Steven Albert

Steven Albert

I am an experienced proofreader/editor/quality assurance specialist.
Reply rate:
33.33%
Availability:
Hourly ($/hour)
Age:
54 years old
Location:
Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa
Experience:
14 years
Curriculum Vitae: Steven Albert Personal details Telephone:- Date of birth: 21 January 1971 Email address:-Nationality: South African Physical address: 19 Albert Rd Hout Bay Home language: Other languages: English Afrikaans Qualifications Qualification Date Institution P.D.M. (Human Resources) 1993 Wits Business School B. A. (majors in Applied Psychology & Industrial Sociology) 1990 – 1992 Wits University Matric 1988 King David Associations Registration Date Institution Wellness counsellor (WC19/- - 2020 ASCHP Courses completed Course Date Hosted by Sibling loss 2022 online Bereavement counselling 2021 Nechama Communication & counselling skills 2020 Nechama Empathy & emotional intelligence at work 2020 BerkeleyX (Edx) Personal growth group 2020 Nechama Neuroplasticity 2020 Brain Academy (Udemy) Counselling in grief & loss 2019 Hope House Body language 2019 Coaching with NLP Unlocking EQ 2019 Six Seconds Instructional design: Storyboarding 2017 Linkedin Learning Instructional design: Adult learners 2017 Linkedin Learning Writing effective learning objectives 2017 Linkedin Learning Instructional design: Models of ID 2017 Linkedin Learning The neuroscience of learning 2017 Linkedin Learning Eco office manager 2014 Terra Firma Academy Tour guide 2014 Livingstone Academy First aid 2014 MST Carbon footprint analyst 2010 GCX Courses contd. Course Date Hosted by Mental health 2009 S A College of Applied Psychology NLP 2009 S A College of Applied Psychology Coaching I 2009 S A College of Applied Psychology Interpersonal skills 2008 S A College of Applied Psychology RPL Assessor 2005 InTuition Writing skills 2003 Dorian Haarhof Copy editing & proofreading 2002 John Linnegar Healing breath 2002 Art of Living Healing touch level 1 2001 Colorado Centre for Healing Touch How to run a support group 2000 West Rand Hospice Counselling skills 2000 West Rand Hospice Facilitation skills 2000 West Rand Hospice Depth seeker 2000 Full Circle Encounters Vision, creativity and intuition 1998 Carolyn Myss Effective user documentation 1998 Whitehead Morris Facilitation skills 1998 Rudi Frigenti Reiki level 1 1998 Sally Rossiter Employment history Company Dates Job description Cactus Communications September 2021 – April 2022 Editing & proofreading Edge Media November 2018 – September 2021 Freelance editing, proofreading, rewriting & content creation LobsterInk March 2018 – December 2018 QA Specialist EY Catalyst June 2017 – September 2017 Editor TTRO (The Training Room Online) September 2016 – March 2017 QA Specialist Clur Research International March 2015 – Data visualization Far South Tutors July 2014 Assistant trainer Ramsay Media November 2013 – May 2014 Sub-editor GCX (Global Carbon Exchange) November 2010 – March 2011 Instructional designer Employment history contd. Company Dates Job description ICG (International Colleges Group) Aug 2009 – June 2010 Resourcing & training coordinator Various January 2009 – Freelance editing, proofreading, document formatting Maskew Miller Longman June 2008 – Dec 2008 Managing editor Pearson publishers April 2008 Project manager ICG (International Colleges Group) July 2005 – April 2008 Managing editor, author manager, publishing trainer Genealogy & Migration Centre March 2002 – February 2005 Project manager Clacherty & Associates Jan 2001 – May 2001 Research and writing of handbook Foundation for Tolerance Education June 2000 – Nov 2000 Programme evaluation Futurekids April 1999 – September 1999 Computer literacy training SPL September 1996 – May 1998 Usability testing Current Over the past 12 months I have been working in the film industry, sourcing and supplying vehicles for adverts and movies. I am also currently a volunteer bereavement counsellor with a local community-based organisation. September 2021 – March 2022 I worked for Cactus Communications, editing, proofreading and preparing journal articles for submission in various fields. November 2018 – June 2019 I worked in a freelance capacity for Edge Media, editing and proofreading educational material, on a project basis. I also researched, rewrote and created new content for existing learning material. March 2018 – December 2018 I was on a six-month contract at LobsterInk as a QA (quality assurance) specialist from March through September. I then worked in a freelance capacity up until December. The company was creating training material for a major international hotel group. I worked on all training-related material including videos, voice-over scripts, assessments and support materials. June 2017 – September 2017 From mid-June till the end of August I was taken on at EY Catalyst on a project to proofread and edit consulting material. EY (Ernst & Young) bought materials from CCI, and my task was to edit the material (Powerpoint workshops, web-reader content, MS Word support documents), and remove and reword/rephrase branded wording. September 2016 – March 2017 I was on a six-month contract at TTRO (The Training Room Online). I was working on a project for a Saudi client to create learning programmes on a variety of topics for