The labour market

Exercise 1. Read the text.

One of the chief aims of education is to equip future citizens with all they require to take their place in adult society. The "place in society" is associated first of all with a well-paid job with good prospects. Now the labour market in Britain is highly competitive and it will remain competitive for the years to come. Big companies compete with each other to recruit best students offering them tempting salaries and "fringe benefits". Recruiting tactics of this kind have led to the "brain drain", the process by which highly skilled people offer their services to the highest bidder. And for as long as memory can stretch British students have been competing for jobs in this market. They start applying for jobs before they leave the university. Companies advertise their vacant positions inviting applications for the jobs. The company person­nel managers go through the written applications deciding which of the applicants have the right qualifications for the post and prepare the so-called "short list". Short lists include about five or six applicants who look most promising and who will subsequently be interviewed. Only one of the applicants will succeed. That means that most applicants will be unsuccessful. British students have learned to live with failure, they do not lose heart, do not feel depressed and embarrassed. Let us imagine a third-year (i.e. final year) university student, Richard.

Richard is thinking about a career in administration. He would like to help to organize and run something but he isn't quite sure what. He is about to graduate with a degree in Economics, and he has taken a special computer course. Each day he reads the jobs section in one of the national papers. So far he has found twenty-five possible jobs. He writes off for an application form, reads the details about the job, fills in the form, includes a copy of his CV and a stamped addressed envelope and posts off the letter. Usually he has a brief reply, thanking him for the letter and saying that he has not been selected for the interview.

But one day he received a letter containing a request to go for an interview. Unfortunately he failed because one of the candidates selected for the interview had a better degree in Economics, he had also helped to run the student "shop" during his course, as a result he has practical experience in accounting and in handling people.

Having made twenty-five applications and having failed the interview, Richard starts his search again. Such an experience is completely typical for students who have just graduated in contemporary Britain.

Exercise 2. Answer the questions.

1. What is one of the chief aims of education?

2. Is the labour market in the UK influenced by big companies?

3. How do personnel managers choose applicants for interviews?

4. How do young people learn about job openings?

5. How do applicants know that they are not selected for interview?

6. Why did Richard fail the interview?

7. Did Richard lose his heart?

8. Is Richard an exception?

Exercise 3.

1)Describe the process of looking for a job by British students.

2) Give an example of such a process from the text.

3) Say how Russian students usually find their jobs.

Text 5

Exercise 1. You will hear a telephone message, containing the information about an applicant for the job. Write down the missed information, use figures, words or word-combinations.

A. Name _________________________

B. Age __________________________

C. Education ______________________

D. Language ______________________

E. Last job _______________________

F. Character: confident and __________

G. Telephone _____________________

Exercise 2. You will here a story of a teacher. While listening choose the correct variant of the ending of each sentence.

1. The narrator was afraid that her students wouldn’t accept Daniel because he

1. acted strangely 2. wore poor clothes 3. had bad manners

2. According to the narrator the residents of the village

1. were fabulously rich 2. were well-to-do 3. lived in misery

3. Daniel came up to Charles during the game to

1. encourage 2. show him how to hit the ball 3. tease him

4. The narrator thought that her students

1. were gentle most of the time 2. could be indifferent at times 3. could be cruel at times

5. When Daniel gave his Christmas gift to the narrator she

1. was taken aback 2. was disappointed 3. got fairly excited

6. the narrator thinks of Daniel

1. only at Christmas 2. once in a while 3. very often

7. The narrator’s daughter loves her mother’s story about Daniel because she

1. can do the end of the story herself 2. admires Daniel’s personal qualities

3. knows Daniel has become successful

Text 6

Exercise 1. Read the text, state the main idea of the text and headline it.

The greater part of promising students studying in industrialized countries does not return home upon graduation and stay on there. Besides, most intelligent people, especially scientists, wishing to make more money and improve their living and working conditions go to other countries.

Afro-Asian and Latin American countries as well as Central European countries in transition lose lots of skilled specialists annually. Western powers drawing numbers of specialists out of poorer countries benefit a lot. For example, in some years, the profits received by US corporations from the use of Third World experts exceeded their "aid for development". Russian students engaged in research at universities want to continue it upon graduation.

Text 7

EMPLOYMENT

Exercise 1. Read the text and give the gist of the article.

Britain has a lower level of unemployment than any other major European Union (EU) country. The total workforce is almost 30 million. Features of the labour market include the growing proportion of women in the workforce and increases in part-time and temporary employment among both women and men.

"Teleworking" — working from home using information technology - is also becoming more widespread, for example, in journalism, consultancy and computer programming.

About 3.3 million people are self-employed in Britain. The sectors with the highest concentrations of self-employed people are agriculture and con­struction.

Britain now has one of the least regulated labour markets among the major industrialized nations. The aim of the government is to create an economic climate in which business can flourish. It is done by increasing the flexibility of the labour market, by removing regulations which have restricted job creation, by encouraging better training and by tax policy.

Exercise 2. Compare the situation with the situation in Russia.

Text 8

Exercise 1. Read the dialogue.

Дата добавления: 2015-12-07