Could TV show be model for job recruitment?

By Simon Atkinson
Business Reporter, BBC News

The Apprentice puts candidates through tough challenges

It may, for now, be just a television hit, but a system modelled on BBC One's The Apprentice could be used as a recruitment tool by UK companies.

That is the suggestion from a panel of university students and graduates who insist that many bosses are not using the right methods to test the skills of potential recruits.

Employers were not often looking beyond the qualification somebody has, the group says.

They argue that a greater focus on "softer, behaviour-based" skills - such as innovation, creativity and team work - would allow candidates to demonstrate what they had to offer.

And this might even lead to employers being happier with their new staff.

Disconnect

The discussions have been co-ordinated by Make Your Mark - a campaign to encourage young people to be enterprising - and mobile phone firm Orange.

Organisers say the panel was a reaction to a report by the think-tank Demos which uncovered a "disconnect" between what students expected from recruitment and the word of graduate jobs, and what employers wanted.

And earlier this year the Association of Graduate Recruiters said that four out of 10 large employers expect to struggle to fill graduate vacancies because of a shortage of applicants with the right skills.

Further panels will look at training once in a graduate role and how companies could adapt to hang on to their new employees.

The overall findings are due to be presented at Enterprise Week in November.

'Tricky business'

It would be really beneficial in helping people realise what skills they do have Matt Kepple

The world of graduate recruitment is complex, says Darius Norell, founder of career magazine Real World.

"There are 250,000 graduates each year and more than 150,000 of them have a 2:1 degree or a first," he says.

"So how organisations select people is a tricky business."

In The Apprentice, candidates working in teams tackle a series of tasks which test business acumen.

Week-by-week, contestants are whittled down by tycoon Sir Alan Sugar, resulting in an eventual winner and some lively television.

Former head of the CBI, Sir Digby Jones, has criticised the programme, saying that it shows business in a bad light.

However the Make Your Mark panel believed that it was an excellent model to be adapted for the job market.

'Latent skills'

Rather than being operated by individual companies, the business scenarios could be run at universities and colleges by outside companies or even by the institutions themselves, the panel suggests.

On a smaller scale, teams of five, from about 60 universities took part in this year's Entrepreneurs' Open Challenge (EPOCH), taking on challenges designed to test a range of skills, from negotiation and sales, to marketing and strategy.

Matt Kepple, 24, who studied at Birmingham University, says that similar exercises, in a business setting, could be used on a mass level across universities.

"Everyone watches The Apprentice, but it's really just for the elite," says the 24-year-old, who left a trainee scheme in advertising and now runs Gradulicious, a firm running social events for graduates new to London.

"It would be great if something similar could be made more widely available because so may people have latent skills which have not been tapped into.

It's one thing being able to knuckle down and do an essay...but it is different to applying yourself to a work situation Aysha Taylor

"It would be really beneficial in helping people realise what skills they do have and also the chance to identify what vocational skills they could improve."

And Aysha Taylor, a third year marketing student at Aston University said such an idea would allow employers to identify skills.

"It's one thing being able to knuckle down and do an essay, and a good essay at that, but it is different to applying yourself to a work situation," she says.

Export potential

Anything that would allow people to tap into their creative ability is helpful, says Peter Grigg, principle policy adviser of Enterprise Insight - the coalition behind the Make Your Mark campaign.

"Employers aren't always looking for those kinds of skills, but they need to pay more attention to someone's entrepreneurial potential.

"As we increasingly struggle to compete in manufacturing, the ability to innovate may well become the UK's only real export."

He adds: "There may be businesses that are afraid of entrepreneurial talent, who worry that if you promote it, too many young people will leave and set up their own companies.

"We need them to see that it can benefit organisations."

The panel will meet for discussions throughout the year

More ways to assess individuals would also be useful to employers, says Nicola Grant, who oversees graduate recruitment at Orange UK.

"You can teach people the skills but it's these other things which are key," she says.

"For a while Orange has been looking beyond what type of degree somebody has, towards their behaviour and what motivates them.

"Having met and listened to these young people I'm already getting ideas about how we change the attraction and recruitment processes."

Dishonesty

Company's recruitment processes now generally involves application forms, interviews and sometimes assessment centres.

Many firms ask applicants to take online tests to try and establish details about personality - as well as their ability to handle information and numbers.

But members of the panel revealed that candidates are openly "cheating" in parts of the assessment - including getting friends to take online personality tests for them - in order to reach the next stage of the recruitment process.

"I'm afraid lots of people I know got their friends to do them for them," says Jane Aitken, a graduate trainee at Orange UK.

"And you find that people give the answers that they think the company wants to hear, rather than being honest."

"Unfortunately it's pretty well accepted that this happens," agrees Mr Norell of Real World magazine.

"People see recruitment as a bit of game and there's a feeling that if a company hasn't got checks in place to make sure it isn't happening, then it is fair enough."