Test 1

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Stevenson’s, one of the country’s major manufacturers of metal goods. Thank you for choosing us for your two weeks of work experience. My name is Julia Simmons, and since the beginning of this year I’ve been the managing director.

Stevenson’s is quite an old company. Like me, the founder, Ronald Stevenson, went into the steel industry when he left school – that was in 1923. He set up this company when he finished his apprenticeship, in 1926 (Q11), although he actually started making plans two years earlier, in 1924. He was a very determined young man!

Stevenson’s long-term plan was to manufacture components for the machine tools industry – although in fact that never came about – and for the automotive industry, that is, cars and lorries. However, there was a delay of five years before that happened, because shortly before the company went into production, Stevenson was given the opportunity to make goods for hospitals and other players in the healthcare industry, so that’s what we did for the first five years (Q12).

Over the years, we’ve expanded the premises considerably – we were lucky that the site is big enough, so moving to a new location has never been necessary (Q13). However, the layout is far from ideal for modern machinery and production methods, so we intend to carry out major refurbishment of this site (Q13) over the next five years.

I’d better give you some idea of what you’ll be doing during your two weeks with us, so you know what to expect. Most mornings you’ll have a presentation from one of the managers (Q14), to learn about their department, starting this morning with research and development. And you’ll all spend some time in each department, observing what’s going on and talking to people – as long as you don’t stop them from doing their work altogether! In the past, a teacher from your school has come in at the end of each week to find out how the group were getting on, but your school isn’t able to arrange that this year.

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OK, now I’ll briefly help you to orientate yourselves around the site. As you can see, we’re in the reception area, which we try to make attractive and welcoming to visitors. There’s a corridor running left from here, and if you go along that, the door facing you at the end is the entrance to the coffee room. This looks out onto the main road on one side, and some trees on the other (Q15), and that’ll be where you meet each morning.

The factory is the very big room on the far side of the site. Next to it is the warehouse, which can be accessed by lorries going up the road to the turning area at the end. You can get to the warehouse by crossing to the far side of the courtyard, and then the door is on your right (Q16).

Somewhere you’ll be keen to find is the staff canteen. This is right next to reception (Q17). I can confidently say that the food’s very good, but the view isn’t. The windows on one side look onto a corridor and courtyard, which aren’t very attractive at all, and on the other onto the access road, which isn’t much better.

You’ll be using the meeting room quite often, and you’ll find it by walking along the corridor to the left of the courtyard, and continuing along it to the end. The meeting room is the last one on the right (Q18), and I’m afraid there’s no natural daylight in the room.

Then you’ll need to know where some of the offices are. The human resources department is all the front of this building, so you head to the left along the corridor from reception, and it’s the second room you come to. It looks out onto the main road (Q19).

And finally, the boardroom (Q20), where you’ll be meeting sometimes. That has quite a pleasant view, as it looks out on to the trees. Go along the corridor past the courtyard, right to the end. The boardroom is on the left, next to the factory.

OK, now are there any questions before we …

Test 2

Good morning and thank you for coming here today. I’d like to bring you up to date with changes in the school that will affect your children.

As you know, the school buildings date from various times: some from the 1970s, some from the last five years, and of course Dartfield House is over a century old. It was commissioned by a businessman. Neville Richards, and intended as his family home, but he died before it was completed. His heir chose to sell it to the local council, who turned it into offices (Q11). A later plan to convert it into a tourist information centre didn’t come about, through lack of money, and instead it formed the nucleus of this school when it opened 40 years ago.

The school has grown as the local population has increased, and I can now give you some news about the lower school site, which is separated from the main site by a road. Planning permission has been granted for development of both sites. The lower school will move to new buildings that will be constructed on the main site. Developers will construct houses on the existing lower school site (Q12). Work on the new school buildings should start within the next few months.

A more imminent change concerns the catering facilities and the canteen. The canteen is always very busy throughout the lunch period – in fact it’s often full to capacity, because a lot of our pupils like the food that’s on offer there. But there’s only one serving point, so most pupils have to wait a considerable time to be served (Q13). This is obviously unsatisfactory, as they may have hardly finished their lunch before afternoon lessons start.

So we’ve had a new Food Hall built, and this will come into use next week. It’ll have several serving areas, and I’ll give you more details about those in a minute, but one thing we ask you to do, to help in the smooth running of the Food Hall, is to discuss with your children each morning which type of food they want to eat that day (Q14), so they can go straight to the relevant serving point. There won’t be any junk food – everything on offer will be healthy – and there’s no change to the current system of paying for lunches by topping up your child’s electronic payment card online.

