Listening Tape Script 1996

use of english listening test 1996 part i smith:

good afternoon, my name is john smith and i’d like to welcome you all to this seminar about how to join graduate trainee schemes. the seminar is sponsored by the graduate placement service, the organization i work for. the objectives of the seminar are, firstly, to give you the facts about the schemes; secondly, to explain the selection criteria, that is, how companies go about choosing applicants, and thirdly, to describe the stages involved in the recruitment procedures. so now i’d like to introduce our first guest speaker, mr peter lee from ntw limited.

lee:

good afternoon everybody. i'm very pleased to be here today. well, as we're a computer manufacturing company, i’l'll talk about our schemes for graduate engineers rather than our management training schemes. in our field we need electrical engineers and computer engineers, but in the past, we've also hired electronic engineers. we need engineers with technical expertise because we see an increased demand for innovative products and services in the coming years. our graduate engineering training schemes last two years, after which the trainees become what we call professional staff. firstly, during the training, the graduates work on engineering projects these are done under the supervision of a senior member of staff. their purpose is to develop the trainees' ability to work in a team. then, the trainees have review meetings in which they and their managers look back over the project work. this is to help the trainees evaluate the results of their work. we also send the engineers on management courses. these courses are designed to develop their managerial skills. it's important for them to develop these early in their careers.

smith:

so what would make an ideal applicant for one of your trainee schemes?

lee:

well, to start with, we are of course looking for a good degree, but there're other qualities required too. many of the graduates we interview think that as long as they have a first-class honours degree they'll be automatically taken onto the scheme. some think that attending a wellknown university will guarantee them a place. they also feel that their technical skill’s the most important thing for their careers. these things are not necessarily true. as a company, we're looking for signs of leadership. his might be shown by such things as involvement in student clubs or committees. we also look for a broad range of interests outside the subject they've studied - sports or community work for example. another key thing is the ability to communicate. we need people who can communicate effectively in both chinese and english.

smith: lee: two

that’s very interesting. can you tell us a little about why companies run these schemes? it seems a lot of effort. yes, it is a lot of effort, and there some problems. one is that it's very expensive to spend years training someone. if the trainee drops out, we’ve then made a bad investment. keeping trainees after they've completed the training is also a problem. young people don’t always

think about the longer term benefits, so they may go to work for someone else for a slightly higher salary. obviously, there're benefits for the organisation, - we wouldn't do it otherwise. we can plan for the future - we know we're have competent managers to fill posts. we also get people who can be trained in the culture of the company. it's easier for us to train graduates who've not worked in other companies in the ways of our organization and culture, and it’s quicker too. smith :

so what're the benefits for graduates in joining these schemes?

lee:

of course, there have to be some advantages for them too. obviously, they can learn a lot in their two years of training. in this period, they can also benefit from rotation from one work area to another. what’s more, the long-term prospects for these graduates in our organization are very good. and finally, we offer very competitive salaries for those on these schemes.

smith:

thank you, mr lee. perhaps now we can speak to mrs. wood about her scheme.

wood:

thank you mr smith. can i first say how pleased i am to be here representing beijing bank at this seminar.

smith:

we're glad to have you here. now, mrs wood, can you tell us something about your recruitment process?

wood:

yes, after the screening process we have the first interview. but, we don'r interview individuals - we have a group interview.

smith

so what’re you looking for in this?

wood:

well, we're looking for three things. firstly, we want to see if they're good at communicating in a group. for example, can they contribute to the discussion, are they too aggressive - this type of thing. we also want to see if they have an analytical mind, so we give them material they've not seen before to use in the discussion. lastly, we get the interviewees to take part in discussions so that we can see what their interpersonal skills are like.

smith :

what happens after the group interview? is the selection made then?

wood

no, there're three more stages for the applicants to go through. the next stage is an interview with the chosen individuals. during this interview, we're looking for signs of leadership ability, as well as business knowledge and, most importantly, commitment to a career with our company. leadership is especially important, and our questions during the interview focus heavily on this. by business knowledge, i mean some understanding of finance and management. the last quality - their commitment to working with us - is very difficult to assess, but we have ways of telling.

