The unemployment club

Richard | Mar 04, 2026Mar 04, 2026

LESSON OVERVIEW

The main objectives of this lesson are to:

• engage in talking about unemployment;
• discuss fake career businesses from a critical perspective;
• respond to a video on the market for fake jobs.

Students talk about the causes of unemployment, discuss why certain groups of workers might be vulnerable and debate the impact of unemployment in different areas. They express their opinions on job security, read about businesses aimed at unemployed people and watch a video on the fake employment industry. Students role-play a family confrontation over a fake job and discuss the pros and cons of ideas about reducing unemployment. They can also do an extra vocabulary activity to review words for discussing unemployment (e.g. recession, downsizing, outsourcing).

WARM-UP AND DISCUSSION

This lesson starts with a warm-up where students name five causes of unemployment. At this point, they can do an extra vocabulary task. Students read a text about the impact of job loss and choose the correct words for talking about unemployment (e.g. welfare, relocation, gig). They then choose two things mentioned in the text that they think currently worry employees in their country most. 

After that, students discuss why some groups of workers (e.g. immigrants, single parents, older workers) might be vulnerable to unemployment. They choose the groups they think are most vulnerable and say what can be done to keep them in the workforce. Moving on, students discuss how different areas (e.g. financial security, mental health, daily routine) might be impacted when a person is unemployed. They rank the issues related to these areas from the most to the least difficult to cope with. 

VIDEO AND ROLE-PLAY

In this part of the lesson, students say to what extent they agree with opinions on job security and unemployment support (e.g. people should only leave employment if they have another job to go to). They give reasons to support their opinion. After that, students read about businesses aimed at unemployed people. Then, students discuss questions evaluating their ethics and success. Moving on, they watch a video about one of the businesses from the previous exercise (companies paid to pretend that people are employed). 

Afterwards, students engage in talking about unemployment and personal and ethical reactions to fake employment services. Next, they work in pairs and get role-play cards. Students follow the instructions and role-play a situation where a relative fakes employment. Following that, they read ideas about reducing unemployment (e.g. creating a four-day working week) and discuss the pros and cons of each.

WORKSHEETS

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