By the end of this exercise, you can talk about a work placement in English — what you did, what you have learnt, and which job you would like to try.
Free Year 9 English practice: work experience and job vocabulary with present perfect and simple past exercises, self-marking gap-fills and a writing task.
Read the text about Lena's work experience. Choose the correct word for each gap.
Every year, students in Year 9 spend two weeks doing work experience. They leave the classroom and work in a real 1. Their teachers hope that they will find out what a normal working 2 really looks like.
Lena has just finished her two weeks at a small animal 3 near her home. On the first morning she was very 4, because she had never worked with a vet before.
Her first 5 were simple. She cleaned the waiting room, brought water to the animals and answered the telephone. After a few days the vet let her 6 a small operation.
“I have learnt a lot about myself,” Lena says. “I have never been so tired in my life, but I have also never been so 7.”
Her teacher says that work experience helps young people to choose a 8. Some students discover a job they love. Others find out which job is definitely not right for them — and that is useful too.
Use the simple past when you say when something happened (yesterday, last week, in May). Use the present perfect when the time is not important, or when something started in the past and is still true (since, for, so far, never, already).
1. Lena her placement last Friday.
2. She three applications so far this year.
3. My brother in a garage since 2023.
4. We our work experience in May.
5. I have never in an office.
6. you ever visited a factory?
7. When you start your placement?
8. Anna already finished her report.
These are the words you need when you look for a placement or a training position. Choose the word that fits.
1. Before you get a job, you have to write an .
2. Your is the document that lists your school, your skills and your experience.
3. If the company likes your letter, they invite you to an .
4. At the end of the month, employees get their .
5. Lena's showed her round the clinic and explained every machine.
6. You should always be and arrive five minutes early.
7. A vet sick animals.
8. After school, many German students start an in a company.
Write 6–8 sentences about work experience. Use at least two present perfect sentences and two simple past sentences.
• Which job would you like to try — and why?
• Have you ever worked, helped in a shop, or looked after children or animals?
• What did you do, and what did you learn?
• Which job would definitely not be right for you?
Review your answers below, then send them to your teacher.
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