the Edx online platform. My role was to ensure the quality of these programmes through editing and proofreading of all content at each phase (raw content, storyboard, developed solution), check consistency through the courses, check layout and style as per style sheets, check illustrations, animations and voice-over elements, as well as user interface functionality and usability. March 2015 – ongoing I worked on Excel-based, retail property research data projects: entering data into Excel templates, applying formulae, generating and cleaning up scatter diagrams, creating and updating Powerpoint templates per project, transferring diagrams into templates, converting Powerpoint documents into PDFs, hyperlinking all pages to menu pages, creating and updating PDF menu pages (working in Adobe Acrobat), and cleaning up Excel data on an as-needed basis. July 2014 I was employed as an assistant trainer by Far South Tutors on a project at Big Fish film school. The school had two groups of students who were being taught MS Office products (Word, Excel and Powerpoint), many of whom had no prior exposure to computers and were English second-language students. I drew up and conducted a pre-course skills assessments, assisted in creation of course outlines and curriculum, assisted students in class, and drew up and conducted and end-of-course assessments. November 2013 – May 2014 In November 2013 I was taken on as a freelance sub-editor at Ramsay Media. I worked in-house on a number of their magazine titles. My tasks here entailed: proofreading hard copy material and Indesign pages, fact checking and research, working closely with design studio on layout, checking graphic layout (working in Indesign), ensuring consistency across different titles, according to house style sheets. November 2010 – March 2011 In November 2010 I was employed on a contract basis as an instructional designer on an e-learning project for Global Carbon Exchange (GCX). My responsibilities were: re-authoring existing text material for a visual, internet-based audience, creating course structures, learning outcomes and assessments, conceptualising and briefing graphic and interactive elements, researching and writing material. I completed GCX’s Carbon Footprint Analyst course at this time. August 2009 – June 2010 In August 2009, I rejoined ICG (International Colleges Group). My responsibilities were: sourcing and training of writing and editorial resources, finding and making initial contact with potential resources, screening CVs for project suitability, ensuring that all projects had sufficient and appropriately skilled authors, peer reviewers and editors, negotiating around project requirements and constraints, and securing agreement. 2009 – 2019 From 2009 onwards I worked in a freelance capacity, editing, proofreading and formatting Word documents on a project basis. My work was generally in the educational environment. I worked for Milpark Business School, Juta, LR Group, CTI Education Group and International Colleges Group. More recently, I worked for LobsterInk and Edge Media. June 2008 – November 2008 I was employed as a managing editor for Maskew Miller Longman publishers (MML). I worked on a new series of books with strong emphasis on graphic layout. Extensive liaison was required to ensure appropriate photographs and illustrations were sourced and placed, photo shoots arranged and artists commissioned, within tight schedule and budget constraints. This was a project management role and I was responsible for: scheduling production of books from authored manuscript through to final publishable book, managing and renegotiating budgets where required, extensive liaison between production, in-house design studio and outsourced typesetters, ensuring production according to set schedules and budgets, mediating between publishing and editorial functions, contracting and managing editors and ensuring delivery according to the schedule. April 2008 I was employed on a contract basis at Pearson educational publishers in a project management capacity. My responsibilities were: ensuring delivery of written material from the author according to deadline, reviewing material from an editing point of view and raising any suggestions or content queries with the author, sourcing and contracting with an expert in the field to review content, ensuring that this review was done and feeding suggestions back to the editor, mediating between subject matter experts reviewing the material and ensuring the author responded to questions and suggestions. July 2005 – April 2008 I was employed in the publishing division of ICG (International Colleges Group), where I was responsible for the production of learning material through authoring, editing, quality assurance and release stages. I held three roles here: as managing editor and author manager I drew up contracts for authors, peer reviewers and editors, set out deadlines for delivery at set milestones, and dealt with invoicing and payment. As author manager, I was responsible for: managing resources (authors, peer reviewers and assessing editors) during the authoring stage of the production process; each stage is marked by a submission from and feedback to the author, according to set deadlines, mediating between the author and peer reviewer to ensure