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CAREERSUNIT 6

YOUR KNOWLEDGE
Work with a partner. Discuss the questions.
1 What is happening in this picture? Have you experienced somethingsimilar? What was it like?
2 What kind of job do you have or hope to have?
3 How closely is, or was, your education connected to yourprofessional goals?
4 What do you think is the main purpose of a universityeducation?
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WATCH AND LISTENPREPARING TO WATCH
ACTIVATING YOURKNOWLEDGE

PREDICTINGCONTENTUSING VISUALS

1 Work with a partner. Discuss the questions.
1 Are there vocational colleges / secondary schools for teenagers in yourcountry? How might vocational training benefit school-leavers?
2 What do most young people do after completing secondary school?
3 What job opportunities exist for young people after secondary school?
4 What industries do you think are in need of more workers?
2 You are going to watch a video about vocational training. Look at thephotos and complete the table. Discuss your table with a partner.
photo 1

photo 2

photo 3

photo 4

1 What job does
this person have?
2 What kind of
training is neededfor this job?
GLOSSARY

not dig something (v phr, informal US) not enjoy something
second shift (n) working hours from approximately 4pm to midnight
welder (n) a person whose job is joining metal parts together
hydrogen (n) a chemical element that is the lightest gas, has no colour, taste, or smell,and combines with oxygen to form water
instrument technician (n) someone who works repairing, maintaining and adjusting
industrial controlling and measuring systems
vo-tech education (US n phr) education in which students get vocational training(training for a specific career) and/or technical training (training using the tools,machinery, manual techniques, etc. involved in a particular field)
federal (adj) of, or connected with, the central government of some states, including inthe USA
career path (n) the way that you progress in your work, either in one job or in a seriesof jobs
136

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More Information

WHILE WATCHING
3

Watch the video. Circle the ideas you hear.
1 Nick had more than one job offer when he graduated from a career
and technical high school.
2 The need for technical workers is increasing.
3 Air Products manufactures high tech equipment.
4 John McGlade has to train the skilled workers he needs himself.
5 Government support for vocational education is decreasing.
6 Not many young people are interested in vocational education.

4

Watch the video again. Write details for each main idea.
1 Air Products has 7,500 workers, and not all are skilled.

UNDERSTANDING
MAIN IDEAS

UNDERSTANDING
DETAIL2 John McGlade’s company often has positions available.
3 Career and technical education has been cut, and more cuts may be on
the way.
4 Vocational schools train students to work in technical careers.
5 Work with a partner. Discuss the questions.

MAKING INFERENCES

1 Do you think Nick likes his job? Why / Why not?
2 Why do you think John McGlade is worried?
3 Why do you think more skilled workers will be needed in the future?
4 What do you think are some other jobs that students can train for at acareer and technical high school?

DISCUSSION
6 Work with a partner. Discuss the questions.
1 Do you think entering into a career and technical high school is a goodidea? Why / Why not?
2 Would you have been interested in attending a career and technicalhigh school? Why / Why not?
3 What are the advantages of young people entering the workforce
shortly after secondary school? Are there any disadvantages?

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READINGREADING 1
PREPARING TO READSKILLSInterpreting graphical information
Academic texts often include tables, graphs or other diagrams to supportand extend the content of the text. In a good academic text the graphicalinformation is always discussed and interpreted in the body of the text –graphs and diagrams are not just put in a text and not discussed.
As a first step to understanding information presented in graphical form, readthe title, headings and the labels on the axes on any graphs. This will provide
some context for the information presented there. If the axes of a graph are
not labelled, try to work out what the labels would be.

PREDICTINGCONTENTUSING VISUALS

1 You are going to read an article about the demand for workers withappropriate skills. Work with a partner. Look at the graph and discuss thequestions below.

High-growth occupations
Percentage change in the fastest growing
occupations in the US, based on actual numbers
up to and including 2016, projected to 2026

percentage change

20

computer/maths fields
life/physical/social sciencesbusiness/finance fields
healthcare practitioners
and technicians
15.2
13.5
9.5
9.3

15
10520262025

20
24

20
23

20
22

20
2120
20

1920

1820

1720

20

160
Source: US Bureau of Labor Statistics

1 What kinds of jobs does each category include? Name some.
2 What sorts of skills and education are required for the jobs in these fields?
3 Why do you think these occupational areas are predicted to be thefastest growing in the near future?
4 What implications might this prediction have for school curriculumdevelopment?
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2 Now look at Figures 1 and 2 in the article on pages 140–141 and answer thequestions about each graph.

