Read the text. This is first of five units in which an interview with a ‘real’ IT user is basis for all the activities in the unit.

Interview: Student

This is first of five units in which an interview with a ‘real’ IT user is basis for all the activities in the unit.

To get a job in computing, you normally need to have a computing qualification of some kind.

Students can study for a wide variety of computing qualifications.

After leaving school, students can study for further qualifications at a college of further education or a university. If they have gained enough qualifications at school, they can study for a Higher National Certificate (HNC) or Higher National Diploma (HND) at a college, or a degree at a university. Otherwise, they can attend college to study for a vocational qualification known as a General Vocational Qualification (GVQ). In these GVQ courses, students study a number of subject modules and need to gain a certain number of credits to progress to the next stage. Students can gradually progress through different levels of the GVQ to an HNC, HND, and even a university degree.

There is wide variety of GVQ courses in computing including Information Technology (IT), Computing Support, and Programming, but students normally choose a course that has an emphasis on either software and programming, computing support, or business computing. The GVQ courses can be studied on a part-time or a full-time basis.

Although it is mostly men that choose to do these courses, women are also strongly encouraged to participate. The female student in this interview is living in Scotland and is at a Scottish technical college of further education studying for a Level 3 General Scottish Vocational Qualification (GSVQ) in Information Technology. The course has a technical computer support bias and involves subjects like software support, hardware support, and networking. The Communications subject is not about technical communications systems, but is about human communication and interaction. The course involves visits to computing departments in commercial organizations. As in most colleges and universities, there are a number of social activities for the students to enjoy. These are often organized by the Student Union, which is the official body run by students and representing the interests of students. This particular student also has a part-time job in the evening.

3 Answer the following questions:

1 Where can school-leavers study if they have gained enough qualifications at school?

2 What do students study in the GVQ courses?

3 Can students gradually progress through different levels of the GVQ to an HNC, HND, and even to a university degree?

4 Is there a variety of GVQ courses in computing?

5 Do mostly men choose to do these GVQ course?

6. Are there any social activities for the students to enjoy in most colleges and universities? Whom are they organized by?

Unit 6

Terms to learn

1trackerball, n	шаровой указатель
2 joystick, n	джойстик
3 touch(-sensitive)screen, n	сенсорный экран
4 lightpen, n	световое перо
5 lever, n	рычаг, средство воздействия
6 graphics tablet, n	графический планшет
7scanner, n	сканер
8 digital camera, n	цифровой фотоаппарат
9 microphone, n	микрофон
10 optical character recognition, n	оптическое распознавание знаков
11solid state memory, n	твердотельная память
12 to download, v	загружать, скачивать
13 LCD(Liquid-Crystal Display), n	жидко-кристаллический (ЖК) экран
14charge-coupled device, n	прибор с зарядовой связью, ПЗС
15 analog-to-digital converter, n	преобразователь из аналоговой формы в цифровую, цифратор
16 webpage, n	Web -страница, веб-страница, веб-документ, Интернет-страница
17 touchpad, n	сенсорная панель
18 binary, adj	двоичный (представленный в двоичной системе счисления)

Read the text

Input Devices

A variety of input devices can be connected to a computer to allow the user to input different kinds of data and to control the computer in different ways. Some common input devices and their functions are shown in the tables below.