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Today the Chartered Society of Forensic Sciences launched a “Pre Employment Assessment of Competence” for graduate students. All for the cost of £320 for a certificate.
This is a new venture for the Chartered Society of Forensic Science (CSoFS). According to their website the “Pre Employment Assessment of Competence” (PEAC) has been launched to allow students to get their CVs to the top of the pile ‘and increase their chances of getting an interview’. The students will undertake a day of assessed tests and some practical exercises and four weeks later will be told if their are competent or not. The premise is that students get an academic qualification at University whilst this one day course (or two if you wish to get crime scene and laboratory competence) will show employers how the student is capable in a practical sense. This is apparently following discussions with forensic science providers who:
“have told us that recent graduates, who are able to demonstrate they have the core skills the employers are looking for, will be selected for interview over those who can only demonstrate they have the appropriate education minimums.”
Of course, this does come at a cost. You must be a member of the CSoFS to take part and then pay for the day of aptitude testing on top, to a combined total of £320 (including CSoFS basic membership until October 2015) or £300 per day for members. From what I can see the tests will be conducted at some of the CSoFS accredited Universities.
These skills being tested are not those that were identified as being a priority for FS graduates in a Higher Education Academy (HEA) published study in 2013. This study, “Addressing the Employability Needs of Forensic Science Graduates” identified the key skills being asked for in FS job advertisements and also conducted interviews with ‘key employers in the sector’. The most highly sought skills, after above the requisite degree, were: communication, teamwork, interpersonal skills, organisation and leadership (top 5, full list in the paper). According to the research it was “found that across both small and larger organisations employers were more likely to prioritise transferable skills over technical ones“. There are no names of employers mentioned in the CSoFS documents, so who are these forensic employers that want this and is this a real need?
So what does this mean for the Accredited Degrees? Are they now worthless? Well, students have been told (including on Radio 4’s Today programme by the CSoFS), that the only way to get a quality degree (and hence a job in FS) is through the accredited programme. The Universities have aligned their courses with the expected content described by the CSoFS. But, to get the PEAC you do not need to have done an accredited degree, therefore will your CV jump to the top of the pile over someone who has an accredited degree yet no PEAC?
Also, if the skills being tested in the PEAC are those are deemed to be the necessary skills required by graduates then why are they not included in the degree accreditation? The PEAC could then be used by students on non-accredited courses to prove they have the same aptitude as those on the accredited courses.
Most of all I really feel for the students. They are already paying £9000 for an undergraduate degree and now they are being asked to fork out for this new certificate too, which may or may not enhance their employability.
I would strongly recommend students not to undertake this if they asked me. Unless the CSoFS can show that the main employers in the area (eg LGC) are going to be putting there name behind the scheme and making it very clear it is money well spent. The certificate offers no guarantee of employment and will be useless after a year or two anyway.
I’d be interested to hear view on this – a great idea for aspiring forensic types or an unnecessary additional cost for graduates with no additional guarantee of a job?
Thanks to Tiernan Coyle (http://twitter.com/ContactTraces for pointing out the scheme to me). I must add a note here to say I work for a University that is not accredited, I have been through the paper work for accreditation and I am very confident our degree measures up against the criteria (I have completed the mapping of content to our modules). Our course also gets good comments from external examiners and the employers comment on our graduates positive attributes.
Thanks for reading.
Speaking for Contact Traces, http://www.contacttraces.co.uk ; as an FSP we do not recognise this programme and it would not count during selection for interview.
Tiernan, thanks for your comment, good to hear people won’t be disadvantaged during application if they have not forked out for this certificate.
Tom
Thanks Tom. I can’t speak for other FSPs (and we’re not a large employer) but I can’t see how an ISO17025 accredited laboratory could recognise this certificate considering any successful candidate would have to undergo rigorous training processes to prove their competence according to the FSPs own procedures, all whilst on a period of probation. Selecting for interview based on this process would appear flawed from a HR point of view, there are no shortcuts.
I am currently considering this program as its been a year now that i have searched and searched for a job in this industry with no luck. It’s not just me that’s in this boat, majority of my friends on the same masters course have not been able to secure a position. Things are getting very desperate now due to loan payments etc, and its not every encouraging to read that this course along with the accredited course i completed has no sway. What can one do to procure a position?
Honestly, through all my applications i got invited for 1 interview and the rest say that i need experience. Well i’m going to say what all recent graduates seem to be saying ‘If we are not given the opportunity to gain experience we are going to get nowhere!’. What will it take to get in?
Hi Belitta,
I don’t really have any easy answers to this I am afraid. The forensic market has shrunk considerably in the past ten years and there is a lot of uncertainty around. The courses are not vocational degrees, that is to say there is no guarantee of a job in that field at the end.’Forensic science’ is also a very broad field, what area do you wish to go into? Look into the associated jobs in that area rather than focusing solely on ones with ‘forensic’ in the job title, many use the same techniques and methods as in forensic laboratories and would give you extra experience before you eventually get your dream job. That job isn’t usually someones first job.
If you have an accredited MSc I would not think the certificate will give you anything more than that (BUT I am not an employer currently…).
Apply for everything you think you can do and don’t give up. Recent graduates aren’t the only ones who question how to get jobs that require experience without being given opportunities, it was certainly the same when I graduated and was probably before that as well.
Good luck!
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