PREVIEWING

1 What does the horizontal axis (the x-axis) measure?
2 What does the vertical axis (the y-axis) measure?
3 What information does the whole graph express?
3 Based on the information in the graphs in the article, answer the questions.
1 Look at Figure 1. Why do you think companies are struggling to recruit
employees?
2 What problem does Figure 2 illustrate?
3 How does the information in Figure 2 explain the problems that theemployers in Figure 1 are experiencing?
4 Read the definitions. Use the correct forms of the words in bold tocomplete the sentences below.

UNDERSTANDING
KEY VOCABULARY

assertive (adj) forceful; bold and confident
comprise (v) to have things or people as parts or members; toconsist ofexpertise (n) a high level of knowledge or skill
labour (n) workers, especially people who do practical work with
their hands
mismatch (n) things that do not work well together
persistent (adj) (of a problem) lasting for a long time, difficult to resolve
pose (v) to cause
prospective (adj) wanted or expected to do a particular thing in
the future
1 Professors at this technical institute are known for theirinrobotics and high-tech electronics.
2 This situationa real problem for our company because wecan’t find skilled applicants to fill our positions.
3 There is an unfortunate
between the organization’s goals
and its actions.
4 Experts are studying the youngest sector in the labour force, which
workers between the ages of 18 and 24.
5 You have to be more
if you want people to listen to
your ideas.
6 Ourcosts were way too high, so we moved our operation
to Vietnam, where workers’ salaries are lower.
7 The staff in the admissions office regularly meet withstudents to answer their questions and give campus tours.
8 For the last five years, there has been ashortage of job
applicants with skills in a wide range of technical areas.
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THE SKILLS GAP
1 All over the world, business leaders andgovernment officials complain about the ‘skillsgap’. Businesses have plenty of job openings,but they cannot find enough qualified
applicants to fill the positions because
workers’ skills do not match those needed byemployers. Figure 1 shows the results of anannual survey of about 42,000 companies
worldwide.
2 For the most part, the employees that
employers in western countries are seeking
fall into two categories. The first category
includes professionals in STEM fields (Science/Technology/Engineering/Mathematics) that
require advanced training and expertise,especially in Information Technology (IT). The
second category is much larger, comprising
workers in the ‘skilled trades’. Workers in theskilled trades have expertise in, for example,manufacturing, computers, electronics andconstruction. There are simply not enoughworkers with training in these areas to meetthe growing demand. These jobs require morethan a secondary education (for example, a
training course to develop the required skill),but often they do not require a university
education. In the United States, almost half ofthe labour force works in these kinds of jobs.

Figure 1. Percentage of companies with difficulty filling positions
41%
40%

30%
31%

31%

38%

35%

34%
34%36%

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
Source: Manpower (2014)

140Causes of the skills gap
3 Why have we been unable to bridge this gap
and prepare workers for the jobs of the future,
or even the jobs of today? The answer lies inboth the job market and the education system
in many western countries. The job market ischanging more quickly than ever before. Manyof the jobs that companies need to fill today
did not exist when current job applicants werein school, making it difficult for curriculums
to keep up with the demands of the market.
Nevertheless, numerous business leaders argue
that schools are not doing enough to provide
the technical training that many jobs demand.
For example, only a quarter of all schools in
the United States teach computer science. Most
schools and universities continue to offer thesame type of education that they have provided
in the past. As a result, lots of students graduate
with degrees that do not prepare them for thejobs that are available. Given this mismatch
between the education system and the job
market, several labour experts say we cannot
and perhaps should not depend on traditional
schooling to close the skills gap and should
instead find alternative solutions.

Closing the skills gap
4 Both industry and academic experts argue
that businesses themselves need to take amore assertive role in the preparation of thelabour force they require. Businesses havethe best information about what skills theiremployees will need, so it makes sense forthem to participate in training prospective
employees. First, they need to communicate
better with schools and universities about theskills they require. Second, they should establish
relationships with future employees earlier,perhaps through partnership schemes that begin
training future employees while they are still
students. Finally, businesses may need to developand provide their own in-house training.

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5 Technical skills, particularly computer scienceskills, are in high demand, but developing
these skills is not necessarily best accomplishedby means of a traditional university education.
There are a wide range of schools, courses
and training schemes that have opened in
response to the demand for computer science
professionals, some in brick-and-mortar
classrooms and others online – technicalcolleges for the digital age. The top computerscience schools are expensive, but some boast a
99% placement rate for their graduates, manyof whom find positions that pay $100,000 ayear or more. Figure 2 displays the predicted
job growth in computing jobs.
Figure 2. The current state of the computer science job market

6 The skills gap is both
persistent and expensive.
One business expert
estimates that a company
loses $14,000 when aposition remains open forthree months. The skills gap
is the result of many factors,
and there is no single
solution to the problems
it poses. It is likely that a
combination of approaches
will be needed before thesupply of qualified workers
will be able to meet demand
for them.

