By Paul Fahey – Student Progression Champion

A chat with one of our students recently highlighted to me, more than ever, the significance and value of lifelong learning and professional development. In fairness to the student, and to the various institutes we deal with, my version of events will be far vaguer than the version I was told over the phone during our recent conversation but the facts remain the same.

This particular student gave me a little back story to why he was studying again for the first time since leaving education over 30 years ago. He advised he had worked his way up through his company and earned almost 35 years’ worth of experience in his chosen profession, all with the same company no less!

Surprisingly, he found himself and all of his colleagues facing redundancy a year or so ago and had to start looking for work for the first time in decades. Working in various roles while developing his career and gaining all his experience, he felt quite confident he would find a new but similar role in another company despite his lack of experience applying for work, having been such a loyal and long serving member of staff with his current, soon to be former, employer.

This is where things changed for our student, and also what led him to become our student. Having applied for numerous roles, he found himself disappointed and surprised at the lack of interest in such an experienced and loyal potential employee. For some people, it might have been easy to assume there was a little ageism or discrimination being directed at him but our student persevered and requested feedback on his lack of success. Being told by several firms that despite all his experience he lacked the necessary professional qualifications they were seeking from their successful applicants, our student became, well, our student.

He discovered the gap in his CV that was preventing him from sitting down in front of hiring managers to discuss his vast experience and it was one simple thing, a globally recognised qualification for his profession. Being able to add to his CV that he was studying the very same qualification his prospective employers were looking for meant he was invited to a number of interviews. Having sifted countless CVs over the years myself, I know you sometimes have a remit to look for certain things that stand out, often a particular qualification more than particular experience. Whether this is the right approach or not is open to debate but it is certainly common practice for some recruiters to be directed towards seeking an applicant with one or several particular points covered on their CV with the attitude ‘if you don’t have it, you don’t get a look in’ occasionally employed, if you pardon the pun. Just saying he was studying the course was enough in some cases to get his CV noticed more.

While some employers still wanted an already qualified employee, several saw the fact the qualification was being undertaken, combined with the student’s almost unrivalled experience, as an excellent opportunity to hire a loyal, experienced and dedicated member of staff who was still keen to progress and develop his career and his knowledge at a time when many people are setting their sights on retirement.

A short time later our student found a new role with a new employer that has allowed him to bring his many years of experience to the role and his studies, once necessary to gain employment, have become an enjoyable hobby and a surprising source of knowledge to a student who was unsure how much would be gained from a qualification in a field he thought he knew almost everything about.

Relying on my own memory, I am certainly paraphrasing but I recall our student’s feedback. “I didn’t realise how much I would learn from the course, I figured it would be a means to an end but I am learning vital information about the work I do and it’s given me an added perspective to my job.”

Being out of work is always a challenge, doing so after being employed by the same company for 35 years is an even bigger challenge. I can only imagine how distressing it must be to be told all your experience is deemed as worthless without the necessary qualification but I admire anyone determined enough to take that feedback, use it, and turn it into a positive to combine all that valuable experience with the one thing you are being told you are missing from your CV to earn the role your experience, knowledge and loyalty deserve.

While this is very much directed at one of our students who found himself out of work and needing to find new employment, it just goes to show how vital and valuable vocational qualifications are nowadays in your careers. This is an example of someone being forced to look elsewhere in their career but vocational qualifications are equally important, if not more so, when wanting to stand out from the crowd with your current employers. Whether it’s an investment to be returned as a potential pay rise further down the line or the opportunity to progress in your career with a new role in your current organisation, vocational qualifications offer recognised and renowned accreditations from world famous institutes and, as you can see in the case I have highlighted, it could be the very difference between you getting the job you have your heart set on or being overlooked for someone who has the qualification employers are looking for.

Get in touch with Paul:

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0191 378 7520