Listening BE4 – Unit 2: TRAINING

Task 7.1:

Part 1: Listen to the first part of the interview and identify:

1. Three types of workplace.

2. An expression for people who work for an organization under a long-term contract.
3. A word referring to the feeling of belonging to an organisation.
4. An expression referring to the fact of having a main interest or activity to occupy you.
5. An expression used to talk about an apprentice's pay and how often they receive it.
6. An expression to say that an activity is a good idea.

Part 2: Listen again and answer the below questions

1. What are the benefits of apprenticeships for the employer?

…………………….……………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………….………
………………………………………………………………………….………

2. What are the benefits of apprenticeships for the apprentice?

…………………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………...….

Task 7.2:

Listen to the second part of the interview and complete these sentences using NO
MORE THAN FOUR WORDS in each gap.

1/ About ............ per cent of school leavers .......................

2/ The majority of apprentices like to work for .................., e.g ............., .............. , ..............
3/ Apprentices ................. at the start. Apprenticeship programs in Germany usually last
....................or three and a half years.
4/ Apprentices tend to work .................. and spend .................. doing their vocational training.
5/ Apprenticeships are well established in Germany: there even exists a .............. including
various ................... for different kinds of professions.
6/ Germany is proud of the two expressions ................... and....................
7/ They have been in talks with the .................. to set up a similar.................... in the UK.
Task 7.3:

Part 1:
Listen to five different employees in a performance appraisal interview.
Decide which of the supervisor's questions each employee is answering.
• Write one letter (a-e) next to the number of the speaker.
• Do not use any letter more than once.

Speaker 1........... a) Is your job description up to date?

Speaker 2...........
Speaker 3...........
Speaker 4...........
Speaker 5...........
b) What have been your contributions, besides achieving
your target, since your last performance appraisal?
c) Which of your previous appraisal objectives have
you achieved?
d) Is there anything in your job that you have
problems with?
e) Is there anything in your job you would say you
could do better in the future?

Part 2:
Listen again and answer the questions.

1 Who has a very varied job? Speaker……….

2 Who is not particularly happy with the way they organize their time? Speaker……….
3 Who is planning to do a training course? Speaker……….
4 Who is sometimes unfairly criticized? Speaker……….
5 Who would not like to have to write an official report regularly? Speaker……….
Task 7.4: Listen to the first part of the interview with Rosa Soler, a Spanish training
and development consultant, and complete the information.

1 Rosa helps companies with their training by ........................ and ......................... a company’s
needs before deciding on the type of ................... required.

2 The purposes of training activities like tower-building or .................................. are to assess

skills such as teamwork, ....................... and ..........................................................

3 'The in-tray' is an exercise used for assessing ......................................, during which the
participants have to ....................... their workload, but it is really designed to see how
managers...........................................

4 Rosa runs various courses for her clients, which are often programs involving .....................
and, less frequently, ………………

Task 7.5: Listen to the second part of the interview and say whether these
sentences about coaching and mentoring are true (T) or false (F).

……… 1. The aim of coaching programs is to improve the business skills of employees.
……… 2. Coaching style programs are specifically directed at training inexperienced managers.
……… 3. Mentoring programs are designed as long-term career plans for young high-flyers.
……… 4. When a mentee is taking part in a complex mentoring program, he/she is unable to
follow additional courses.
……… 5. The mentor is often a senior person in the organization who must have an objective
working relationship with the mentee.
……… 6. The task of finding a suitable mentor is a challenging one, even for larger companies.

Task 7.6: Listen and fill in the gaps to answer three questions below:
1 What problems do they identify with the sales team's current information gathering
system?
- lack of information and (1)……………. information;
- staff can't afford to spend time in the office completing what they see as a
(2)……………. ……………., so it just gets left;
- internal training for the regional managers was (3) ………………. and they weren't
equipped to train their staff;
- sales team from Reedley have only had very (4) ………… …….…… ………….
with the system.

2 What solutions are discussed?

- Use iPAQ, a sort of palm pilot which the sales team could use to (5) ……………
….………… …….……. in the shops.
- The information is then be uploaded immediately via modem for (6)……………

3 What training needs do they initially identify?

- Training for the new iPAQ system implementation. Ensure that the regional managers
buy in and train staff up as quickly as possible. A (7)………… …….……. should do it.
- Updating sales skills, e.g. (8)………… .…….…… …………. to help sales staff
become (9)……………. …………….. in their approach to selling.
- The merged teams aren't (10)………….. ………….. and it could become a problem
for staff. Team building is needed.