How lower expectations can overcome the skill shortage in STEM sectors

Recruiters should lower their expectations to overcome the skill shortage in STEM sectors.

That is the advice given by Ian Dowd. He is the Marketing Director at NGA Human Resources. He says that the way to overcome the lack of skilled workers is not look for perfect candidates. Instead, he argues that the trick to finding good employees is to look for what candidates can become rather than who they are.

“It is like in the X Factor or something like The Voice,” Dowd tells Recruitment Grapevine. “What used to happen is that recruiters would look for someone who had the right ingredients. Then they would mould, train and invest in them until they were who they needed to be.”

Dowd says that that type of attitude has shifted so that recruiters are looking for the finished article straight away.