The team monitors the external border every night.
Unit 01
Professional profiles
Roles, responsibilities, and mission
Describe experience, duties, and operational roles with precise B2 verbs and clear limits of responsibility.
Use of EnglishReadingProfessional speaking
Frontex focus
Frontex mandate and the Standing Corps
01
Learning outcomes
By the end of this unit
- Distinguish permanent duties from temporary assignments.
- Use responsibility and deployment collocations accurately.
- Explain how Frontex supports national authorities.
02
Operational reading
Support does not replace authority
A multinational team has arrived to support checks at a busy external-border crossing. Frontex coordinates the deployment and provides document experts, interpreters, and technical equipment. The host country still controls its border section and retains the primary legal responsibility for decisions.
During the first briefing, the team leader separates routine duties from temporary tasks. Two officers normally work on document checks, while this week they are helping to train new colleagues. Clear role language prevents gaps, duplicated work, and unsafe assumptions about authority.
Read further: A useful induction needs more than a signature
First, identify the writer’s main purpose. Then look for evidence, qualifications, and links between paragraphs.
When a regional support office introduced a new induction scheme, it initially measured success by the number of people who completed the welcome session. Attendance was easy to record, and managers wanted a simple figure for the monthly report. Yet supervisors noticed that some new colleagues still hesitated when a request fell outside their ordinary duties. The problem was not a lack of enthusiasm: the session had explained the organisation but had given them little practice in deciding whom to consult.
The revised scheme pairs each newcomer with an experienced colleague for two shifts. Before observing a task, the newcomer explains what they think their role permits. Afterwards, the pair discuss a situation in which the same task would require additional approval. The supervisor then checks the explanation rather than merely asking whether the procedure has been read. This approach takes more time, especially during busy periods, but allows uncertainty to become visible before independent work begins.
One participant, Leila, had managed a team in another organisation. She found parts of the scheme familiar and suggested skipping the observation stage. Her mentor acknowledged that experience while explaining that a previous job did not automatically confer authority in the new setting. They agreed to use more demanding examples instead. Leila could therefore demonstrate transferable skills without treating local procedures as optional or expecting colleagues to guess the boundaries of her role.
The office still records attendance, since it must know who received the introduction. However, that figure now sits beside a short record of the decisions each newcomer can explain and the support they still need. Managers have resisted turning this record into a league table. Its purpose is to guide the next training conversation, not to rank people whose starting experience and assignments may be quite different.
03
Language focus
Present simple and present continuous
Use the present simple for regular duties and stable facts. Use the present continuous for temporary activity or change around now.
This month, Marta is supporting an operation at the airport.
The host authority remains responsible for national border control.
Watch this
Avoid continuous forms with stable state verbs: know, belong, understand, and own.
Use the language
Complete the second sentence.
Keep the original meaning. Use each keyword unchanged. Type only the missing words in the blue gap.
- 1Read the original
- 2Fill the blue gap
- 3Check your answer
How to answer · worked example
Original
This is Jo’s laptop.
Use BELONGS
This laptop belongs to Jo.
Only belongs to goes in the gap. The other words are already there.
3 short exercises · not saved · separate from your drill score.
01 of 03Use CURRENTLY
Original sentence
This week I am supporting the training team.
Same meaning
I
the training team this week.
or press Enter
Your completed sentence
Show hint
Use am + an -ing verb for this temporary assignment. Put currently after am.
Compare with a model answer
Words for the gap am currently supporting
I am currently supporting the training team this week.
With I, use am. The present continuous form is am supporting. Currently normally goes between am and supporting. Keeping this week preserves the original time period.
02 of 03Use FOR
Original sentence
Mina has responsibility for checking the equipment every day.
Same meaning
Mina is responsible
the equipment every day.
or press Enter
Your completed sentence
Show hint
Responsible takes for plus a noun or an -ing form.
Compare with a model answer
Words for the gap for checking
Mina is responsible for checking the equipment every day.
For checking expresses the same duty; for check is incomplete.
03 of 03Use BEEN
Original sentence
We began assessing applications two hours ago and are still doing it.
