In this lesson you are participating in the skill every shortlister uses and almost nobody is taught: reading a job advert the way the person who wrote it meant it.

Adverts hide three different things in ordinary sentences. Some lines are hard gates you must clear. Some are advantages that help but do not block you. Some never name a skill at all, yet they are the real test of whether you would cope on the floor. Today you will label all three on a sample advert, then annotate one advert of your own for your Digital Portfolio.

Three labels you will use on every advert from now on. Learn the difference before you start marking anything up.

Giveaway words: must, required, and essential usually mean a hard gate. Advantage, bonus, and would be welcome usually mean desirable. Competencies often sit in the last paragraph, with no label at all.

First you will label a sample Irish school advert on screen. Pick a tag, then click the phrase it fits. When the class is ready, your teacher will show the model annotation so you can see where you agreed and where you differed.

Then create (or open) Job Description Annotation 1 in your Strand 1.1 portfolio folder as a one-page document (Google Doc, Word, or your school's portfolio template). Set it up with three headings: Essential / Desirable / Underlying competencies. Under each heading, paste the phrase from the advert and add one line on why you labelled it that way.

A live Irish advert is preferred if you already have one open (a local employer careers page, or a vacancy you saved earlier). If you do not, use the practice advert below in full. Either way, the annotation must be yours, not a copy of the model on screen.

Practice advert (written for this lesson, not a live vacancy): Café Assistant, Harbour Street Kitchen

Part-time, 16 hours per week including Saturday. Closing date: next Friday.

Harbour Street Kitchen is hiring a Café Assistant for our busy counter and floor team. You will take orders, make hot drinks to our standard, keep tables cleared, and help close the café at the end of your shift.

You must be available every Saturday and be comfortable handling cash and card payments. A food hygiene certificate is required before your first paid shift; we will book and pay for the course if you do not already hold one. You need to be able to work calmly when the queue is long and the kitchen is calling.

Previous café or retail experience would be an advantage, and basic Irish for greeting regulars would be a real bonus, though neither is required.

We are a small team, so you will often decide the next job yourself between customers. That means noticing what needs doing and starting it without waiting to be told.

By the end of the step you should hold a completed annotation with at least two essentials, two desirables, and one underlying competency named in your own words.

Talk these through with the person beside you, then decide whether either answer belongs as a short note under your annotation.

• Where in the Ashgrove advert did a competency hide outside any bullet list, and how would you evidence that competency from school, sport, home or a part-time job?
• If a shortlister spent forty seconds on your annotation, which single label would matter most to them, and why that one?

Optional stretch: if you already have a Skills Audit entry, add one line to Job Description Annotation 1 naming the skill that best matches the strongest competency you found today. If not, skip the stretch or note one concrete evidence moment from school, sport, home or part-time work instead.

Today you practised reading a job advert the way a shortlister does, and you banked a completed three-label annotation.

• Essential requirements are hard gates (must, required, essential), including practical ones such as hours and Garda Vetting
• Desirable requirements strengthen an application but do not block it
• Underlying competencies often hide in plain narrative, especially in the final paragraph
• Your Digital Portfolio now holds Job Description Annotation 1 in Strand 1.1, ready to feed later application and personal-statement work