Final year students are prevented from applying for jobs through NHS website.

Advertising on the NHS jobs website may be inadvertently excluding
graduates from applying, the SoR has revealed. The site’s search
engine does not currently allow final year students to seek employment
before they graduate.

Pre-application criteria is set so that students who have not yet
received their degrees, and therefore not yet eligible for
registration with the HPC, are prevented from applying. Potential
applicants are unable to identify themselves as students about to
graduate, so cannot proceed further.

Richard Evans, SoR CEO explains: “Final year students often seek
employment months ahead of graduating and equally many managers will
be hoping to attract them for vacancies. As it stands the NHS system
prevents this, so everyone loses out.”

The SoR has proposed that NHS Employers change the application
criteria so students can be identified and submit applications for
junior roles, but NHS Employers says its hands are tied.
Spokesperson Foluke Ajayi said: “I am not sure that implementing the
changes suggested is going to make much of a difference as employers
ultimately decide which answers will enable applicants to proceed to
complete the application form. That said, the NHS Jobs team will
follow through and test the suggestion with employers.

“Another consideration is for SoR to work with their members on this.
Given that most (if not all) radiography managers will be involved in
the recruitment process into roles suitable for receiving applications
from ‘nearly qualified’ students, then they should be advising on pre-
application criteria required.”

Richard Evans agrees that managers should be made aware of the
problem, but says more should be done: “The fact that the system does
not allow final year students to apply for jobs is outrageous.
“Managers that continue to use the NHS Jobs site should bear these
points in mind when they set the application criteria if they hope to
attract graduates. Of course, it is possible to avoid the difficulties
entirely by advertising on the SoR recruitment site.”

Have you experienced problems when advertising with NHS Employers
online? The SoR is collecting feedback to help build a case for
changing the system.

Posted: 05/04/2008