Here are Top 3 frequently asked Summarize Spoken Text questions in recent PTE Academic test (September 2020).

1. Talent War (Version 3)

I think there is an intense competition at the moment to hire the most talented and most intellectually able people. There is a time when I think companies have many of the adventures in the world. That involves the companies’ world. It was the bosses’ world. Now I think it reverses the case. We have a shortage in talent base within countries and between countries, have an intense battle between companies to hire the most talented workers and also between countries, which are looking to recruit talented young people, talented young immigrants.

We have this sense of immigrants being things that countries are battled to keep out, and immigrants want to get in, climb of the walls. I think the opposite isn’t that the case. And the topic is that countries are trying to lure bright young people to get them to go to universities and get them to become immigrants.

So, on many levels, talent is a premium. There is a shortage of talent, and so countries, companies, all sorts of organizations, of course, volunteer organizations as well as, are competing to hire the best and the brightest. You know we have a baby-boom population which is aging. We have an economy which is becoming more sophisticated. And so, for all those sorts of reasons, talent is a premium.

2.University Competition

Today a university like the LSE certainly has to acknowledge that it is in competition for the best students, all of whom have choices they can exercise, and many of them choices which run across national and continental borders. We are in competition, too, for staff. The academic job market is one of the most global there is. And in the 21 st century English is the new Latin, so universities in English speaking countries are exposed to more intensive competition than those elsewhere. We are in competition for government funding, through the assessment of research quality. We are in competition for research contracts, from public and private sector sources, and indeed we are in competition for the philanthropic pound. Many of our own donors were at more than one university, and indeed think of the LSEs requests alongside those of other charities to which they are committed. That is a competitive environment which is particularly visible to a Vice- Chancellor.

3. Citizenship Curriculum

Last month I published alongside my annual report a subject report on the development of citizenship in schools. The report celebrates the success of some schools in implementing the citizenship curriculum. It praises those schools where there have been substantial developments in the subject, and which now go a long way towards fulfilling national curriculum requirements. In the report, we are critical of schools which have not taken citizenship seriously, either through reluctance or lack of capacity to make appropriate provision in the curriculum. Citizenship is marginalized in the curriculum in one-fifth of schools. It is less well established in the curriculum than other subjects, and less well taught, and some critics have seized on this as a reason for wanting to step back from supporting it. Yet, the progress made to date by the more committed schools suggests that the reasons for introducing citizenship are both worthwhile and can be fulfilled, given the time and resources. Indeed, those reasons are given added weight by national and global events of the past few months. While not claiming too much, citizenship can address core skills, attitudes, and values that young people need to consider as they come to terms with a changing world.