1,000,000 more jobs than students by 2020
1,400,000
1,200,000
1,000,000$500 billionopportunity

800,000

1.4 million

600,000

computing jobs
400,000
400,000 computerscience students

200,000

2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020

Source: Code.org

WHILE READING
5 Read the article. Then match the main ideas (a–f) with each paragraph (1–6).
a Schools that provide training in IT can help fill the skills gap.
b Employees in the skilled trades and with STEM training are in thegreatest demand.
c There is no single solution to the skills gap.
d Current job applicants do not have the skills that employers arelooking for.
e Businesses need to participate more in preparing future
employees.
f Universities do not always offer an education with a clear
career path.

READING FOR
MAIN IDEAS

6 Which of the statements in Exercise 5 expresses the main idea of thewhole article?
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READING FOR DETAIL

7 Read the article again. Write T (true), F (false) or DNS (does not say) next
to the statements below. Then correct the false statements.
1 Globalization has led to labour shortages in some developingcountries.
2 The most critical labour shortages are in IT fields.
3 The positions that companies are trying to fill all require auniversity education.
4 About 50% of workers in the United States are in the skilled
trades.
5 School curriculums have adapted to meet the new demand fortechnical skills.
6 Businesses have the most accurate knowledge of the kinds ofemployees that are in demand.
7 More than 1,000 IT schools and training schemes have opened tomeet demand.
8 An unfilled position that remains open for more than threemonths can cost a company more than $10,000.

READING BETWEEN THE LINESIDENTIFYINGPURPOSE

8 Work with a partner. Answer the questions.
1 What is the purpose of this article?
a to persuade universities to change their courses
b to offer general informationc to warn employers
2 Where might you find an article like this?
a in a print or online magazine
b in a textbook
c in an academic journalDISCUSSION
9 Work with a partner. Discuss the questions.
1 What do you think the $500 billion opportunity is in Figure 2?
2 Who do you think should take action to improve this situation?

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READING 2
PREPARING TO READ
1 Work with a partner. You are going to read an article about the value ofa university education. Look at the graphs on page 145. Then discuss
the questions.

PREDICTINGCONTENTUSING VISUALS

1 Based on Figure 1, what generalization can you make about university
education?
2 Look at Figure 2. What does median income mean? Are universityeducated workers more likely to earn above or below the medianincome?
3 What do you think the topic of this article will be? What argument doyou think it will make?
2 Read the sentences. Write the correct form of the words in bold next totheir definitions below.

UNDERSTANDING
KEY VOCABULARY

1 There is a chronic shortage of skilled workers in the technology sector.
It’s been impossible to hire enough workers.
2 Steve Jobs was a founder of Apple, Inc.
3 Business leaders dispute the government’s claim that the number ofjobs has grown.
4 The new training programme provides a good illustration of how thegovernment and private sector can work together.
5 There is some ambiguity in the law, so it is difficult to know whether
the company actually did anything wrong.
6 The Chief Technology Officer’s responsibilities extend beyond IT; heplays multiple roles in the company.
7 The company’s Chief Executive Officer asserts that profits will exceed
expectations in the coming year.
abcdefg(v) to disagree with an idea, a fact, etc.
(n) the state of being unclear or having more than one
possible meaning(n) someone who establishes an organization(adj) very many(adj) lasting for a long time, especially something bad(v) to say that something is certainly true(n) an example that explains something

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WHILE READINGREADING FOR
MAIN IDEAS

3 Read the article and check your ideas from Exercise 1.
4 Read the article. Write T (true), F (false) or DNS (does not say) next to thestatements below. Then correct the false statements.
1 A university education is worth the investment.
2 Graduates in the US make twice as much as those with justsecondary school qualifications.
3 Graduates generally have healthier lifestyles than those withouta degree.
4 Graduates are more likely to vote than those without a degree.
5 Arts graduates have higher incomes than graduates with anengineering degree.
6 Arts graduates have some advantages over graduates withtechnical degrees.
5 Read the article again. Which of the statements in Exercise 4 expresses
the main idea of the whole text?

READING FOR DETAIL

6 Look at the graphs in the article and answer the questions.
Figure 11 Which country had the highest percentage of graduates in 2012?
2 Which country had the largest increase in the percentage of graduates
between 2000 and 2012?
3 What percentage of the Mexican population (25–64) had a degree in2012?
Figure 2
1 Which country had the highest percentage of graduates with incomes
more than twice the median?
2 Which country had the highest number of graduates with incomes atthe country median or below?
3 What percentage of graduates in Brazil earned more than twice themedian income?

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