smith:

and how many applicants get through this stage?

wood:

usually we narrow it down to about 30 or 40. what we do next is give them a series of tests. some of these designed to discover their problem-solving abilities. we give them a set of case studies they need to work through by analyzing the information they're given. we also do some tests to find out how adaptable the graduates are. and ability to adapt to new things is definitely an advantage. we're also particularly interested in looking for people who can work well in teams. these personality tests help us to find the right type of job for the graduates we select.

smith:

and that takes us to the last stage?

wood:

yes, the number of applicants is reduced until we are left with only those we think are the best. the last stage is a presentation to managers. this is similar to mr lee’s process. one obvious quality we're looking for is how well they cope with stressful situations, but we also want to see if they can answer questions well. the managers make the final selection.

smith:

thank you for telling us about that. i believe ntw has a very similar recruitment process to yours, but that there are some differences between your training schemes and mr lee’s. can you briefly tell us about the differences?

wood :

yes, they are very similar with regard to the activities, but the focus is slightly different in our scheme. so, for example, our graduate trainees work in two or three areas of the business, as do trainees of ntw. we at beijing bank focus on developing managerial skills, though, which is very important in banking, whereas ntw emphasize the completion of projects and tasks. both groups of trainees are provided with classroom training. however, ours is focused on job knowledge and elements of banking that the graduates need to know. we do not teach management skills in the classroom at this stage because we feel they're acquiring such skills through on-the-job experience. however, mr lee’s trainees do receive formal instruction in management skills.

smith :

thank you, mrs wood. let's have a short break now and afterwards we'll have the questionand answer session.

announcer: that's the end of part 1. you'll now have five minutes to tidy up your answer. (5 minutes pause) tone part ii in this part, you’ll hear a question-and-answer session. you'll now have three minutes to familiarize yourself with the headings for part ii. (3 minutes pause) tone smith:

all right everyone. perhaps we could see if there’re any questions from the audience. there's a hand up at the back there. could you tell us who you are and what your question is? i'm tommy tin, an engineering student from tai po university. it's a new university and i want to ask, are the history and the reputation of the university important when applying? i've heard that some universities are better thought of than others.

smith:

thank you for that question. perhaps mr lee would like to answer it. the history and the reputation of the university, are they important?

lee :

i can assure you, you would be at a disadvantage if you went to a less well-known university. but, could i ask you what department you’re in?

tin :

i'm in the electrical engineering department.

lee :

ah, well, your department is actually quite well known for its research activities. it's the reputation of the department that matters most, not the university’s.

wood :

in the case of banking, the same applies. instead of looking at which university, we look at which department you’ve come from, but this isn’t the only criterion. we look at how well previous graduates perform. this can be very important. if a particular university has a record of producing graduates who perform very well, we’ll bear this in mind.

tin:

my elder brother went to stamford university. last year, he was hired by someone who also went to stamford, so i was wondering whether senior managers tend to favour graduates from their own universities.

smith:

mm. do managers favour applicants from their own university? that's an interesting question. mrs wood?

wood:

no, definitely not. we treat every applicant in the same way. our applicants are selected on their own merit.

smith:

thanks for that. we have another question from the front.

wong:

i'm eric wong from the university of sha tin. you’ve talked a lot about the process of selection-tests, interviews, presentations. which is the most important stage in the selection process?

wood;

mm. i realize there're a lot of stages in the whole selection process, but i would say that the individual interview is the most important part.

wong:

why's that?

wood:

well, because it's the time when the applicant can impress the interviewer with their personality;

lee:

i think for ntw the most important part of the process is an aptitude test which we do early on. this aptitude test shows us whether the applicant is flexible and can think independently. both of these qualities are extremely important in the computer industry.

chan:

i'm ellen chan, a reporter for student news and i'd like to ask, is what you wear to the interview important?

lee:

well, we expect people to be neat and tidy, but we do not expect the height of fashion or the most expensive clothes! in other words, a tidy appearance is what we're looking for.