You may be wondering what will happen to the old canteen. We’ll still have tables and chairs in there, and pupils can eat food from the Food Hall or lunch they’ve brought from home (Q15). Eventually we may use part of the canteen for storage, but first we’ll see how many pupils go in there at lunchtime.

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OK, back to the serving points in the Food Hall, which will all have side dishes, desserts and drinks on sale, as well as main courses.

One serving point we call World Adventures (Q16). This will serve a different country’s cuisine each day, maybe Chinese one day and Lebanese the next. The menus will be planned for a week at a time, so pupils will know what’s going to be available the whole of the week.

Street Life is also international, with food from three particular cultures. We’ll ask pupils to make suggestions (Q17), so perhaps sometimes there’ll be food from Thailand, Ethiopia and Mexico, and then one of them will be replaced by Jamaican food for a week or two.

The Speedy Italian serving point will cater particularly for the many pupils who don’t eat meat or fish (Q18): they can be sure that all the food served there is suitable for them. There’ll be plenty of variety, so they shouldn’t get bored with the food.

OK, that’s all on the new Food Hall. Now after-school lessons. There are very popular with pupils, particularly swimming – in fact there’s a waiting list for lessons. Cycling is another favourite, and I’m delighted that dozens of pupils make use of the chance to learn to ride in off-road conditions. It means that more and more cycle to and from school every day. As you know, we have a well-equipped performance centre, and we’re going to start drama classes (Q19/Q20) in there, too. Pupils will be able to join in just for fun or work up to taking part in a play – we hope to put on at least one a year. We already teach a number of pupils to use the sound and lighting systems in the centre. And a former pupil has given a magnificent grand piano to the school, so a few pupils will be able to learn at the school instead of going to the local college, as many of them do at the moment.

Test 3

Hello everyone. My name’s Megan Baker and I’m a recruitment consultant at AVT Recruitment specialists.

Now, our company specialises in positions that involve working in the agriculture and horticulture sectors, so that’s fresh food production, garden and park maintenance and so on. And these sectors do provide some very special career opportunities. For a start, they often offer opportunities for those who don’t want to be stuck with a 40-hour week, but need to juggle work with other responsibilities (Q11/Q12) such as child care – and this is very important for many of our recruits. Some people like working in a rural setting, surrounded by plants and trees instead of buildings, although we can’t guarantee that. But there are certainly health benefits, especially in jobs where you’re not sitting all day looking at a screen (Q11/Q12) – a big plus for many people. Salaries can sometimes be good too, although there’s a lot of variety here. And you may have the opportunity in some types of jobs for travel overseas, although that obviously depends on the job, and not everyone is keen to do it.

Of course, working outdoors does have its challenges. It’s fine in summer, but can be extremely unpleasant when it’s cold and windy (Q13/Q14). You may need to be pretty fit for some jobs, though with modern technology that’s not as important as it once was. And standards of health and safety are much higher now than they used to be, so there are fewer work-related accidents. But if you like a lively city environment surrounded by lots of people, these jobs are probably not for you – they’re often in pretty remote areas (Q13/Q14). And some people worry about finding a suitable place to live, but in our experience, this usually turns out fine.

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Now let me tell you about some of the exciting jobs that we have on our books right now.

One is for a fresh food commercial manager. Our client here is a very large fresh food producer supplying a range of top supermarkets. They operate in a very fast-paced environment (Q15) with low profit margins – the staff there work hard, but they play hard as well, so if you’ve a sociable personality this may be for you.

We have an exciting post as an agronomist advising farmers on issues such as crop nutrition, protection against pests, and the latest legislation on farming and agricultural practices. There are good opportunities for the right person to quickly make their way up the career ladder (Q16), but a deep knowledge of the agricultural sector is expected of applicants.

A leading supermarket is looking for a fresh produce buyer who is available for a 12-month maternity cover (Q17) contract. You need to have experience in administration, planning and buying in the fresh produce industry, and in return will receive a very competitive salary.

We have also received a request for a sales manager for a chain of garden centres. You will be visiting centres in the region (Q18) to ensure their high levels of customer service are maintained. This post is only suitable for someone who is prepared to live in the region.

There is also a vacancy for a tree technician to carry out tree cutting, forestry and conservation work. Candidates must have a clean driving licence and have training in safety procedures. A year’s experience would be preferred but the company might be prepared to consider someone who has just completed an appropriate training course. (Q19)

Finally, we have a position for a farm worker. This will involve a wide range of farm duties including crop sowing and harvesting, machine maintenance and animal care. Perks of the job include the possibility of renting a small cottage on the estate (Q20), and the chance to earn a competitive salary. A driving licence and tractor driving experience are essential.