Career Choices Crucial For GCSE Students Says RECs Scotland director

22nd August 2007

Students receiving their Standard Grade results in Scotland today (Thursday 23 August 2007) have even more crucial choices to make than their Highers counterparts, according to the Recruitment and Employment Confederation.

With current skills shortages biting deeply into certain sectors of the UK's labour market, the REC, the trade association for the UK's private recruitment industry, says it is vital that GCSE students take time out to identify potential educational or vocational routes which can lead them to jobs in these specific areas.

In Scotland, there is a particular shortage of skilled workers across all sectors including construction, engineering and IT, says Louise Wightman the REC's Chair of Directors in Scotland and Managing Director of Consultancy & Personnel Ltd in Glasgow.

The REC's monthly Report of Jobs continuously cites skills shortages as being the most significant problem for recruiters, reflecting tight candidate availability.

But with careful planning, Louise Wightman says students can benefit in the long term by determining now how they can utilise their GCSE qualifications in order to pursue careers in those areas where there are acute shortages.

"This really is the most crucial stage in the education process as these students really have to decide if they are going to pursue the A-level route, which usually leads to university, or opt for vocational qualifications within a particular career or profession."


Louise Wightman added: "Our surveys have shown that certain areas of the labour market desperately need well-qualified people. Part of their job and indeed ours at the REC is to help educate young people about where their own skills and abilities can be best harnessed to meet these current and future needs."

See - www.rec.uk.com