This is a subject I feel quite strongly about (I previously published Is it worth going to University?) as I often see job adverts demanding degree calibre candidates for jobs that simply don’t require graduate qualifications. This is a guest blog written for us by Jay Freeborn of Advorto who poses the excellent question “Does that Position Really Need a Degree?”
Companies in the UK are changing their approach to hiring candidates for their graduate positions, putting less emphasis on academic success and more importance on a candidate’s soft skills. Is this new approach the answer to the ongoing skills shortage?
The Hays 2015 Global Skills Index in association with Oxford Economics states that the UK has a “talent mismatch” score of 9.7 out of 10, marking one of the most urgent skills shortages in Europe. Recruiters have been struggling to hire candidates they believe have the required skillsets, but it is possible that we are beginning to change the idea of what makes the ideal candidate.
In fact, part of the problem may lie with UK companies who demand degree calibre candidates for jobs that simply don’t require graduate qualifications.
Companies like PwC are realising that academic grades may not be as important and indicative of a good candidate fit as we have thought in the past. We are beginning to reconsider the long held belief that only those who have excelled in their studies at school and beyond are worthy of being hired. We are beginning to look at the skills that are not taught in school and cannot be proved by a university degree.
A huge 97% of employers believe that soft skills are important to their current business success, however only 50% believe that soft skills are more important than academic results. So although the trend is shifting, it very much is still in debate as to the amount of emphasis that should be placed on soft skills such as communication and teamwork.
We have all known, or were ourselves, wide eyed and inexperienced new hires fresh from university – heads full of high level concepts and specific details which proved woefully inadequate to prepare us for life in full-time employment. Learning a new role at a new company is always difficult, but the soft skills developed over years of employment certainly make it much easier to adapt to a new company’s culture and way of working.
Even for roles that unquestionably require a degree, soft skills are still vitally important where your talent pool contains several candidates with equal educational success. A candidate with the right educational grades might be able to do the role perfectly adequately, however a candidate with the right grades and who possesses numerous desirable soft skills will be able to do the job as well as integrate into your company’s culture easily and quickly.
For recruiters who pride themselves on hiring the best candidate for the role who will then stay with the company for a long time, considering candidate’s soft skills is an excellent way forward.
For further reading please download Advorto’s whitepaper – The UK’ Soft Skills Shortage
