organisation which, by moving here should attract a number of London-based companies to the region.
Woman: So, is there any other help available, from local business agencies, for example? Man: We’ve been offered various things- one agency provided a consultant to advise us on the initial design phase. We’ve just signed an agreement with the local employment agency, whereby they’re prepared to pay fifty percent of the cost of sending our technicians on external computer courses. We could have benefited financially from another scheme if we’d been able to take on school leavers, but our openings are only for experienced workers. Woman: Quite. Tell me about the logistics of …
Test3-Part One(1)
Woman: This is a message for Mr. James.
It’s Maria Hopwood calling from the London office. Please could you give him some information about our meeting next week?
First of all, would you first let him know that a new trainee should be coming along too. However, unfortunately the sales manager has had to drop out, but I don’t want to change the date at this stage. Ask him to make sure he brings the information we worked out last time about our profit margins, as I don’t seem to have a note in the latest report of how we arrived at those figures.
I’ll bring a draft press release, which I’ve been working on since we last met. Oh, and could he also bring along all the ideas he has in mind for the product launch.
I’ve got the advertising copy to show him. It should be a good meeting! I’ll fax the final agenda the day before the meeting—no, on second thoughts, I’ll email it. It’ll be easier that way.
Test3-Part One(2)
Woman: Hello. This is Alison in Head Office. Man: Oh, hello.
Woman: The CEO has asked me to contact you about the memo you sent everyone yesterday ... where you asked for comments on the bid you've just put together - for Stratford Electronics. Man: Oh, right.
Woman: Well he's very happy with it on the whole, but does think the introduction is rather lengthy and includes more statistics than are necessary. Man: No problem, I can shorten it easily.
Woman: And most of the contents of the actual bid are fine, but you do refer to the annual report which won't be out until May.
Man: Oh, right... I'll get rid of that.., yes. And I was thinking there's enough with the section on the existing contracts we have, so I could take out the stuff on the new contracts ... the ones we're about to start.
Woman: In fact, he specifically said that he thought mentioning them was a very good selling point. Man: OK.
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Woman: And he'd like you to have something in your concluding remarks about the growth in overseas sales, not just the stuff on domestic markets. Man: Yes, I was wondering about that.
Woman: And that's all really. Easy to adjust I think.
Man: OK, well thank the CEO for looking at it. It's very helpful.
Test3-Part One(3)
Woman: Human Resources.
Man: Nina, this is Malcolm, from Production. Woman: Hi. What can I do for you?
Man: We've just had a big order, to be finished in May. I'm going to need all the people I can get to do overtime.
Woman: OK, I'll put out a notice for applications. What's the pay rate?
Man: It'll be the usual rate of one and a half times, except for Saturdays and Sundays. Then they'll get double rate.
Woman: Right, I'll get some application forms organised. Who should the staff send them to? The Production Manager?
Man: Better to hand them to their line managers, then they can bring up any questions. And I'll need the names by the first of December. Woman: OK, I'll do that straight away.
Man: Oh, and ask them to put down which shifts they'd prefer. We'll work out the hours we need later.
Woman: All right.
Man: Thanks, Nina. Bye. Woman: Bye.
Test3-Part Two(1)
Thirteen
Woman: This chain of clothing stores has been a household name in this country and abroad for a century. But some years ago, it lost market share and closed most of its overseas branches. Its goods declined in quality, and became dull and out of touch with modern taste. After a period in crisis, the company hired a new team of designers and re-launched its entire range. The upgrading in quality and style have put this store back on the fashion map. Fourteen
Man: This has been an inspirational success story. Five years ago, the Ty-Ban cheese company didn't exist. They now supply more cheese to the foreign market than any other cheese company their size. Originally, Ty-Ban was a small farm rearing cattle and sheep, but the family realised they would have to diversify or go out of business. They started experimenting with some old recipes for organic cheese, in spite of warnings that the market was saturated, and came up with a winner.
