Schools should focus more on teaching students to be successful in the workforce and place less emphasis on academic success.

Practice this IELTS Writing Task 2 question on IELTSX. Schools should focus more on teaching students to be successful in the workforce and place less emphasis on academic success.

Schools Workforce Success vs Academic Achievement - IELTS Writing Task 2

You should spend about 40 minutes on this task.

To what extent do you agree or disagree?

Write at least 250 words.

A student's answer to this task, and the feedback on it

Written by an IELTSX user under exam conditions and published unedited and anonymously. Band 6.5 · 355 words.

There is a view that the main aim of schools should be teaching students to be a seccessful employee, placing less importance on academic knowledge. I partially agree with this statement, and in my opinion, combination of both perspectives should be priority.

On the one hand, academic knowledge may play a vital role in job prospects of students in the future. Educated graduates are more likely to find jobs easily, as majority of organizations seek such literate workers. If a student study only practical subjects such as mathematics, physics, and chemistry, they can be successful in these fields, earn more and have a better life. A case in point is China, where significant emphasis is placed on academic knowledge. This resulted in remarkably low unemployment rate and successful careers. From this perspective, academic disciplines should be the main subjects in schools.

On the other hand, focusing on more teaching how to work in the workplace can have its own benefits. The chief among them is that more skilled employees work productively as a part of a team. After graduation, while some students venture into the world of self employment, most of them choose to be in a team, where they can learn how to collaborate with other workers and gain valuable experience. As a result, they can be better employee or even successful leader. In this view, placing more emphasis on equipping students with such knowledge can have a positive impact on team work.

In my view, neither extreme is ideal. In today's era people are expected to have both interpersonal skills which are useful while working in a team and academic knowledge. Since most companies prefer flexible workers, knowing how to work in the workplace and having academic achievements can be highly beneficial for graduates. Germany can provide a relevant example: its dual education can guarantee students experience and practical knowledge alike, resulting in economic growth.

To conclude, while academic knowledge can be useful for students in the future, necessary skills to secure a job are too significant to ignore. I strongly believe that schools should strike a balance between academic success and skills.

Examiner feedback

The essay provides a well-reasoned response with a clear structure and logical progression. To reach a higher band, the candidate needs to improve grammatical precision—specifically regarding articles and subject-verb agreement—and ensure more accurate spelling of high-frequency words like 'successful'.

Task Response - 7

- The essay addresses all parts of the task and presents a clear position throughout (favoring a balanced approach). - Main ideas are relevant and supported with specific examples (China and Germany), though the link between China's academic focus and its unemployment rate is somewhat over-generalized. - The response successfully argues for the integration of both academic and vocational training rather than just choosing one.

Coherence & Cohesion - 7

- Information is organized logically with a clear progression from the benefits of academic study to the benefits of workforce preparation, followed by a synthesis. - Each paragraph has a clear central topic sentence. - Cohesive devices (e.g., 'On the one hand', 'The chief among them', 'As a result') are used effectively, though some transitions are slightly mechanical.

Lexical Resource - 6

- The vocabulary range is adequate for the task, with some good use of topic-specific terms like 'interpersonal skills', 'dual education', and 'job prospects'. - There are noticeable errors in spelling ('seccessful') and word choice ('literate workers' is used where 'qualified' or 'skilled' would be more appropriate). - Collocations are generally good but sometimes lack the sophistication required for higher bands.

Grammatical Range & Accuracy - 6

- A mix of simple and complex sentence forms is used, but errors are frequent enough to be noticeable. - Issues with subject-verb agreement (e.g., 'If a student study') and missing articles (e.g., 'combination of both', 'majority of organizations') occur throughout. - Punctuation is generally accurate, but some phrasing is slightly awkward ('focusing on more teaching how to work').

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