Real-world English: How GSE Job Profiles bridge learning and work

Sara Davila
Students sat at a desk looking at a textbook together, with a teacher pointing to it
Reading time: 5 minutes

Did you know that improving your English proficiency can increase earning potential by up to 50% and safeguard your career against AI? Recent research by ɫèAV highlights that English is not just a skill but a career-defining advantage in today’s globalized workplace. For millions of adult learners, the journey from the classroom to the workplace requires more than general conversational abilities—it’s about gaining targeted, job-ready skills as quickly as possible. For English language educators, understanding what “jDz-𲹻” English is and how to identify “jDz-𲹻” skills can provide a significant advantage in ensuring learners are prepared to communicate effectively and collaborate with their future coworkers.

That’s where the Global Scale of English (GSE) Job Profiles comes in. For educators and program developers, it offers a bridge between real-world job skills and the English learners need to perform them. Whether you’re creating programs for nursing assistants, hospitality workers, or IT professionals, this tool ensures that learners build the precise English skills they need to thrive in their roles.

Let’s walk through how to create a GSE Job Profile and explore its practical use for building programs that align with today’s professional realities.

Using GSE Job Profiles for modern program development
Play
Privacy and cookies

By watching, you agree ɫèAV can share your viewership data for marketing and analytics for one year, revocable by deleting your cookies.

Creating a GSE Job Profile in the GSE Teacher Toolkit

The GSE Job Profiles integrates real-world job requirements with GSE learning objectives. It maps skills to proficiency ranges on the GSE scale (10-90), giving you a snapshot of what learners need to do and at what level.

Here’s how to create a job profile:

  1. Access the
    • Navigate to the Professional Learners section to find the GSE Job Profiles information.
  2. Select ‘Choose Job Role’ to filter by Industry and Job Role
    • Use the intuitive menu to select your target industry (e.g., Healthcare support, Legal, or Construction and Extraction).
    • Choose the specific role you’re targeting, such as Registered Nurse.
  3. Generate the profile
    • Keep the GSE slider open to see all skill levels, from Starter (10 / <A1) to Expert (90 / C2).
    • Click Search to generate results.
  4. Download the profile
    • Export the list of skills as a PDF. This gives you a ready-made framework to guide curriculum design and stakeholder discussions.

Using GSE Job Profiles for modern program development

Creating a profile is just the first step—how do you use it? The real power of the GSE Job Profiles lies in its ability to transform curriculum design, ensuring that your program delivers the most relevant skills efficiently.

Case study: Designing an accelerated language program for licensed practical nurses

Let’s say you’re tasked with developing a short program to support licensed practical or vocational nurses. Use the GSE Teacher Toolkit to generate a learner profile.

After generating the GSE Job Profile, you see 32 key skills ranging from GSE 46 to GSE 63. You decide to build a four-module program with clearly defined milestones. Here is an example of the program outline based on the GSE Job Profile.

Program plan: Accelerated licensed practical nurses

Module

Focus Skills

GSE Range

CEFR Level

Module 1: Understanding instructions

Reading, Listening

46-55

B1-B1+

Module 2: Technical communication

Speaking, Writing

51-57

B1+

Module 3: Collaborative problem-solving

Speaking, Listening

54-60

B1+-B2

Module 4: Advanced workplace communication

Speaking, Reading

59-63

B2

Step 1: Prioritize targeted skills

The job profile shows which skills are essential at each GSE level. For Module 1, there may only be four foundational skills, such as working with straightforward instructions or recognizing speaker attitude. While this might seem limited, focusing on these critical objectives ensures learners master essential communication within their role.

For example:

  • Skill: "Can recognize a speaker's feelings or attitudes.”
  • GSE Level: 50 (B1).

In a six-week module, lessons would combine reading, listening and speaking tasks related to this skill, ensuring learners gain confidence in using the language in relevant ways. A nuanced understanding of feelings and attitudes in the healthcare industry can help prevent numerous potential misunderstandings.

By developing these skills, the course improves language ability in relevant ways, improving daily communication with patients, making learning more meaningful and ensuring that each lesson moves learners forward in their communication and career goals.

Step 2: Build scaffolding and stretch goals

With GSE ranges, you can strategically challenge learners by introducing skills slightly above their current level. For instance, Module 3 learners working to make additional progress in English by increasing the GSE level, for example: Can suggest solutions to problems and explain why they would work (GSE 60). This “stretching” builds confidence and helps the learner progress.

Step 3: Align content and assessment

Once the curriculum is outlined, use the job profile as a benchmark to review your:

  • Materials: Choose textbooks, digital resources and practice activities that target the identified skills.
  • Assessments: Build quizzes or role-play activities to evaluate learners’ mastery of job-specific tasks.

Example: For Module 2 learners (GSE 51-57), assessments might involve clearly instructing a patient in a role-play conversation. This might include instructions on how to take specific medications or explaining how to use specific medical equipment the patient may need to use daily.

Why it works: Focus, precision and measurable outcomes

GSE Job Profiles enables educators to:

  1. Save time: Focus on relevant skills without guessing what learners need.
  2. Target proficiency: Design programs that match learners’ current abilities while pushing them forward.
  3. Measure success: Use GSE levels to set realistic goals, monitor progress and demonstrate impact to stakeholders.

The future of English for employability

The GSE Job Profiles is more than just a tool—it’s a roadmap for educators looking to equip learners with job-ready English in a fast-changing workplace. Whether you’re addressing skills gaps, revising existing curricula, or developing new programs, this tool ensures every hour spent in the classroom delivers measurable progress toward future success.

