Vocabulary

Part 1

1. Match the word and its definition.

1. job a) a skill, personal quality, or type of experience that makes you suitable for a particular job

2. employer

3. qualification b) the series of jobs that you do during your working life

4. short list c) a person who employs

5. career d) a list of suitable applicants for a job, post, etc., from which

the successful candidate will be selected

e) an occupation; post of employment

Part 2

2. Fill in the gaps with a suitable word.

1. The … can be as important as CV.

a) letter of credit b) letter of application c) letter d) fax

2. We have a proven … of expertise in opening career doors for our graduate managers to reach the top.

a) short list b) job experience c) track record d) background

3. There are three … for the position of Sales Manager, Eastern Europe.

a) clients b) employers c) candidates d) references

4. She has some … designing websites for companies.

a) background b) expenditure c) examples d) experience

5. The successful candidate should have a good academic… .

a) reference b) background c) experience d) success

Writing

Put the parts of the application letter in the correct order.

1. Yours faithfully

Anna Belinski

2. 24 February 20 - -

3. I would be happy to say more about my qualifications for the job if invited for an interview.

4. Dear Sir or Madam

I would like to apply for the job of Sales Manager for the Central and Eastern Europe area.

5. Fast-Track Inc.

1225 Federal St.

Boston, MA 02110

USA

6. I have worked as a sales representative in Germany, the US and Poland for more than 15 years. In that time I have had a good sales record. I joined Fast-Track a year ago.

7. ul. Jana Mateiki 73/5

01-125 Warsaw

Poland

8. I have good organizational and inter-personal skills and feel I would be good at team-building. I have some knowledge of designing websites, and I feel I could manage the development of this area. I speak fluent English and Polish in addition to German, my mother tongue.

Reading

New working model

By Michael Skapinker

As we embark on this new investigation of the future of work, there are several lessons we can draw by looking back. First, time, and our own adaptability, may solve some of our deepest problems. There are still developed countries worried about large-scale unemployment, France and Germany among them. But their problems are now widely seen as the result of excessive labour market regulation. Far from telling employees to enjoy more leisure, French and German companies are trying to find ways to ensure their staff work more hours. And in the UK, employers and policy-makers now worry about a shortage of workers, not of work.

Second, the countries that seem poised to assume world economic leadership - Japan in the past; India and, especially, China now - may face obstacles that are barely visible today. And third, there is nothing new about our sense that we are at a turning point. People have often felt that work was changing in ways they had not seen before. Is it different this time? Is the way we work really changing fundamentally?

In one sense yes, simply because the countries that are playing a fuller part in the world economy, particularly China and India, have such large populations. 'We simply have not comprehended yet the full impact of 2.5bn people coming into the world economy who were not part of it before,' says Kim Clark, dean of Harvard Business School.

The second change is the technology affecting work today. The internet and broadband connections have made it far easier for companies to distribute their work around the world and to remain open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

The trend towards both outsourcing and offshoring have offered India and China huge opportunities to develop their people's skills. They have also provided companies around the world with enticements that are difficult to resist. Diana Farrell, director of the McKinsey Global Institute, the consultancy's in-house economic think-tank, says that 70 per cent of the costs of a typical company in the developed world come from labour and 30 per cent from capital. Capital is expensive and labour cheap in countries such as India and China. Companies that benefit from the cost savings involved in employing Indian or Chinese labour are at a significant advantage.

The problem is, Ms Farrell says, that competitor companies can achieve the same benefits by moving some of their operations to India or China too. Competitive advantage can only be retained if companies understand that there is more to be gained from India or China than cost-no cutting. The two countries are potentially huge markets too. Lower vehicle development costs in India, for example, mean cheap cars can be produced for the local market. New niche markets can be found for these products in developed countries too.

Companies can address business problems in India and China that they could not solve in their home markets. For example, Ms Farrell cites an airline that used to find it uneconomic to chase debts of less than $200. By using Indian accountants, they were able to chase debts of $50. This is good for western companies, but what of western workers?

A common question heard in the US and Western Europe today is: 'What are we all going to do?' Prof Clark says: 'First of all we have to recognize something that's lost in a lot of these conversations: most of us don't work in places that are competing with the Chinese.' Or the Indians.

Technology is likely to continue to allow more jobs to be done remotely, but, Prof Clark argues, there will be an opposing trend too: companies offering a more personal service at close quarters.

Ms Farrell argues that demographic changes mean there are going to be fewer Americans and western Europeans to do the jobs available anyway.

Japan and Western Europe are ageing societies. Even the US, still a relatively young country by comparison, will have 5 per cent fewer people of working age by 2015 than it does today.

Faced with these projections, western societies can either export the jobs or import the workers.

Will China and India become as dominant as Japan once looked like becoming? Prof Clark says the most significant obstacle they face is the quality of the universities. Few of them show signs of becoming the world-class research centres they need to be if China and India are to become world economic leaders.

Decide which of these statements are True or False

1. We can draw several lessons by looking forward.

2. There is a great shortage of work in developed countries.

3. China is now a world economic leader.

4. IT made it easier for companies to work around the world.

5. People from developed countries are going to suffer from the lack of job vacancies in future.

Grammar

Choose the right variant (A, B, C, D) to complete the gap in the sentences.

1. The remuneration committee …. its report.

a. finishes b. finished c. is finishing d. has finished

2. That call is… .

a. more important b. the most important c. less d. as important as

3. They might … me know at once, but they didn’t.

a. have let b. had let c. let d. to let

4. Many rivals aim … bigger websites.

a. to build b. build c. building d have built

5. Pierre moved to the USA and was given an opportunity of …. at university.

a. to work b. having worked c. working d. work

Вариант 2