Education Verification: From Maybe to Must
In a tight job market some people are willing to do almost anything to build the perfect resume. Enhancing or exaggerating ones background has become commonplace to the point that the old adage, if it seems too perfect it probably isn't, takes on greater meaning.
One of the growing areas of misrepresentation lay with education. Increased Internet capabilities for on-line education enhance the opportunity for fraudulent degrees. Fraud is rampant and at an all-time high. On-line diploma mills, both domestic and foreign, can provide degrees based upon life and job experience, and minimal, if any, class work. For a fee, one can obtain a degree in almost anything. Subsequently, candidates place this experience on a resume and assume, often times incorrectly, that employers will not verify their educational history.
On February 19, 2012, the Tulsa World stated in an article titled; Bogus diplomas common trend on falsified resumes:
Listing a bogus diploma on resumes has become a common trend in recent years as job seekers find themselves competing for jobs among many.
http://www.tulsaworld.com/business/article.aspx?subjectid=48&articleid=20120219_46_E5_Dontbe442495
The raise of "bogus diplomas" made readily available to those willing to pay has stepped further from the shadows and nearly crossed the line into semi-legitimacy. At Dickinson State University, in North Dakota, a recent audit reported some alarming findings in graduation statistics related to overseas students, specifically those from China.
From SFGate.com:
Facing pressure to bring in more students as North Dakota's booming oil industry made it tougher to coax new high school graduates into college, Dickinson State University began looking overseas to boost its enrollment.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/02/11/MNJO1N6893.DTL
Gaining students from China is relatively easy. A high percentage of overseas students originate from China.
The article continues:
... lax record-keeping and oversight resulted in hundreds of degrees being awarded to students who didn't finish their course work. Others enrolled who couldn't speak English or hadn't achieved the C average normally required for admission.
The report depicts Dickinson State as a diploma mill for foreign students, most of whom were Chinese. Of 410 foreign students who have received four-year degrees since 2003 - most of them in the past four years - 400 did not fulfill all the graduation requirements, it said.
And to make matters worse there are reports of "fake verification" companies popping up globally. These companies will actually "verify" education from diploma mills in an attempt to subvert legitimate verification.
Education verification is a critical step in the hiring process, especially if the position demands and/or requires a certain level of academic achievement. The days of calling a school to verify information are gone. Cutbacks and worker overload have eliminated available time to retrieve documentation. Fortunately, the utilization of third party background screening company’s can greatly assist with information retrieval, specifically education verification.
CriminalBackgroundRecords.com is more than its name implies. Education verification requires a skilled and knowledgeable staff, one that is capable of handling the unique challenges involved with academic data retrieval. Utilizing both personal and database information retrieval techniques, CriminalBackgroundRecords.com can provide the information required to ensure the information provided by an applicant is honest, true, and accurate.
In the end one need only review a recent article posted to newsfeed.time.com. On February 11, 2012 a story titled, Basset Hound gets Texas high school diploma, the title, in fact, tells the story.
Still not convinced? Consider the paragraph below that illustrates how Molly, the Basset Hound, received her high school diploma.
A Texas law that prevents discrimination against home-schooled students is allegedly being used to make a quick buck on the backs of students looking for a shortcut to a diploma. For a few hundred dollars and the answers to some simple online questions, these predominantly online institutions bill themselves as private schools and issue a high-school diploma to seemingly anyone willing to pay.
http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/02/11/basset-hound-gets-texas-high-school-diploma/
The cost of a thorough education verification greatly outweighs the cost of hiring an individual with a bogus diploma. Without considering the cost of replacement of a faulty hire, consider the potential cost of negligent hiring. A bogus diploma can lead to a bogus hire and, in the end, a situation that well could have been avoided.
Contact CriminalBackgroundRecords.com today for more information on getting started with all your pre-employment background screening needs, including education verification.
About CriminalBackgroundRecords.com
CriminalBackgroundRecords.com is an Information Enterprises, Inc. Solution and is a national background checking site that specializes in criminal background checks. The site has been providing background checks to employers, schools, universities, landlords, individuals and other entities for over a decade and has active members in all 50-US States. Individual products consist of criminal background checks including county, state and national background checks, Social Security number validation, address history traces, Federal court searches, driving records and professional verifications. Visit them online at:
http://www.CriminalBackgroundRecords.com.
If you would like to work with a sales representative to setup an employment screening monthly billing account, get discounted pricing and gain access to various background checks including education verifications send an email to bd@infoeinc.com and a representative will contact you.
This has been a CriminalBackgroundRecords.com News Publication - All rights reserved
CriminalBackgroundRecords.com is “An Information Enterprises Solution”
|
June News
