The CIPD is calling on employers to focus on skills and potential rather than qualifications when screening potential candidates.
Its research found the majority of employers (57%) still mainly look for degrees or post-graduate qualifications when recruiting staff, meaning they could be missing out on key talent, exacerbating skills gaps and reducing employment opportunities for people.
In response, the CIPD is calling for employers to focus on skills and experience rather than specific qualifications when considering job applicants and to invest in a range of vocational training options to upskill existing staff.
Lizzie Crowley, skills adviser for the CIPD, said: “Employers need to stop thinking that university degrees are the best indicator of a person’s potential at work. They think they’re getting ‘off the shelf’ capability rather than assessing the specific skills needed for roles, then wondering why they have ongoing skills gaps.
“More employers need to take a strategic approach to skills to understand current and future needs. This means valuing a wider range of experience and qualifications when recruiting for roles and understanding all of the training and development options available to employers to upskill existing staff.”
Degree screening
Young people’s skills don’t match employer needs, finds survey
Resourcing revolution: How to hire in a candidate-led market (on-demand webinar)
The HR body’s call comes as the UK faces a tight, candidate-led labour market and employers struggle to find the skills they need in job candidates and in their existing workforces.
The CIPD surveyed more than 2,000 senior decision makers on skills, and found that only a third (32%) had conducted strategic workforce planning in the last 12 months
Two thirds (64%) of employers think that at least some of their employees lack some of the skills required to do their job effectively, and the skills which employers have the most difficulty finding in jobseekers are overwhelmingly technical skills (said 68%).
The research also found that:
- Most employers look for specific qualifications when recruiting – just 24% don’t
- Only 46% of employers in England have heard of T-levels, which provide a vocational pathway for young people to learn technical skills
- Despite the continued focus on degrees, a third of employers (33%) agreed that university candidates are either ‘fairly’ or ‘very’ poorly prepared for the workplace.
The research suggests that many employers are in the dark regarding training opportunities available to them via higher or further education institutions.
Just a fifth (19%) currently access external training from FE colleges, and 25% use universities or other HE institutions. Among those who didn’t source training from these, 29% said they didn’t know why they weren’t accessing training from these providers.
The CIPD warned that this disconnect presents a significant obstacle to the government’s vision of a revitalised college sector with employers at its heart, and its broader goal of a ‘high-skill, high-wage’ economy.
Sign up to our weekly round-up of HR news and guidance
Receive the Personnel Today Direct e-newsletter every Wednesday
Crowley added: “Too few employers engage with FE institutions and employer awareness of the government’s technical education reforms and new vocational training routes remains low. If the government’s reforms are to be successful there is an urgent need to raise awareness and share examples of the positive impact that further education institutions can play in developing workforce skills.”
Recruitment and resourcing opportunities on Personnel Today
Browse more recruitment and resourcing jobs
