My future profession
Warming up.
How many students are in your high school?
Some people say that your school days are the best days of your life. Do you agree?
Do you think school and university prepares young people adequately for real life?
Do you agree there is too much pressure on young people at schools and universities these days?
Some people argue that end-of-year exams should be replaced by continuous assessment. What do you think?
Have there been significant changes in schooling methods in your country in recent years?
Do you think schools and universities provide enough careers advice to their students?
Are college tuitions reasonable in your country? Is it easy to get scholarships or government grants?
Are there good colleges in your country?
Do many people in your country study abroad?
Did you use to cram before taking an exam or did you knuckle down several months before? What would you say is the best system?
What percentage of people drop out of the university system in your country? Is it harder or easier for them to find jobs?
What does the education system do to prepare people for work or to assist them to find jobs? Is it efficient?
Why do people go to university? To obtain job skills? To get a degree? To have a good time? To find a husband/wife?
Some people in the UK get jobs through their school or university connections. Do many people in your country get jobs through the "old school tie"? What other connections could be useful if you wanted to get a job?
Read the texts. Complete them with more information about your future profession.
Make sure you understand the meaning of the following words and word-combinations:
to make right decision
to depend on
choice
to give practical advice
to coincide with
to give a definite answer
injustice
cruelty
a militia officer
to apprehend
various branches of Law
a crime scene
to obtain information
a perpetrator
a witnesse
to profit at the expense of our state
punishment
to maintain public order
Part A. Lawyer.
When you leave school, you have to make, maybe, the most important choice of your life – you have to choose your future profession.
Nowadays there is a great number of different professions, but it is not easy to make right decision. First of all, you should understand that all your life depends on your choice. Someone said: “Find the work you like, and you will work never”. What does it mean? It means, that making your choice you should remember that the job must not only give you money, it must give pleasure. That is why, choosing the profession you should not listen to your friends or your parents, who often try to give practical advice. Sometimes parents insist on you following the traditions of the family, and the desire of our parents don’t always coincide with ours.
Making this choice you must remember about your abilities, and about your interests.
When I had to choose the profession, I changed my plans several times about what I want to be. I have asked myself a lot of times: “What do I want to be, what do I want to do when I leave school?”. I want to say, that a few years ago I couldn’t give a definite answer. As the years passed I changed my mind a lot of times. And in the end, I stopped on one profession, that is very interesting to my mind.
I decided to become a lawyer. You can ask me “why?”, and I am ready to answer. The legal profession is very popular among young people in my country and highly paid today, but it was not the main motive of my choice. The main motive was that legal profession is very interesting and quite necessary for other people and for regulation of social situation in the state.
There were no lawyers in my family, and there are no lawyers among my friends. More than that my father always says there are a lot of lawyers today, and I will not be able to find a job. But to my mind good lawyers are still unique.
Modern world is full of injustice and cruelty, a lot of people are getting victims of these injustice and cruelty. I understand that I won’t be able to help everybody, but I will try to help as more people as I can.
The profession of the lawyer is interesting also because it is very old profession.
Part B. Militia officer.
Now I am a student of Mogilev Institute of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Belarus. I am a future militia officer.
The principal task of our militia is to fight crime. And one of the main duties of militia officers is to prevent crime. But if a crime has been committed the militia officers should do all they can to detect the offender; it means to locate and apprehend him.
We know that quick and accurate solution of a crime greatly depends on the professional skills of the investigating officers, on their training. That is why we try to master a special course of Detective Activity, various branches of Law, Criminalistics, Crime Psychology and many other special subjects. Nobody can say what crime you will have to face tomorrow, so the militia officers should be educated persons. It is not so easy to investigate crimes, it is difficult to trace and locate criminals. We must know how to interview witnesses, interrogate criminals, we learn all that at our Institute.
Very often the solution of a crime is in the crime scene. When the investigator arrives at the crime scene he examines the scene very carefully. He makes a plan of the investigation. All the evidence in the crime scene must be found, collected and preserved for court presentation. The effectiveness of an investigator largely depends upon his ability to obtain information. The elements of the offence must be established. Identification must be obtained. The investigator works in close cooperation with other officers of the operative group.
The officer of the Criminal Detection Department (a detective) is responsible for the detection of the perpetrator. A great part of detective work is devoted to «finding» missing or wanted person. The search for a person may be a simple matter, but in many cases, however, it may become a complicated task. The solving of a case frequently depends upon locating the perpetrator. The proper presentation of a case in court involves the discovery and identification of witnesses. The detective also takes measures for search, discovery and seizure of the stolen property and instruments of the crime.
There are some people in our society who don't want to live an honest life, who try to profit at the expense of our state. The task of an officer of Economic Crimes Department is to reveal the criminal activity of such people and to provide their punishment. Some of us will work as divisional inspectors. The divisional inspectors are responsible for maintaining public order in their areas.
Questions to discuss:
- Did classmates talk to each other much before or after class?
- Did you skip class very often?
- Do college professors give students syllabuses at the beginning of term? Were you clear on what professors expected of you?
- Do you think your teachers gave too much homework? How much homework should teachers assign students?
- Do you think it is easier to learn as a child or as an adult?
- Is it difficult for people without a college education to get good jobs where you live?
- Does education guarantee a good job?
- What are the qualities of a good student?
- What are the qualities of a good teacher?
- Why do you think people become teachers?
- How much free time does a high school student in your country have?
- Once you graduate from a university should you stop learning?
- What are some ways a person can continue to learn?
- Are college graduates smarter than people who did not go to college?
- Would you ever vote for a politician who did not attend college?
- Do the elite in your country attend only one or two universities? Do elite universities help or harm your country?
- What realistic changes would you make to your country's attitude toward education?
- Why do students cheat during tests and exams? How do they cheat?
- What is your attitude towards cheating? How should parents react? How should teachers react?
- Where do we learn the skills necessary to become a good student - in elementary, middle or high school?
- Should people go straight from school to a university, or do something different?
- What is a "genius"?
- Do teachers sometimes teach things that are not important?
- Are there things your school does not teach that you think it should?