Same meaning
Grammar reminder: Present perfect continuous
Use have/has been + -ing for an activity that began before now and continues, especially when its duration matters. Use the simple perfect to emphasise a completed result.
Example: We have been assessing the applications all morning; we have completed twelve reviews.
We have
for two hours.
or press Enter
Your completed sentence
Show hint
Build the present perfect continuous, then name the activity.
Compare with a model answer
Words for the gap been assessing applications
We have been assessing applications for two hours.
Have been assessing describes an activity continuing over the stated two hours; it does not claim all applications are finished.
The checker matches model answers. An unmatched answer may still be valid; compare the completed sentences and explanation.
04
Core lexicon
Professional and operational vocabulary
have a duty to manage or perform something
The coordinator is responsible for the morning briefing.send staff or equipment to a place for a task
The agency can deploy trained officers when support is requested.the legal authority and tasks given to an organisation
The regulation defines the agency mandate.the national authority responsible where an operation takes place
The team follows the host authority’s command structure.a document setting tasks, command links, equipment, and safeguards
Every officer reads the operational plan before deployment.From EPSOHQ Frontex database
Acronym focus
Use this when discussing the shared EU and national border-management system.
05
Listening workshop
Prepare. Listen. Respond.
Before you listen
Listen for the purpose of Elena’s induction, then identify who can authorise independent work.
- induction
- an introduction to a new role and its procedures
- mentor
- an experienced colleague who guides learning
- independently
- without another person directing each step
Operational briefing
Listen once for the overall message. Replay for details, then explain the speaker’s reasoning. Pause, seek, or slow the recording whenever useful.
Unlimited replays · 01:26
Read transcript
For tomorrow’s induction shift, Elena will observe the first-line team. She will not make independent checking decisions. Karim is responsible for the equipment briefing at eight thirty. Elena should bring her training notes, and any question about authority should go to the duty supervisor before she acts.
The observation is part of a longer training plan. Last month, new colleagues were asked to learn several procedures at once, and some were uncertain about whom to contact. This time, the team has divided induction into three stages. First, Elena will listen to the equipment briefing and check that she can identify the person responsible for each item. Next, she will watch an experienced colleague explain a routine procedure. Finally, she will describe what she observed and identify anything she did not understand.
The aim is not to test how quickly she can work. It is to make sure that she recognises the limits of her role and can ask useful questions. A signed attendance sheet will show that she was present, but it will not by itself show that she is ready to work independently. At the end of the shift, her mentor will discuss two situations with her and decide which skills need more practice. If the team becomes busy, the mentor should shorten the observation rather than leave Elena without support.
Original EPSOHQ text. Synthetic narration with macOS Daniel or Samantha voice.
Check your understanding
Drill 14 · Listening comprehension Drill 15 · Listening comprehension Drill 16 · Listening inference Drill 17 · Listening inference
Use what you heard
Explain why attendance and readiness are different, using one example from your own work.
06
Production task
Your 60-second role briefing
Describe a current or previous role. State two regular duties, one temporary task, and one limit to your authority.
- Use two precise action verbs.
- Include responsible for plus a noun or -ing form.
- Separate your role from the team’s role.
About 60 seconds · 60–130 words
Open evaluated task
Try your own response first. Then compare how the example covers the task, connects ideas, and uses the target language.
Study an example response
Illustrative response, not an assessed script
I work in a regional support office, where I check incoming records and prepare the daily equipment summary. I am responsible for confirming that every request has an owner before the shift ends. This month, I am supporting a colleague who is learning our reporting system, so I explain the procedure and review practice entries with her. Our team keeps information accurate and sends unresolved questions to the relevant office. I can correct a typing error after checking the source, but I cannot approve a change to someone else’s duties. That decision belongs to the supervisor.
Notice the choices
- Regular duties use check and prepare; the temporary assignment uses am supporting.
- Responsible for confirming supplies a precise responsibility phrase.
- The final two sentences distinguish personal authority from the supervisor’s decision.
Adapt these patterns to your own situation. For speaking, practise aloud and check clarity and pace; a written example cannot demonstrate pronunciation or spontaneous fluency.