2

The importance of education

1 How important is it for people in your company to have a formal education?

2 How clear is the career path in your company?

Video comprehension
3

video

Watch the video and listen to Graham before answering the questions.

1 How important do you think it is to hold an MBA?

2 Can a person succeed in business without an MBA?
3 Do you agree that the academic path is the best way to career success?

video Watch the video again and decide if the following statements are True or
False. If they are false, try and change them to make them true.

1 The main reason people do an MBA is financial.

2 An MBA degree is affordable to most people.
3 An MBA gives a person a better career choice.
4 Most industries now usually expect a person to hold a masters degree.
5 Retail professions often prefer people skills to qualifications.
6 Some people immediately know their business idea so they dont need a formal qualification.
7 Formal education helps a person to become a leader.
8 An MBA can help you understand business jargon.
9 An MBA is better than determination and setting your own goals.

For more exercises on this video, go to the DVD-ROM.

Speaking
5 Your company is taking part in a community initiative to help young adults. As part
of this your boss has asked you to go to the local college to give an informal careers
presentation. Your presentation should help the young adults understand the best
way to enter your profession and to understand what the career prospects are. Only
one group will be chosen to give their presentation to the college and this will be
decided by a vote.

Work in small groups. Each member of the group should speak during the
presentation. When planning, consider your different career backgrounds and paths
and look back at what Graham says in exercise 4.

6 When everyone is ready, take turns to give your presentation. As you listen to your
colleagues make notes and when they have finished, ask questions.

7 Once all the presentations have been given, vote to decide which group has given
the most informative presentation and should be chosen to present it at the college.

Business Result Advanced Unit 2 | Classroom DVD Worksheets Oxford University Press

Starting point

Video script

So what do employers expect from job

applicants these days, and does it depend on
theindustry?
I think it depends not so much on the industry,
though, er, it depends on the company, so some
companies have very clear procedures, um, that
they will only recruit people with a certain kind
of qualification an MSc or an MBA or a Chartered
Accountancy, whatever it might be, er, and in those
kind of companies then you need to know what the,
the hurdles are in order to get even an interview. Er,
other companies within the same sector may say
well actually, Im really looking at an individual, Im
looking at their desire to work for us and may give
people a chance, even though the qualifications
arent always there, um, though there are some
sectors, some industry sectors, which I think, do
tend to prefer their, people with qualifications in
their area, so for example, retail organisations tend
to recruit people who have retail qualifications,
people in the hotel sector also tend to recruit people
er, who have hotel qualifications. But it really
does depend, I think, a lot upon the individual
organization as much as, um, the sector.
So in your opinion what is the best path to
a successful career a strong educational
background or working your way up?
Im afraid I am going to give the academic answer,
it depends. I think for some people they know
almost straight away what they want to do with
their life theyve got a business idea, a Richard
Branson or an Alan Sugar these are the sort of

people that they know they want to get into, er,

wheeling and dealing and theyre there straight
away. Others theyre not so sure and one of the
advantages of, of formal um, business qualification,
in particular, it allows people to really think about,
So what do they want to do? and gives them that
start which maybe they dont have, so um. I think
the other thing I want to say is that, um, the best
leaders often have taken time to really think about
what, what they need to do, and again formal
education may help withthat.
Can you think of someone who has succeeded
in business without a formal education?
Well, I suppose one of the worlds richest men
is Bill Gates, er, Bill Gates actually did start at
Harvard, er, but he dropped out, I think, after the
first year, so Im not sure that really counts as
a formal education, but he had a passion and a
business idea and of course thats worked really well
for him.
So can you think of someone who wouldnt
have succeeded in business without a formal
education?
Er, one of the people in my mind is a guy called
Andy Harrison, er, who until recently was CEO
of easyJet, and if you look at Andys career post
doing an MBA, he became a consultant and then
worked for a number of organizations before er,
becoming CEO of easyJet. What Andy would say
is that the MBA gave him, er, what he called the
jargon-busting, um, guide, so although hes not an
accountant, he knows how to speak to accountants,
although hes not a marketeer, he knows how to
talk to marketeers, and the MBA did that for him
and it also allowed him, er, to get past the first
hurdle in his career. Post that, its all down to his
determination and its all down to his clarity of
goals, um, but theres no doubt that the er, the
business qualification gave him the first step on, on
the ladder.
Compare that to, to Richard Branson, then clearly
he had a determination to succeed and an eye for
an opportunity. What Richard has done, I think, is
manage to build around him a team of people who
really support him and allow him to continue to
succeed; that would be true for Andy Harrison, too.
He would also say getting the right team is really
key to success.

Business Result Advanced Unit 2 | Classroom DVD Worksheets Oxford University Press

Why do people take MBAs during their career?

There are a number of reasons why people take
an MBA. The economists would say its all about
money, so most people want to get an uplift in
salary if only to pay for the MBA Degree, which is
not cheap. On the other hand I think a lot of people
will take an MBA because they want to get an
acceleration in their career; they dont necessarily
want to change jobs but they want to get on faster.
Others very clearly want to be become General
Managers and an MBA allows people to get an
overview of all the business disciplines, er, within
a year or within two years, er, so again its an
accelerated, um, progression and for still others its
about choice: What do I want to do? Im not going
to be confined by where I came from., so its about
career choice, maybe a bit later on in their careers.

Worksheet answer key

Business Result Advanced Unit 2 | Classroom DVD Worksheets Oxford University Press

1 Answers will vary.

2 This question is designed to check students
understand what a career path is.
3 The answers to these questions will vary as
to the students opinion. However they should
reflect that the video advocates taking as formal
education route unless you have a sold business
idea from the outset.
4 1 True
2 False, they are expensive, people usually want
a pay rise to cover it.
3 True
4 False, it depends on the industry.
5 False, they might prefer an industry specific
qualification rather than an MBA.
6 True
7 True
8 True
9 False, it can help you on the first step but you
need your own determination.