Find out more about how ɫèAV’s Global Scale of English helps fast-track learner progress with our free resources for educators.

Explore our GSE resources

More blogs from ɫèAV

  • Woman wearing headphones outside, smiling and looking hopeful

    6 easy ways to learn English

    By Steffanie Zazulak

    When you’re learning English, it’s important to keep your motivation up. As with any task, there may be times when it feels a bit more difficult, so switch up your methods and don’t be afraid to make mistakes – you’ll reach the level you want to be at.

    We’ve already provided some unique ways to teach English that you may now have experienced with your teacher. Here, we suggest some easy ways to learn English that you can try any time – at home, at work or on the move. Why not try them today? Surround yourself with English and you’ll see improvements in your language confidence and skills, while having fun at the same time…

    1. English words with friends

    Scrabble is a classic board game in which players use random lettered tiles to create words in a crossword fashion. It’s a fantastic way to strengthen your English vocabulary, and there’s also a Scrabble Junior version for beginners. Playing Scrabble challenges you to really think in English as you try to come up with different words using your set of letters.

    If you’re taking an English class, buy the board game and invite your classmates to play with you. You can also play Scrabble online through websites like Facebook, where it is called Words With Friends.

    2. Add some music

    Not only will your favorite song wake up your mind and put you in a positive mood to learn English, but the lyrics can help you expand your skills. acquire grammar and vocabulary and improve spelling.

    Songs almost always contain a lot of useful vocabulary, phrases and expressions. And since the intended audience is fluent English speakers, the latest tunes include up-to-date language and colloquialisms. The language used in songs is casual and usable, if you pick the right music. Music also has an uncanny ability to stick in our heads, which can help you remember your new English words.

  • a hand holding a remote control

    8 easy tricks for improving your English skills

    By Steffanie Zazulak

    As you work to improve your English skills, it’s always helpful to have some tricks and tips to help you stay motivated. With that in mind, we’ve collated these eight simple tips from fellow English language learners, to help you on your quest…

    1. Set yourself small goals

    Learning English is a long process, and it may take years to progress from one level to the next. That’s why it’s important to set yourself achievable goals. At ɫèAV, we work with thousands of English teachers worldwide to define what it means to ‘be at a level’ in English.

    2. Create a study schedule

    Ensure this schedule works around your daily responsibilities and make sure to keep it simple! Try breaking up your English language learning over the course of an entire day, which may make it feel more manageable.

    3. Practice a little bit every day

    Even if it’s listening to an English podcast during your commute or practicing your favorite words while having breakfast, every little bit of practice helps!

    4. Discover what type of learner you are

    Auditory, visual, or tactile. Use this as a basis for how you spend time studying. For instance, a visual learner may benefit from flashcards (see point 7), while an auditory learner may benefit from watching a television program in English.

    5. Turn on music in English

    Rhythms and rhymes have been found to stimulate the brain and improve learning. Our research found that music can be an invaluable tool when learning English, as it helps with pronunciation, word boundaries and vocabulary.

    6. Watch movies with English dialogue

    Movies are a great source of native conversation and vocabulary. Plus, the visual nature of film allows you to experience nonverbal context too — such as facial expressions and hand gestures — accompanying and contextualizing the film’s dialogue. Above all, watching a movie is a fun and motivational way to develop English language skills.

    7. Learn new vocabulary with flashcards

    While this may be the oldest studying trick in the book, students around the world use flashcards because they work!

    8. Track your progress

    To gain a sense of accomplishment, it’s important to know where you’ve started. We’ve just introduced a new way to measure progress in English. Have a look at it to quickly discover what your areas of strength and weakness are.

    Finally, it’s important to remember that not every learning trick will work for you. So, if you find that chatting with fluent English speakers helps you progress faster but you’re not always able to converse with them face-to-face, spend more of your time communicating online with your English-speaking friends and contacts.

  • A Young woman smiling and gesturing at her friend

    Improve your English without saying a word

    By Steffanie Zazulak

    Communicating in English goes far beyond simply learning English vocabulary. In fact, there are many non-verbal strategies you can leverage to appear more confident as you improve your English. Below you’ll find three of the most important aspects of non-verbal communication to work on:

    Make eye contact when you speak in English

    When you’re talking to someone, it’s best to look them in the eye as much as possible. This shows that you are engaged in the conversation and listening intently when not speaking. Especially in loud environments, you may find your eyes drawn to someone’s lips as they talk. While it may help you better understand what they’re saying in a noisy place, like a restaurant, aim to maintain eye contact as much as you can (but do remember to take a quick break away once in a while so as to not stare too intently).

    Be mindful of body language

    What you’re doing with your hands and the facial expressions you make can say a lot—sometimes more than words! Not only should you be aware of the body language of who you’re talking with, but you also need to know what your body language is saying about you. Different cultures see hand gestures differently so it's good to be mindful of what gestures you make with your hands. If you want to appear open and friendly you may want to keep your arms open and avoid closed body language like crossing your arms.

    If someone is leaning away from you slightly, this may indicate they aren’t interested in the topic you’re speaking about. They may lean in closer if more interested in what you're talking about. If they smile a lot, this may mean they agree with you.

    Prepare yourself for English conversations you may have

    If you are planning to practice talking in English, it’s OK to prepare yourself for the conversation. Create a script for yourself to speak from that allows you to practice difficult terms and phrases. Not only will this give you real-time experience bettering your skills, but it will allow you to speak English with confidence.

    Either in work situations or casual conversations, there’s more than just English words being exchanged so remember to dedicate your full attention. It’s an excellent opportunity to practice and improve your English skills and you’re likely to learn more than just studying on your own.