Why are CVs Banned From UK Hiring Processes?
From a teacher’s perspective, you have seen your dream job – location, role and salary all tick the right boxes. What next? Do I submit my CV or is it an application form?
Since 2020, the Department for Education for England has stressed that “Schools and colleges should only accept copies of a curriculum vitae alongside an application form. A curriculum vitae on its own will not provide adequate information.”
Yet, many schools in the UK and Internationally who are inspected against DfE criteria still accept a CV as the only application method.
So, Why Does the DfE Want Schools to do This?
It is at the foundation of a school’s validation that they have undertaken adequate due diligence in a hiring process. Using an application form in the hiring process for schools can contribute significantly to ensuring a safe and secure environment. Here’s how:
- Standardisation
They allow for the systematic collection of essential information, including details related to the candidate’s identity, qualifications, and employment history. This approach ensures that crucial details are consistently gathered from all applications.
- Compliance
They can be designed to include specific questions related to safeguarding, such as inquiries about a candidate’s willingness to undergo background checks, provide references, and disclose any previous disciplinary actions. This helps schools adhere to safeguarding policies and regulations.
- Safeguarding Training
By including compulsory questions on safeguarding, candidates must indicate their completion of safeguarding training and provide details about the courses undertaken. - Verification of qualifications and certifications
Typically, a space is provided for the candidate to list their academic and professional qualifications and certifications. This information is crucial for verifying the legitimacy of a candidate’s credentials, ensuring that they possess the qualifications for the position. - Consistency
Standardised application forms contribute to a consistent and thorough screening process for all candidates. This uniformity is essential for identifying any ‘red flags’ or discrepancies in the information provided by the candidate.
- Reference Checks
The ability to ask a candidate to list previous employers and professional contacts is vital for conducting thorough reference checks which are essential for verifying a candidate’s suitability and history in previous roles.
- Criminal background checks
It becomes mandatory for a candidate to provide consent for criminal background checks. This is crucial for schools to ensure the safety of students by identifying any potential risks associated with any criminal history.
- Declarations
Candidates are required to disclose any relevant information that may impact their suitability for the role, such as past allegations, investigations or legal issues. This self-disclosure ensures transparency and accountability.
- Audit Trail
Application forms create an audit trail that demonstrates a school’s commitment to following safer recruitment practices. This documentation is valuable in case of audits or inquiries related to the school’s hiring process.
- DEIJ
Lets be clear, applying for a job should be about whether you’re a fit for the role, not about how attractively you format your CV. The format of a CV has zero bearing on the ability of a candidate to teach, and all we’re doing by making judgements on such documents and failing to consider candidates’ applications on job related criteria, is creating an exclusionary practise.
Did any of you pick up my point with ‘Or a professional CV writer’ ? If you are making judgements on a person’s personality and creativity from a CV, whose personality and creativity are you actually judging?
At 10K, we see that incorporating a well-designed application form into the recruitment process and incorporating this into a process which generates usable data, is key to collecting and organising the candidate’s data in such a way that it enhances the school’s ability to implement and document safer recruitment practices, contributing to the overall safety and well-being of students and the school community.
We recognise that a candidate may find it easier to submit a CV than complete multiple application forms for different schools, and we also recognise that schools who find hiring more challenging because of location or other factors, may not want to put an additional barrier in place of the candidate applying for a job with your school. But the risks of allowing a candidate to present themselves in their terms, is long recognised as a critical failure in safer recruitment – so once aware of these risks, do es this mean schools who continue to allow CVs prioritise expediency over safeguarding?
Are these schools ready for the criticism and censure if something were to happen in their school?
Does knowing these facts but continuing to value candidate simplicity over safeguarding amount to negligence?
All these are serious questions school leaders must take into account when designing their hiring process…maybe it’s not quite as simple as just placing job adverts on the TES or other job boards after all?