To think that the qualifications I achieved at school nearly twenty years ago are no longer relevant to my ability to do a job now?

[wannaBe]

Job application form in progress. They want to know all qualifications as far back as GCSE, including grades and actual results obtained. Seriously.

I can understand it if it's for someone who hasn't previously worked for instance, but surely there should be a limit? After twenty years (or even ten years for that matter) most people will have built up some work experience, and in all honesty what you did when you were sixteen (or even eighteen) no longer has any bearing on that?

yanbu, i wasn't very good at school. I skipeed lessons and wasn't very well behaved. I did come out of school with 3'c a few D's and an E.

i wouldn't want to put those result onto an application form, as imo they are rubbish results ( c's where in science and chilcare)

I work in the public sector, we use person specifications and are supposed to choose based on the criteria in the specification only. The last recruitment I did there was no formal qualification of any kind specified, so the candidates could have left that bit blank and it shouldn't have made any difference.

I don't have a degree.

And I was educated abroad too so my qualifications mean nothing by UK standards even though they are a-level equivalent.

The job doesn't specify a necessity for English and maths and has a sixteen point part to fill in the competencies which make you suitable for the job (as well as the education and employment sections).

And of course I will fill it in, and of course I remember when I left school. The point I was merely making was that for a job which requires a significant amount of experience whether you got an A or a E grade in your a-levels twenty years ago is almost certainly not relevant since the job experience will have superceeded that. And tbh if someone doesn't have the experience required their a-levels aren't going to do them any favours in this particular job.

Incidentally I don't have a maths a-level yet my last job was as a finance manager. I am completely numerate, I just wasn't any good at algebra which is what makes up most of maths in secondary (in the country where I was educated anyway) and yet I have another form sitting on my desk for a customer adviser for the council which requires a maths a-level. As it is I've worked in a call centre as well, so give I have relevant experience, am numerate, I should be able to apply, yet the maths is "essential" so that rules me out...

And people wonder why applying for jobs is so soul-destroying.

16 points on the competencies is way to many. There is no way they are really going to evaluate the candidates on all 16 (assuming they have more than 2 candidates ).

IMO the potential employers are BU for drawing up a crap specification. But of course you will answer all 16 points because a) you don't know which ones they will look at and b) even though they may be a bit crap you still need the job.

I feel your pain! I have been working ft for 22 years, have a professional qualification and good CV with no gaps, showing continuous progression. When I moved to Belgium several companies would not even see me as I don't have a degree. I understand why on one level, but on the other hand solid work experience over THAT amount of time should surely be more of a guide to employability than a qualifications gained donkey's years ago.

wannabe could you apply for the call centre job anyway or do you think it would just be a waste of time when you could be applying for other jobs?

I do agree that the criteria employers select on can be very frustrating. A couple of years ago I was turned down for a job because even though I had recently achieved a distinction in an MSc, in a very relevant to the post subject, I had only managed a 2:2 in my first degree 12 years earlier. The fact I'd also built up lots of experience in those intervening years was also deemed irrelevant.

College tried to tell me a few years ago that your GCSE's have an out of date tag on them and need resitting every 3 years to be considered.
I pmsl because I got 5 C's first time around and said oh alright then I'll resit them, 10 A*'s. I have not become sharper since having children IMO.

I think the qualifications are probably quite important (although this obviosuly depends on the job you are applying for.) I don't believe you should have to put the dates they were obtained though as it allows them to discriminate by age.

For a call centre job I'd invent a pass, if I didn't have one. Flame away, but I would

KalSkirata

And when I took my O-levels at a grammar school, we were not given grades; we just had passes and our marks! I failed my Maths with 60%! Retook it 36 years years later at evening classes and achieved an A. Why? Because I had seen my children's A level papers in all sorts of subjects and knew that I had 'done that' at O level so knew that I could achieve more than I did. I enrolled for loads of O level evening classes and achieved.

I left school with two O Levels because I didn't work but, after seeing my DCs A level papers, I gained 9 further O levels (grades A-C) and 3 'proper' A Levels.

To me it is the needs of the job that should determine if details of recent, past, or ancient qualifications are needed.

I am currently agonising over whether or not to take on an assistant. The minumum requirementt would be Registration and a good portfolio plus references. Her / his first and second degrees might be of interest but I wouldn't necessarily ask for them. I don't think GCSEs or A levels would matter.

BTW wannaBe why would a "customer adviser" need maths A level? Is the job to help people with claiming benefits or something like that?

I have O Levels, my mother has GCSEs - it doesn't always indicate age.

Wanna, are you sure it's compulsory for your to fill in this information?
I was also educated abroad so have no GCSE or A levels. The country is full of foreign workers, so how did they get their jobs?

A line were told :

Your qualifications get you your first interview. Your personality gets you the job. Your experience gets you your next jobs.

Always served me well.

I shall now ask a dopey question - arent GCSE Maths and Eng @ C or above a prerequisite of univerity courses? therefore if you have a degree, M&E are taken as read?

Sounds daft, and can they can tell that a B from 20 years ago is an A today etc.

I suspect it's all about age discrimination.

Which works the other way in some fields, dh's professional degree is known for having gone downhill after certain changes...if you got it before year x you are automatically preferable!

The application form you have been given is probably a generic one that the company uses for various jobs, or at least it will part of a standard template. That means they will give the same form out to people who are of an age where GCSEs are relevant.

YABU if you expect them to make a different form for people who are older just because they took their O levels ten or twenty years ago.

YANBU. I'm so bored of filling in application forms that want every last detail of your life, including every single employer (I've had well in excess of 20 of those), the exact dates you started and ended each one, every single qualification including GCSEs from 15 years ago, and the exact dates you gained them too. It's utterly tedious and daft. Other application forms just want your most recent and/or relevant experience which seems rather more sensible.

It's a generic form. They have to be. So everyone completes the same information. Not sure I get why you are so uppity about it? When they are reviewing the forms in reality, your GCSE's won't be relevant. It's all about being fair and not be discriminatory

It always amuses me that when I apply for jobs, I put down my first class honours degree from a Russell group uni, my distinction in my MEd and PGCE, yet I still have to write down my gcse and a level grades!

Mine are top grades, but it does seem a little off that your mistakes at 16 could follow you for the rest of your life........ But that's also why I have a lot of takers for the free evening gcse class I run for adults!