The A Level results are out and we have heard about the inevitable record numbers of pass rates and numbers going on to University.
In 3 or 4 years from now these employment hopefuls will emerge into an economy which may or may not be as favourable as it is today. Whatever the economy is like, they will migrate from education to a crowded marketplace awash with well qualified graduates.
Very few will have had any real work experience and even though they may be theoretically the most qualified candidates it does not mean that they have the inherent skills to be ahead of someone who already has three years’ experience.
What should employees do?
Historically it has been assumed that graduates will be “better” than non graduates. However we can all point to examples where we know that this simply is not a given.
More importantly is that the high growth in graduate numbers has led to qualification inflation, where many graduates are now applying for (happily in many cases) jobs which in the past would have been deemed as school leaver jobs.
So what can recruiters do – appoint based on a degree or employ someone who has proven skills?
The truth is that it is not an either or solution. The most objective way to do recruit would be with skills testing. Recruitment Assessment‘s cloud based skills testing solution is designed to help differentiate graduates based on their capabilities and knowledge in the key parts of daily business life – such as:
- problem solving
- aural comprehension
- data checking
- spatial reasoning
- logical thinking
- time management abilities.