chan:

what else can applicants do to prepare for the interview?

lee:

well, we expect the applicants to have done a bit of homework before the interview : by homework i mean find out what the company does and also, very importantly, what their products are. these two things are basic information that applicants must know. applicants should also find out howbig the company is, and another very important piece of information they'll need to know is who the company’s competitors are.

smith:

mrs wood, have you got anything to add to what mr lee has said?

wood:

yes, preparation before an interview is very important, though we expect candidates to know about the services we offer, rather than the products. candidates will also impress us if they show that they're familiar with the range of customers we have. customers are our important

asset, so some knowledge about this is very important. smith :

we have another question from the floor.

cobb:

my name is alan cobb and i'm a major in business studies. i’d like to know how successful you are in retaining your trainees. i'm sure most companies would hate to put in so much time and effort only to see their trainees leave after training. i'd be interested in mrs wood's view on this, as our graduate drop-out rate at ntw is about 25%.

lee: wood:

yes, we’re not able to keep all our graduate trainees in the bank either, though our rate isn’t as high as 25% , it's around 10% for us. most of the graduates that leave the scheme do so in the first three months during the probation period. they leave because they get a better offer, or they decide that they've chosen the wrong field. for example, some decide they want to go to what they think are more exciting businesses such as stockbroking or investment houses.

lee:

our graduates generally leave at the end of the training. they all stay in the computer industry because there're a lot of opportunities for trained, experienced computer engineers. they leave because they want to broaden their experience with different types of company. they do not generally drop out because they get a better offer. however, another reason why some enginners choose to leave is because they have the opportunity to specialize.

smith :

so what are the things that you do to ensure that your trainees stay with you?

lee :

well, at ntw we've considered putting a penalty clause in our engineers’ contract of employment. the clause would state that they must stay with us for a certain length of time after training or pay a heavy penalty. it's common practice in some industries. we decided against this mainly because we felt it would discourage applicants we want from applying for the scheme. also, we don’t want to affect overall staff morale by forcing someone who’s unhappy working for us to stay.

smith:

how about beijing bank?

wood:

we ask our trainees to sign a contract for a minimum period of three years after their probation. we know three years is a long time, but we do this for two reasons. firstly, such a contract arrangement is standard banking practice. everyone else does it, so why shouldn't we! also, we make them sign a contract in order to stop our competitors from recruiting them at the end of the training.

smith:

well. i think we have time for a couple more questions. over on the left.

tong:

my name is sally tong and i'm an engineering student. i'd like to know how many female graduates versus male graduates you recruit for your schemes.

lee:

as we're an engineering company, perhaps i can answer that question first. we take on very few females. we only had two this year and three the year before, which is about a tenth of our trainees. the reason we hire so few female engineers is because not many apply. we'd like more because they have several advantages over male engineers. for example, female engineers are generally better at working with people. they're also good team players because they're naturally cooperative. also, in our experience, the female engineers have better language skills. however, there is a big problem that female engineers face - at first, it’s very difficult to get the respect of the male engineers. male engineers tend to be suspicious of their abilities.

wood :

we try to get an even mix of male and female trainees. in our case about 40% of our trainees are female. we need trainees who’re comfortable dealing with people, but we need both men women who are able to do this. however, there are parts of our work which men are better at

because they’re more competitive. that said, one of the strengths women have is their ability to negotiate successfully. smith :

does that answer your question miss tong?

tong:

yes, but i'd also like to ask how many female directors the companies have on their boards?

smith :

mr lee, perhaps you would like to answer this question first.

lee :

we have several women in senior positions, but we have yet to see our first female director.

wood :

well, we do have one, and she was actually one of our graduate trainees when she joined us.

smith :

well, that's encouraging. and that’s all we have time for. thank you. mr lee and mrs wood for coming here today. i'm sure your information will help many members of our audience decide what they'd like to do in the future with regard to training.

announcer: that's the end of the seminar. you now have 10 minutes to tidy up your answers.