Task prompt
Read the two texts below. Write an essay that summarises and evaluates their key points. Express the ideas in your own words as far as possible and include your own views on the issue. Write 240–280 words.
Word limit: 280 words
"The Purpose of Modern Education" is a C2 Proficiency Writing practice task (essay). Cambridge assesses content, communicative achievement, organisation and language on a scale from 0 to 5 per criterion. Plan before you write: identify the target reader, the required register and the number of points you must address. At C2, examiners expect sophisticated vocabulary used accurately, varied sentence structures and clear paragraphing.
Plan the essay before writing, address every prompt point, keep the expected register, respect the word limit, and use feedback to improve content, organisation, grammar range, and vocabulary precision.
Read the two texts below. Write an essay that summarises and evaluates their key points. Express the ideas in your own words as far as possible and include your own views on the issue. Write 240–280 words.
Word limit: 280 words
Education should prepare people for a changing labour market, especially when technological and economic shifts can make established jobs disappear quickly. Schools and universities cannot ignore practical skills such as digital literacy, collaboration and the ability to learn independently. Giving students a realistic understanding of work may also reduce the gap between qualifications and employment. However, vocational relevance is most useful when it equips learners to adapt, rather than training them narrowly for the demands of a single employer or industry. Employers also benefit when graduates can communicate clearly, weigh evidence and respond intelligently to unfamiliar problems.
Treating education primarily as preparation for employment risks undervaluing its wider social purpose. Literature, history and the arts develop the capacity to interpret experience, question assumptions and understand people with different values. Such abilities may not produce an immediate financial return, yet they are essential to responsible citizenship and personal fulfilment. The choice between practical and intellectual learning is therefore misleading: people need both the competence to earn a living and the judgement to decide what a worthwhile life and society should look like. A curriculum that combines rigour with breadth is more likely to prepare learners for uncertainty than one built around short-term forecasts.