How Do Jobs Verify Education?
Using a third-party service to verify an applicant’s degree or credential can be a valuable tool for employers. This method can detect the use of false degrees or school attendance and can speed up the hiring process by ensuring that candidates are honest. Here are three reasons employers rely on education verification services:
Credentials are verified by a third-party service
Verified Credentials is a consumer reporting agency and operates under the Federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). This third-party service is dedicated to protecting your privacy. To this end, it provides a Privacy Policy that details its practices and your choices for how your personal information is used. The privacy policy also provides details on how you can object to the collection of certain information about you. Please read it carefully before providing personal information.
Accreditation is confirmed by a third-party service
What does accreditation mean? Accreditation is a process of validation conducted by an independent, globally accredited body, such as Intertek. It serves to confirm an organisation’s competence and systems by presenting public notifications of its quality. Accreditation demonstrates a commitment to self-study and external review to improve the quality of education. In addition to confirming the quality of education, accreditation can also serve as a quality assurance tool.
Degrees are verified by a third-party service
Students who are unsure of the validity of their degree certificates can request verification through a third-party service. Degree verifications provide the name of the alumnus/alumna, their name, date of birth, and degree received. Students can request verifications of their degrees for free if they are currently enrolled or have completed their course work. However, if the person is not a current student, they may need to pay a fee.
Diploma mills are a concern for employers
While federal and state efforts to crack down on diploma mills have been intermittent in the past, they remain a concern for employers. It is difficult to distinguish between legitimate and fraudulent institutions and diploma mills are extremely mobile, moving from jurisdiction to jurisdiction quickly. State governments have implemented various laws and regulations to combat the practice. The FBI is one federal agency that focuses on diploma mills. State laws vary in strength, and each one may be different from another.
Issues with in-house verification
In-house education verification can be time consuming and problematic. Sometimes, a request for an education verification results in inaccurate or incomplete information. Inaccuracies in the record may include incorrect student numbers and other details. Often, information like a student’s GPA or honors status will be missing. Moreover, some higher education institutions restrict access to student records to students themselves. Moreover, verification services require written consent from the student before they can begin a verification process.