Be aware of Greeks bearing gifts
The financial troubles that are besieging European economies mean that many highly qualified individuals are seeking employment outside of their own countries.
By way of
example, it was recently reported that thousands
of Greek nationals are seeking employment in other parts of Europe, but how
can UK employers understand the skills and competencies of these individuals?
It is
relatively easy for employers to understand what degree holders and qualified
professionals, such as engineers, can offer; but what about those holding
vocational or school qualifications? This is where Europass can help; it
is a pan-European initiative which helps individual European citizens
demonstrate their skills and competencies to employers across Europe in a
consistent easy to understand format. Basically, Europass helps break
down the cross-border barriers which sometimes inhibit mobility.
So far this
year over 88,000 Greek nationals have completed a Europass CV; in total
over 3.8 million CVs have been completed with Portugal (857,508), Italy
(750,455) and Spain (323,889) leading the way. In the UK there have been
just over 53,000 CVs completed.
“Being able
to understand what potential employees can offer is a key part of our selection
process” commented Roger Smith, Head of Operations for ECCTIS, “we get many
applications from individuals from across Europe and having all the
applications completed in the Europass CV format makes it easier to make
comparisons between candidates.”
Alongside the
CV, there are four other documents that can help employers. The Diploma
Supplement provides more information about the higher education qualification
held by the individual such as the subjects studied, how the individual
performed throughout their time in higher education and information about the
institution they attended. The Certificate Supplement offers similar
information about any vocational qualifications held by the individuals.
The Language Passport and the Europass Mobility provide information about
language and other skills the individual has developed throughout their career.
More
information about Europass and how it can help employers can be found at www.europass.org.uk.
13/06/2012 13:04:00
