Work: finding a job

Objective & content

This sheet on finding a job opens on an article for the school magazine, "How I got my first job": Lily, who is sixteen, reads job adverts, writes a CV and a cover letter, sends ten applications and gets a summer job at a garden centre after an interview. The article carries all the target words in context, from employers, careers adviser and qualities to reliable, punctual, hire and wage. By the end, pupils understand and use the words of job hunting: adverts, CVs, cover letters and interviews.

Pedagogical guide

The vocabulary work comes out of the article, never from a list. Page 1 checks understanding with six multiple-choice questions. Page 2 matches eight words with their meanings (a deadline, punctual, to hire) and uses ten words from a box of twelve in new sentences; two words are extra. Page 3 turns verbs into nouns (apply, application), with a worked example and five items, matches six collocations (earn money, meet a deadline, deal with difficult customers) and ends on Lily's cover letter to the garden centre, where each of the ten gaps is a choice between three topic words. It is the hardest task: the wrong words come from the same topic (advert, deadline or wage). Every task tests words, never grammar.

Suggested procedure

1. (5 min) Ask pupils who has had a small job or helped as a volunteer; write the words they know on the board.
2. (10 min) Pupils read the article and answer the six questions.
3. (15 min) Page 2: match the meanings, then complete the ten sentences.
4. (15 min) Page 3: verbs into nouns, the collocations, then Lily's cover letter.
5. (10 min) Correct with the answer key on page 4; pupils read the cover letter aloud with the right words.

Adaptations

[S] Read the article aloud together first; do the first two meanings on page 2 together.

[A] After the collocations, pupils write three sentences about a job they would like.

Materials & prerequisites

One copy per pupil of the three pupil pages, in colour or black and white. Page 4 is the answer key with teacher notes: keep it. Pupils should know the past simple, the present perfect with for, relative clauses with which and who, and need to and have to. The sheet has no writing task; to take it further, pupils write their own one-page CV in English, or act out a job interview in pairs, one manager and one candidate.