Grade school
• Prompt: What do you remember most about learning to comprehend what you read in grade school? How did your teachers (other than English/reading teachers) focus on teaching you to comprehend what you read in their courses? What made the process of “learning to read” easy or difficult? How would you rate yourself as a reader?
Sample Solution
I remember learning to comprehend what I read in grade school being quite the challenge for me. It was especially difficult when it came to textbooks and any long passages of text. My English teachers were helpful, but all of my other teachers also focused on teaching us how to comprehend our readings as well. They would often ask questions at the end of a reading assignment that tested our comprehension and understanding of whatever we had just read, which made me pay closer attention as I read. My math teacher in particular was very thorough when it came to having us understand what we were reading before moving onto solving problems based on those readings
of Organisation: The company is a member of the Recticel Group, which organises its worldwide activities into four business lines. Foam for Care UK falls under the Flexible Foam business line, which produces polyurethane foam and associated products for domestic, industrial and medical applications.
Size of Organisation: Recticel SA has a total of 98 production units in 28 countries across EMEA, Asia-Pacific and North America with around 6,000 employees. The organisation achieved an annual turnover of €1.46 billion. Foam for Care UK has 15 staff members across sales, product development and product assembly, with an annual turnover of £2 million in 2017. This contributes to Recticel Limited’s annual turnover of £134 million.
Products & Services: Foam for Care UK specialises in the design and production of specialist medical mattresses, cushions and accessories, primarily using polyurethane foam. FFCUK’s product portfolio consists of six local brands to suit a range of healthcare environments, as well as an ‘own brand’ service – an opportunity for customers to request a bespoke specification.
Customer Base: FFCUK primarily services Business to Business customers (B2B), selling to both original equipment manufacturers (OEM’s) and distributors who specialise in healthcare equipment. These products are then sold on to a range of acute and community care environments, such as hospitals, nursing homes and mental health institutions. Some distributors also operate and manage NHS Community Equipment stores under license.
Competitors: Foam for Care competitors are OEM’s and distributors that buy in medical mattresses, cushions and accessories, along with the manufacturers that not only supply them but may also supply directly to the end user. The main professional competitors include Invacare, Stryker and Renray. This is an extremely competitive market, with multi-million pound tenders regularly being released by the NHS, along with a more recent wave of international, low cost competitors.
Culture and Values: Recticel’s core values strongly influence the corporate