support system across B-schools is encouraging them to take this decision. From fully furnished housing facilities, convenience stores, recreation centres to play area for kids, B-schools are offering everything.

The new concept has been introduced by the premier Indian School of Business (ISB), Hyderabad, and is catching up with others. The Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIM-A) and the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta (IIM-C) have also started to provide similar facilities. ISB has 118 families staying on campus while 67 students out of 72 from IIM-A’s PGPX 2008 batch (residential programme for experienced professionals) stayed en famille and 16 out of 42 students from IIM-C’s PGPX course this year had their spouse and kids staying with them. Don’t worry; you will be allotted a fully furnished studio apartment.

And when the kid comes along, there are daycare facilities with a special play area for toddlers and young kids. ISB charges an extra Rs 90,000 for such facilities. What’s more, your kid can boast of growing up on an IIM / ISB campus — not a bad beginning! In case, the B-school does not have family accommodation, you can always take up a flat near the campus, after requesting for special permission to do so.