There is one issue that is at the very heart of most job applications.

Unfortunately, most students don’t know what it is.

Many young people preparing to enter a workplace for the first time assume they know which skills and attributes employers are looking for.   Unfortunately, in making this assumption, those young people make a grave mistake.

As a result, the way in which the applicant presents him/herself is one which is likely to lead to a rejection.  As a result, applicants can come to see employers as out of touch with the modern world, while the employers see applicants as out of touch with the needs of business.

At the heart of the matter is what are often called “emotional and social competencies”; what are more commonly known as “people skills”.  For many employers have come to realise that generally only about one third of the difference between an excellent employee and an average employee relates to technical skills and cognitive ability.

The rest of the difference between a highly effective employee and an average employee comes in the form of these emotional and social competencies.

Which raises the question, how can we show students who are starting on the journey to employment, what employers are looking for?  In effect, how can they express their social and emotional competencies to those who might give them a job?

The first step must be for the student to understand his/her own social and emotional competencies. Which is why Belbin has produced GetSet – a way of helping students find out about themselves in relation to what employers tend to look for.

GetSet is a set of questionnaires that school students can complete on-line and which generate a detailed set of reports revealing the student’s strengths.  As a result, the students can best present themselves in applications to higher education and to employers.

To help you see how GetSet works, we are happy to offer you or one of your students the chance to take the GetSet questionnaire yourself at no cost or obligation. Then if you feel it would be helpful, you can arrange for the questionnaire to be made available to those students whom you nominate.

To apply for a free questionnaire for yourself or one of your students, please click here – click the contact us at the top of the page and write ‘a free one please’ in the box. To read more about GetSet, please do look at our website here www.belbingetset.com. Or if you have any questions, please email getset@belbin.com or phone 01223 264975.

Lisa Ward