State school students forced to lie on their CVs, research by Powerchex reveals

Aug. 11, 2009 - PRLog -- Job applicants who attended state schools are 25% more likely to lie on their CVs than those from independent schools, new research has found.

The Powerchex Annual Pre-employment screening survey, which considered 4,735 job applications to firms in the financial sector, found that one in five state school students would lie on their CV to land a job. Only 16% of their counterparts in independent schools felt the need to do so.

“State school students appear to feel more pressure to lie on their CVs. No doubt the extreme economic climate has added to this pressure. Our research shows that the number of candidates lying on their job applications has reached its highest level for three years,” said Alexandra Kelly, Managing Director of Powerchex.

These findings add to the concern about social mobility across the country, an issue which has come to the fore following a government report published in July. “It is not ability that is unevenly distributed in our society. It is opportunity," said Alan Milburn, former Secretary of Health for Labour who chaired the report.

“The fact that job applicants from state schools lie more often suggests that it is harder for them to clinch these sought after jobs in the financial sector. Hopefully the government can move toward rectifying this as soon as possible,” Kelly said.

This year’s survey also shows that the better the university an applicant attended, the less likely they are to lie on their CV. Less than 10% of candidates who graduated from Oxford and Cambridge made lies or embellishments, compared to 24.8% of candidates from universities ranked outside the top 100.

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Powerchex is the UK’s premier pre-employment screening firm for financial institutions. Based in the City of London, Powerchex checks the background, employment history, criminal records and professional qualifications of applicants on behalf of financial institutions. It sets the industry benchmark of 5 days for a background check.

Powerchex has won a business of the year awards for three years running: DBC & East London Chamber of Commerce Business of the Year 2009; NatWest Business of the Year Award 2008; NatWest Service Business of the Year Award 2007.