Insert prepositions or particles where necessary

1. Employers would rather hire applicants with traditional degrees … job candidates with online degrees

2. The university is biased … natural sciences.

3. These exercises are an ideal complement … my usual methods.

4. Regardless … earning her traditional degree she had failed to qualify …
a postgraduate grant.

5. Their educational qualifications entitle them … a higher salary.

6. The findings of the research show that only a third of the online learners are fully … … their future job.

7. The number of teachers … core subjects has increased … 10 per cent since 2000.

8. A university degree may give one a head start … getting a graduate-level job.

Speech activities

Answer the following questions.

1. Why are employers skeptical about online education?

2. What in your opinion are the advantages and disadvantages of virtual institutions?

3. Why (regardless of evident flaws) is online training gaining credibility among employers?

4. Have you had any opportunity of taking online courses? What are your impressions?

In groups of 3 or 4 prepare and stage a debate on the prospects of online learning. For more ideas read the supplementary texts and visit the relevant web sites.

3. Comment on the following Career Centre quotes:

– employers consistently ask for candidates who are driven to succeed. Internships, volunteer experiences and research projects are impressive to companies;

– employers will often take students with less experience, if they can prove in the interview that they have the right attitude, personality, drive, and that they are a good fit with the company and its mission and values;

– students should spend more time preparing to market their skills to recruiters;

– it is crucial that colleges keep a finger on the pulse of industry to ensure they are teaching their students the essential job skills that employers require.

Say if you agree or disagree with the following statements and give your reasons.

1. The subject you study is more important than where you study it.

2. The classic liberal education fills the mind with a lot of delightful but rather useless knowledge.

3. Putting yourself through a university is no guarantee of brilliance and success in life. (For more ideas read the supplementary text “Who Needs a Degree?”).

READING THREE

Two in Three Trainee Teachers who Qualify 'Are not up to the Job'

As many as two-thirds of new teachers in crucial subjects are not up to the job, a leading teacher trainer claims today.

Professor David Burghes believes teaching is 'in crisis' because senior staff are quitting early and entry requirements for new staff are set too low.

A think-tank report which he helped to write also found severe shortages in core subjects, a fivefold increase in unqualified teachers in a decade and soaring teacher turnover at comprehensives plagued by pupil indiscipline.

It claims a government target-setting culture has made teaching unattractive to promising young entrants.

This has forced ministers to attempt to increase the quantity of teachers with­out regard for their quality.

Professor Burghes, who trained sec­ondary maths teachers at Exeter Uni­versity, told the Daily Mail he believed only a third of trainees were fully up to the job and would make 'really good, charismatic teachers'.

He said a further third were mediocre, while the rest were so poor that pupils would be better off taught in larger classes by a skilled teacher.

Professor Burghes, who moved recently to Plymouth University, said that substandard teachers rarely failed to qualify because of weaknesses in the assessment system.

He went on: 'There is, in my view, a cri­sis in the recruitment and retention of teachers of high quality, who love their subject, are good communicators and love teaching.' Ministers had boasted of increasing the number of teachers by more than 10 per cent since 1997, but improved recruitment masked wide vari­ations in the quality of staff, he warned.

At primary level, just 45 per cent of new teachers had two good A-levels. Only 39 per cent of would-be secondary maths teachers got 2.1s in their degrees.

The report, Teaching Matters, found persistent recruitment problems in science and modern languages as well as schools with large numbers of badly-behaved pupils.

The number of 'unqualified' teachers - those without European teaching cer­tificates and instructors with subject knowledge but no qualifications - has risen from 2,600 in 1997 to 11,800 now.

However Graham Holley, chief execu­tive of the Training and Development Agency for Schools, said: 'The trend of initial training for teachers clearly demonstrates a year-on-year improve­ment in quality.’

By Laura Clark. Education Reporter

Language focus

1. Explain what the following words and phrases mean from the context in which they are used:

– a trainee teacher;

– to qualify

– to be up to the job;

– teacher turnover;

– an entrant;

– core subjects;

– a think-tank report;

– a target-setting culture;

– a mediocre teacher.