Business English practice: Unit 4 — Skills and Qualifications

drillBiz

Apr 26, 2016

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Read through the explanations.
- A |      Education and training
  
  Margareta: The trouble with graduates, people who've just left university, is that their paper qualifications are good, but they have no work experience. They just don't know how business works.
  
  Nils: I disagree. Education should teach people how to think, not prepare them for a particular job. One of last year's recruits had graduated from Oxford in philosophy and she's doing very well!
  
  Margareta: Philosophy's an interesting subject, but for our company, it's more useful if you train as a scientist and qualify as a biologist or chemist — training for a specific job is better.
  
  Nils: Yes, but we don't just need scientists. We also need good managers, which we can achieve through in-house training courses within the company. You know we have put a lot of money into management development and management training because they are very important. You need to have some management experience for that. It's not the sort of thing you can learn when you're 20!
  
  Note: In American English, you also say that someone graduates from high school (the school that people usually leave when they are 18).
  
  B |      Skilled and unskilled
  
  A skill is the ability to do something well, especially because you have learned how to do it and practiced it.
  Jobs, and the people who do them, can be described as:
  
  • highly skilled (e.g. car designer)
  • skilled (e.g. car production manager)
  • semi-skilled (e.g. taxi driver)
  • unskilled (e.g. car cleaner)
  
  You can say that someone is:
  
  C |      The right person
  
  These words are often used in job advertisements. Companies look for people who are:
  
  • self-starters, proactive, self-motivated, or self-driven: good at working on their own.
  • methodical, systematic and organized: can work in a planned, orderly way.
  • computer-literate: good with computers.
  • numerate: good with numbers.
  • motivated: very keen to do well in their job.
  • talented: naturally very good at what they do.
  • team players: people who work well with other people.
Complete the sentences below from A opposite.
- The trouble with graduates, people who've just left university, is that their are good, but they have no .
- One of last year's recruits Oxford in philosophy and she's doing very well!
- For our company, it's more useful if you a scientist and a biologist
- We also need good managers, which we can achieve through courses within the company.
Choose the right word in these sentences about Ravi, using words from A opposite.
- At 18, Ravi decided to stay in full-time . . .
  education
  and went to Mumbai University.
  - training
  - education
- Ravi . . .
  graduated
  three years later with a degree in philosophy and politics.
  - qualified
  - graduated
- He taught for a while, but didn't like it. He decided to . . .
  train
  as an accountant at evening classes.
  - educate
  - train
- He qualified . . .
  as
  an accountant and joined a big accountancy firm in its Mumbai office.
  - for
  - as
- When he started, he needed to develop other skills, which would come through . . .
  experience
  .
  - experiments
  - experience
- He received . . .
  management
  training to help him develop these skills.
  - management
  - managers’
Are these jobs generally considered to be highly skilled, skilled, semi-skilled, or unskilled? Each expression is used twice.
- teacher
  - unskilled
  - skilled
  - semi-skilled
  - highly skilled
- office cleaner
  - skilled
  - unskilled
  - highly skilled
  - semi-skilled
- brain surgeon
  - highly skilled
  - semi-skilled
  - unskilled
  - skilled
- labourer (someone doing basic work on a building site)
  - semi-skilled
  - highly skilled
  - skilled
  - unskilled
- car worker on a production line
  - semi-skilled
  - highly skilled
  - skilled
  - unskilled
- bus driver
  - unskilled
  - skilled
  - highly skilled
  - semi-skilled
- airline pilot
  - unskilled
  - highly skilled
  - skilled
  - semi-skilled
- office manager
  - skilled
  - semi-skilled
  - unskilled
  - highly skilled
Complete these extracts from job advertisements using words and word combinations below.
- • numerate • self-motivated and self-driven • organized, methodical and systematic • talented • motivated • computer-literate • proactive • self-starter • team-player
  
  1. You'll need to be , as you'll be working on financial budgets.
- 2. As part of our sales team, you'll be working independently, so you have to be .
- 3. We're looking for someone who can work on ten projects at once. You must be .
- 4. We need journalists who are very good at their job and extremely to find out as much as they can.
- 5. You'll be researching developments on the Internet, so you have to be . You must be , able to work on your own initiative, and a . But as part of a team of researchers, you need to be a good too.

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