The NHS Jobs website is inadvertently stopping students from applying for posts, the SoR has revealed.
The search engine on the site does not currently allow final year students to begin seeking employment before they graduate.
The pre-application criteria is set so that students who have not yet received their degrees, and therefore are not yet eligible for registration with the HPC, are prevented from applying.
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 the application criteria is changed so students can be indentified and submit applications for junior roles, but site manager 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.
“Students that continue to use the NHS Jobs site should bear these points in mind when they use the site. It is also worth looking on the SoR recruitment site as our system does not have these difficulties.”
Have you experienced problems when using the NHS Jobs website? The SoR is collecting feedback to help build a case for changing the system.
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