the implementation of changes to the manuscript, contracting with graphic designers to create diagrams and drawings. As managing editor, I was responsible for: receiving manuscripts once they had passed through the authoring phase, marking up the copy with instructions for DTP, sending the material for editing and facilitating the resolution of any queries, sending the manuscript for quality checking, carrying out the release check (a final check for ‘publishability’), releasing the document for printing. In addition, as publishing trainer I was responsible for training of authors and peer reviewers. I also completely revised the author training material. March 2002 – February 2005 As project manager of the Genealogy & Migration Centre, I was responsible for the creation and day-to-day maintenance of a database of Jewish emigration to South Africa and Jewish communities across the country. In this capacity, I: reviewed and structured all data to ensure compliance with set project standards and formats, managed data capture and collection of new data, worked closely with UCT’s IT department in the creation and maintenance of a website, assisted members of the public who were searching for information, supplied the South African Jewish Museum with data for their computer data bank. I worked closely with the museum’s web design team and consulted on content and functioning of both their in-house system and website. I also gathered family trees and family histories for the Jewish Museum. In addition, I initiated a project to gather data on the synagogues of South Africa. I travelled to towns throughout the Western Cape to research the synagogues and gather photographic, documentary and oral data on the history of the buildings and the communities that built and used them. January 2001 – May 2001 I was employed on a freelance basis at Clacherty & Associates publishers. I was responsible for researching and writing handbooks for a company that creates low and middle-income housing in the Johannesburg inner city. I conducted interviews with role-players, gathered source material from the client and created the draft document. I was involved in all stages of the project including planning, editing and design through to publication. June 2000 – November 2000 The Foundation for Tolerance Education was an NGO conducting learning programmes at schools. The programmes were designed to teach students about tolerance and acceptance of others, using historical events such as Apartheid and the Holocaust as examples. I was responsible for the evaluation of these education programmes. I created assessment questionnaires, conducted interviews with teachers in government and private schools and developed a feedback report. April 1999 – September 1999 I trained adults in computer literacy skills at Futurekids, from basic to intermediary level. All participants in the class were English second-language students, most of whom had no previous exposure to computers, as well as those with intermediate experience. I taught the basics of computer operations, Windows functionality, Word, e-mail and internet. I evaluated and revised the training material, and I also drew up skills and progress assessments. September 1996 – May 1998 I ran a Usability laboratory at SPL (a software development company), which assessed the usability of software applications and assisted the company’s developers to build more intuitive systems. After gathering data about the product, its operation in day-to-day use, and the end user, I ran tests on the system, using typical tasks as would be carried out in the normal course of working with the product. Test samples were drawn from actual users. The tests were fully monitored and documented. These results would then guide improvements for later versions of the product, online system help or user training. I jointly produced a comprehensive working document detailing the process. This document was used as a guide during the tests and also in training new members of the team. Interests I have completed several Hospice (West Rand) courses, including counselling skills, facilitation skills and a course on running a support group. I facilitated on a number of personal growth and self-awareness courses run by the Hospice at their centre at Magaliesburg. I also facilitated a youth camp and bereaved sibling support groups in Cape Town. Together with my family, I helped create a cancer patients’ resource centre which was registered as a non-profit organization in 1998. We set up a website and published a 40-page booklet. I researched information and assisted in the creation and maintenance of the website. Our guiding principle was to provide patients and their caregivers with access to information about the disease, its treatment and their options, thereby enabling them to make more informed choices. I also researched issues surrounding loss and bereavement and developed literature relevant to the issue. I have been involved in a number of environmental projects, covering a broad range of environmental concerns. I was involved in planning and set-up stages and developed strategy and proposals for these projects; I also liaised with role-players in the recycling industry and interested community bodies.
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