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 app 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
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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 app’s Global Scale of English helps fast-track learner progress with our free resources for educators.

Explore our GSE resources

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    Measuring language popularity is a complex task that involves various factors, including the number of native speakers, global influence, and use as a second or foreign language. The criteria for measuring language popularity include:

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    • Use as a second or foreign language: This considers the number of people who speak a language as a second language or foreign language. Languages that are widely taught and learned around the world tend to have a larger speaking population.

    By considering these criteria, we can better understand why certain languages are more prominent and widely spoken globally.

    Top 10 most spoken languages in the world

    Here’s a closer look at the ten most spoken languages by number of speakers:

    When evaluating these languages, it's important to consider not just the number of native speakers but also the total number of language speakers, including those who speak it as a second language.

    1. English

    Speakers: Approximately 1.5 billion

    Native speakers: Around 360 million

    Regions: Widely spoken in the Americas, Europe, Africa, Asia and Oceania.

    Highlights: English is the most widely spoken language worldwide when combining native and non-native speakers. It's the primary language in countries like the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia. English is the dominant language in international business, science and technology.

    2. Mandarin Chinese

    Speakers: Over 1.1 billion

    Native speakers: About 920 million

    Regions: Mainly in China, Taiwan and Singapore

    Highlights: Mandarin is the language with the largest number of native speakers. It's one of the six official languages of the United Nations and has a significant cultural and historical importance.

    3. Hindi

    Speakers: Around 600 million

    Native speakers: Approximately 341 million

    Regions: Predominantly in India and Nepal

    Highlights: Hindi is predominantly spoken in India and Nepal, with approximately 341 million native speakers. It is one of the official languages of India and is spoken by a large portion of the Indian population. It has numerous dialects and is written in the Devanagari script.

    4. Spanish

    Speakers: Approximately 560 million

    Native speakers: About 460 million

    Regions: Spain, Latin America and parts of the United States

    Highlights: Spanish is the official language in 21 countries and is widely spoken in the Americas. In many of these countries, Spanish serves as the national language, playing a crucial role in government, education and media. It’s known for its rich literature and cultural heritage.

    5. French

    Speakers: Around 280 million

    Native speakers: About 77 million

    Regions: France, parts of Africa, Canada, Belgium and Switzerland

    Highlights: French is another of the six official languages of the United Nations. It's widely used in international diplomacy and has a significant number of speakers in Africa due to France's colonial history.

    6. Arabic

    Speakers: Approximately 270 million

    Native speakers: Around 310 million

    Regions: Middle East and North Africa

    Highlights: Arabic is a central Semitic language that is the liturgical language of Islam. It has many dialects, with Modern Standard Arabic being used in formal settings and media. Arabic has numerous spoken forms, with significant variations in dialects across different regions.

    7. Bengali

    Speakers: Around 265 million

    Native speakers: About 230 million

    Regions: Bangladesh and parts of India

    Highlights: Bengali is the official language of Bangladesh and the second most spoken language in India. Alongside other languages like Hindi and Urdu, Bengali plays a crucial role in the cultural and linguistic landscape of the region. It’s known for its rich literary tradition.

    8. Portuguese

    Speakers: Approximately 220 million

    Native speakers: Around 220 million

    Regions: Brazil, Portugal and parts of Africa

    Highlights: Portuguese is mainly spoken in Brazil, which is the largest Portuguese-speaking country. It has a growing number of speakers in Africa.

    9. Russian

    Speakers: Around 258 million

    Native speakers: Approximately 154 million

    Regions: Russia, Eastern Europe and Central Asia

    Highlights: Russian is one of the six official languages of the United Nations and is widely spoken in the former Soviet Union countries.

    10. Japanese

    Speakers: Approximately 128 million

    Native speakers: Around 128 million

    Regions: Japan

    Highlights: Japanese is predominantly spoken in Japan and is known for its three writing systems—Hiragana, Katakana and Kanji. It has a rich cultural history and is influential in technology and entertainment.

    Conclusion

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