What employers want

James Plummer

Managing Director & Founder
Fishing Rod Experience




In 35 years in the recruitment business a client has never asked me about a candidate's GCSEs or A levels. Occasionally, an HND qualification as opposed to a degree may raise a question mark. That a job seeker has got some academic track record is, I guess, mainly a reassurance and provides evidence that they are able to conform and achieve. Clearly this benchmark is different for a shop assistant as opposed to one for a management trainee in a bank.

Nevertheless, for each role there is a ‘stereotype’ which best matches these criteria. Very occasionally an employer will be interested in whether a candidate has a particular degree. They are really looking at what the job seeker’s qualifications, background, life experiences and level of achievement say about him or her.

For a school leaver, however, with little or no work experience, there are broadly two career routes.

First, most jobs require conventional qualifications. Through a competitive process in which the job seeker is part of a faceless pile of CVs, they are screened to see whether their paper qualifications match the job requirement. If he or she is successful at this stage, a face-to-face interview is arranged, leading hopefully to a job offer. About 80% of school leavers take this route.

Formal qualifications may get you in the door, but other factors like cultural fit, motivation and communication skills weigh heavily on an employer’s mind. How will the candidate fit in? Does he or she have the potential to grow with the firm? These subjective criteria are critical to a candidate’s success. Most candidates, especially us Brits, find it difficult to sell themselves to a potential employer. To blow one’s trumpet is better left to unabashed Americans. After the introductory handshake, it’s ‘lights, camera and action’ and the candidate must convince the potential employer that he or she is the star they’re looking for.

More qualifications mean more choices, that is clear. However, the make-or-break for most candidates are well-tuned ‘soft skills’ of teamwork, communications and flexibility, which are so important in ‘knowledge industries’ where most new jobs, certainly in London, are being created.

Most young people who FRE work with lack these soft skills, essential to launching a career, particularly those from a minority or disadvantaged background. FRE believes soft skills underpin a person’s employability and can be learned through engaging, hands-on training where confidence and awareness is nurtured and developed. In this scenario, using soft skills for building social and business networks in media, entertainment, technology and other knowledge industry sectors, is arguably much more important relative to the traditional benchmarks provided by GCSEs and ‘A’ levels.

As most sectors are in a constant process of reinvention, employers are looking for young people who are able to learn and adapt to new technologies and processes. Individuals who can thrive in this dynamic and fast changing environment are needed, as are new methods for identifying and training them.

A new measurement system is therefore required, reflecting not the ‘top down’ but 'bottom-up' nature of our ‘Googlised’ world. Appropriate to both employers and job seekers, and encompassing those rapid developments in technology which inspire all generations, particularly the young, the New Standard would be open and flexible, facilitating lifelong learning and personal as well as academic development.

It is FRE’s aim to be part of the creation of such a system.

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