Test3-Part Two(2)
Fifteen
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Woman: Business consultancy is one of the most competitive areas in the service sector. Huge fees are charged to the customers, but the customers have huge expectations in return. This has led to a growing feeling of disillusionment - 'What do these people do that we couldn't do for ourselves?' Well, here we have a uniquely creative consultancy company that produces revolutionary ideas for projecting a corporate image to the outside world. Their methods are startling, but they certainly get results. Sixteen
Man: Some of us can remember the days when a visit to the supermarket was no fun. If you needed information, there was never an assistant in sight. And when you did find one, they knew less than you. Well, that time is long past, and the seminar I watched recently at our award-winning supermarket was a revelation. It endeavoured to keep sales assistants up-to-date with information about food technology, how to access product information on the store intranet, and so on. And that's what gave this supermarket its edge.
Test3-Part Two(3)
Seventeen
Woman: Has this happened to you? You've paid a small fortune to have a kitchen installed. The fitters have gone, you switch on the dishwasher, and the next thing you know, the kitchen's flooded. Our award-winning company has a twenty-four hour phone service, seven days a week, with a reply guaranteed (by real people) within three minutes. And if it's an emergency with one of their appliances, an engineer is out to you on the same day. Service like this is rare these days. Eighteen
Woman: My feeling is that we should leave aside VSB's offer. It's obviously very competitive - way below the others. But how do we know they'd complete the project on time and to the required standard? They're a small company. Would they have the skilled labour or equipment? We could request references from former customers, I suppose. That'd mean putting off the decision and personally I have very little confidence in recommendations - they're easily 'manufactured'. Let's look at the other companies.
Test3-Part Two(4)
Nineteen
Man: You've been in this department for three months, John, and I'm very pleased with your work. You've obviously mastered the regular things - paperwork, customer enquiries etcetera, and you've made some excellent proposals for improvements. I think it's time to see how you manage more challenging work. How would you feel about taking on my responsibility for the finance committee? It'd mean taking minutes and liaising with the chair. You'd find it interesting and I could concentrate on the end-of-year report. Twenty
Woman: From the figures, it's clear that our Canadian outlets are below target - approximately twenty per cent below for the third quarter, if the finance report is right. Now what should we do about it? Cut our losses and close the outlets? That's the MD's view. I think it's too early to do that. We've invested heavily in Canada and we don't want to lose
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that investment. Let's send someone over to try to turn the position round and then make a judgment in December.
Test3-Part Two(5)
Twenty-one,
Man: You've been a reliable supplier for years and we're very grateful. Would you be interested in a different form of collaboration now? We're putting on an exhibition of office equipment in the convention centre and we're looking for companies to help us meet some of the costs, such as producing a catalogue. There'd be some useful publicity for you and free tickets and hospitality for your guests. Think about it. We don't need an instant decision. Discuss it with your director. Twenty-two,
Woman: Thanks for getting back to me so quickly about my request for a transfer, I'm sorry the company couldn't help, but I really do need to be in London. My husband's been offered a job there and it's too good to turn down. So I've been looking around and there's a possibility in the Publicity section at Richardsons' but they're selecting people tomorrow. I have to provide a testimonial quickly. Would you mind doing me one?
Test3-Part Three(1)
Woman: My guest today is Ricky Bland, whose critical report on how service companies approach training has just been published. Hello, Ricky.
Man: Hello. Yes I looked at the provision of training by employers in this country, and found that most have a'winner-takes-all' approach to training. Despite low levels of basic skills, companies spend most of their training budgets on their most qualified employees, particularly managers. This simply doesn't result in the quality we need. Woman: But does this really matter?
Man: Yes, because even though there have been enormous efforts to make training available to everyone, the under-development of the workforce in this country is a major factor in our poor productivity. It's also true that the time people spend being trained is below the average of the world's industrialised economies.
Woman: Training is particularly bad in the fast-food industry, isn't it?
Test3-Part Three(2)
Man: Well, the industry certainly has the image of offering low-paid, low-prestige jobs with no future prospects. And there are jobs that don't demand a great deal of skill, for instance using the latest technology for cooking. But in fact, that image isn't entirely accurate. Not only are pay and conditions improving, but some fast-food chains are better than many other service sector employers at combining commercial success with the development of its workforce.
Woman: Can you give us an example?
Man: Well, the Burger House chain gives its staff the chance to take courses in all sorts of things, not just those needed for cooking or serving. When the annual training programme is circulated, staff plan with their managers which courses to attend. They encourage people to
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