A Brief Education on Education Verification

Title:A Brief Education on Education VerificationWord Count:1641Summary:Education Verification can be a very importantbackground check in any pre-employment screeningprogramKeywords:Background checks, pre-employment screening,

human resources, jobs, employment, hr, employers,pre-employment background checks, educationverification, background searches, work,businessArticle Body:It is generally believed by those in our tradethat while employment candidates may embellishtheir employment tasks and positions, they willdownright lie about their education. Yes, that person interviewing with yourHuman Resource Manger and other relevantexecutives, the one looking presentable andacting so bright and articulate may well beinventing his education. In most cases yourcandidate 抯 claim to a higher education is notnecessarily a total invention. He may have infact actually enrolled in the university listedon the resume. He just didn 抰 graduate fromthat school. Or any other school, for thatmatter.

But then there are those, a notable amountof employment candidates who have engaged in whatwe term a ghost attendance. That is to say theynot only failed to graduate from the school, butthey never enrolled at all. Why they chose thatparticular school as their fictional place ofgraduation is anyone 抯 guess. But enoughcandidates lie about graduating from schools theymay have never seen, save for photos on theInternet. The HR person should always considerthe ghost attendance a very real possibility. As to which schools the job candidates mayclaim to have graduated, the selection is variedand sometimes darkly amusing. Some may choosethe smaller and more out of the way schools astheir fictional alma maters. They may selectsomething arty and prestigious, one of thoseschools you may hear about but not know muchabout.. Or your candidate can take obscurity inanother direction by listing on their resume somegrievously remote or sub-par institute of higherlearning that few ever even heard of..

There is certain logic to making such claims.By listing say, an obscure Mid-Western school oresoteric New England college, as his place ofgraduation, your candidate may believe he helpssubstantiate his credibility. Even the moreastute HR person may well determine no one wouldactually lie about graduating from a Reed College,in Oregon, Amherst, in Massachusetts, or LakeForest, in Illinois? Or for that matter as adefense against low self-esteem, who would dareboast of graduating from one of the legions ofNorth Western Eastern Slippery Eel Teacher 抯College in the far corner of the middle of nowhere?So, the thinking goes, you may accept their claimat face value and never bother to check it out. Other candidates will take the alternateroute. Most in fact, will choose the largerschools, believing their names and allegedgraduation dates may well get lost in thebureaucratic shuffle. Of course, if they didattend for awhile, they hope their registeredenrollment may mistakenly be interpreted as proof

of graduation. What they lack in education,they make up for in audacity. Well, sort of.Finally, there are the no degree degrees.These are the phony degrees awarded for 搇 ifeexperience?and are not representative ofattendance or graduation from any legitimate oraccredited college. They are totally bogus.But they are popular. The more enterprisingamong the duplicitous can purchase these degreesonline for anywhere from fifty bucks to severalhundred dollars. The graduate degrees are alittle pricier than the mere Bachelors?but theyare available from any number of phonyuniversities. Some of them even lookimpressive; provided you don 抰 look try to findthe school 抯 physical address on the Internet.Before you become too upset or overlysuspicious, bear in mind that those who lie abouttheir degrees comprise a minority of employmentcandidates. More often than not yourcandidate actually is who he says he is and didattend and graduate from the college listed in his

resume. But bear in mind the operative phasehere is 搈 ore often than not.? With that in mind,think of the ways you may cause embarrassment andeven litigation if you mistakenly hire someonewho has obtained only a fictional degree. It may be true that lacking a Bachelor 抯degree in certain disciplines may be irrelevant.There is a saying, for example, that a good salesperson is born and not made, or something to thataffect. And while that may be true in certaindisciplines, in more than a few someone betterhave the qualifications afforded through theproper education. It may well be your new hirewith his fictional degree may genuinely lack theskill sets required for the job. This realitycan cause all sorts of problems and even lead tocatastrophe in its myriad forms. You have allocated time and money to his hire.You have distracted your work force, at leastthose who have conducted the various interviews.In hiring this person, you may have rejected acandidate who was truly qualified but is no longer

available. You must now allocate additionalresources to hire someone else. Such mistakescan detract from employee morale as well as yourbottom line. Additionally, by hiring someone notqualified by virtue of lacking his degree, you arejeopardizing your relationship with clients.You may have assigned this person to a client, andnow your employee has screw things up through islack of qualifications. This can make yourclient extremely unhappy. The client maydemand compensation. They may even threaten alawsuit. This is not only costly, butembarrassing as well. If you think this doesn 抰 happen, you hadbetter think again. These are not the storiesexecutives like to brag about over lunch. Theseare the stories that are whispered, and thewhispering is far more ominous and damaging toyour business. Let 抯 face it, if your failureto perform due diligence causes provesdetrimental to your client, then you will be held

accountable. You will look foolish and cheap.You may also be looking for another client toreplace the one who left you. The moral to this story is that your HumanResources Management must check out everyone, nomatter how trustworthy they sound. It isessential to have a pre-employment screeningprogram in place and to include educationverification as part of that program. The fewbucks you spend up front to verify your candidate抯 graduation can save you plenty in money andtime as well as and potential litigation andembarrassment. Those who win contracts withmajor corporations, especially technology ordefense and security related industries will findthese companies mandate background checks foreveryone who will be working on the project.This includes education verification. Oftenthey will insist on verification of all degreesand not just the highest. When conducting education verificationshere are some things to keep in mind?

?Colleges and Universities typically provideverification either in-house or through theNational Student Clearing House or another thirdparty service. If the University is registeredwith a third party service, the degree can oftenbe verified that day. Third party services willcharge a fixed rate for access verification.Some background checking agencies will add on tothis rate while others will pass it on at cost.?Typically, degrees are verified by backgroundchecking services within a couple, few days.The process may take longer if your candidate haseither graduated some years back or is not listedin the database.?Verification may also take longer over theholidays, semester break or the summer. Beprepared to allow for more time for verification.?Verification from foreign universitiesinevitably will take longer than domesticverification. Typically, the rates for foreignverifications are significantly higher thancharges for a domestic university. Be prepared

to pay more and wait longer for the foreignverification.?Some schools will ask for your candidate 抯disclosure and release form before issuing theverification.?When providing your candidate 抯 information tothe University or third party service, it is bestto include the years attended, the year graduated,the actual degree and major, and for large schoolsthe campus where your candidate attended.?If your candidate is a female, be sure theinformation you submit reflects the actual namewith which your candidate graduated. Sometimesyour candidate applies for the position under hermarried name and fails to provide her maiden name,the name she used while attending school.?This may also apply for foreign students.Sometimes foreign candidates will change theirnames after graduation, to make them moreaccessible in the American workplace. But theymay have attended school, using their formal name.Your candidate is known to you as 揃 en,?but in

school he was still 揃 ao.?This can complicatethe verification process.?If the school or the third party service ishaving a difficult time verifying y our candidate抯 degree, they may request a facsimile of hisdiploma or final transcripts.?Be sure to keep your verification processuniform. You may decide to verify all degrees oronly the highest degree obtained. Whatever youdo for one candidate, you should do for all therest.?Make sure your background checking service staysin front of any complications that may arise inthe verification process. Establish andmaintain fluid communication channels so that theservice can keep you informed and requestadditional information when needed. Remember if for some reason and after alldue diligence you are unable to verify yourcandidate 抯 degree, it probably means he neverobtained one. They may try to talk their way outof it, but hold firm and insist they provide any