Academic/General Training Module by Adam Smith First Published in 2015

Example Section B Answer: iii 
14. Section C 
15. Section D 
16. Section E 

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 IELTS
 JOURNAL 
 
171 
17. Section F 
Job Sharing 
Section A 
Job sharing refers to situation in which two people divide the responsibility of one full-
time job. The two people willingly act as part-time workers, enough hours between 
them to fulfill the duties of a full-time worker. If they each work half the job, for 
example, they each receive 50 per cent of the job's wages, its holidays and its other 
benefits. Of course, some job sharers take a smaller or larger share of the 
responsibilities of the position, receiving a lesser or greater share of the benefits. 
Job sharing differs from conventional part-time work in that it is mainly (although not 
exclusively ) occurring in the more highly skilled and professional areas, which entail 
higher levels of responsibility and employee commitment . Until recently, these 
characteristics were not generally seen as compatible with anything less than full-time 
employment. Thus, the demands of job sharing are reciprocated by better pay and 
conditions and, ideally, more satisfaction than conventional part-time work. 
Section B 
Job sharing should not be confused with the term work sharing, which pertains to 
increasing the number of jobs by reducing the number of hours of each existing job 
,thus offering more positions to the growing number of unemployed people. Job 
sharing, by contrast, is not designed to address unemployment problems; its focus, 
rather, is to provide well-paid work for skilled workers and professionals who want 
more free time for other pursuits. 
Section C 
As would be expected, women comprise the bulk of job sharers. A survey carried out in 
1988 by Britain's Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) revealed that 78per cent of 
shares were female, the majority of whom were between the ages of 20 and 40 years 
of age. Subsequent studies have come up with similar results. Many of these women 
were re-entering the job market after having had children, but they chose not to seek