Underemployment
Lesson plan overview
This ESL worksheet explores the topic of underemployment, career planning, and employment prospects through engaging speaking, listening, vocabulary, and debate activities. Designed for intermediate learners, it helps students develop career-related vocabulary, improve discussion skills, and analyze job market trends. Other lessons you might like are: “Apprenticeships vs university“, “Changing careers“, “The gig economy“, “Internships“, and “Idioms: opportunities“.
Speaking: The lesson starts with a ranking activity: Students order the reasons for going to university in order of importance. Then, they discuss thought-provoking discussion questions about employment, job market trends, and university education.
Vocabulary: Next, students read the experiences of 4 people, and discuss if they have had similar experiences. Then, they learn key vocabulary for this lesson (e.g. underemployment, overqualified, underpaid, employment prospects, career path, gig economy, soft skills, and dead-end job). Students complete a gap-fill activity to practice these words and expressions.
Speaking: Students discuss the causes of underemployment.
Listening: Students watch a video called “Roughly half of graduates are underemployed 10 years after college” and complete 4 listening comprehension activities. Then, they engage in a post-listening discussion.
Structured debate: Finally, students debate the question “Is it better to accept underemployment or wait for the right job?”
For more speaking practice, you can use the conversation cards.
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Teacher’s lesson plan
Student’s worksheet
Student’s interactive PDF
Conversation cards PDF
Pre-class activities
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In-class activities
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Additional resources
Each video-based lesson plan includes links to additional resources (videos and articles), which are FREE can be found online (in the pre-class activities page. These links aim to extend the learning experience, enabling students to connect classroom knowledge with real-world applications.
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Teacher’s lesson plan
Student’s worksheet
Student’s interactive PDF
Conversation cards PDF
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