Following new research by City & Guilds which has revealed an alarming number of employees do not understand today’s qualifications, WaterSafe – the UK’s national assurance scheme for the plumbing industry – has pledged its full support to helping cut confusion within the current curricular.
Working in partnership with the Plain English Campaign, City & Guilds recently carried out a robust study among more than 1,000 small, medium and large companies in relation to their responses to CVs and knowledge on the current curricular.
The findings proved shocking with over half (57%) of employers stating they found acronyms on CVs to be confusing and nearly two-thirds (64%) admitting they have had to look up abbreviated qualifications on the internet to discover their meaning.
More worryingly still, 95% of employers were unable to identify which was the most advanced qualification from a list of acronyms.
Following the research, City & Guilds has created an online ‘Education Jargon Buster’ in a bid to lift confusion around qualification abbreviations and help employers to understand the level of each qualification and to be better informed when next recruiting.
Julie Spinks, director of WaterSafe, said:
“While it is very concerning to see many of today’s employers are confused regarding qualifications and what they mean, it isn’t surprisingly given the abundance of courses and qualifications within the trade sector alone. It is, therefore, great to see that City & Guilds is seeking to address the issue with its ‘Education Jargon Buster’, among other initiatives.”
She adds:
“In a similar vein, WaterSafe has been specifically designed to make entry to our scheme as simple and clear as possible. If an employer, with suitable insurance, takes on a plumber with an NVQ Level 2 in Mechanical Engineer Services (plumbing) and the individual also has a Water Fittings Regulations qualification, the prospective employee will, in most cases, be eligible for WaterSafe membership.
“In effect, looking for these entry requirements helps simplify the selection process for a company employing a plumber and, in turn, it’s easier for customers to find them once listed as WaterSafe acts as a hub for qualified, recognised plumbers.”
WaterSafe has the backing of UK water suppliers and key professional organisations in the sector, which should provide reassurance that Schemes’ required qualifications are the most appropriate for people carrying out plumbing work.
The ‘Education Jargon Buster’ can be found at TechBac.com where there is a list of the most commonly misunderstood education abbreviations.