Jobcentre Plus recruits for corporate sector with ISVís Fastpath assessment software

Fast turnaround of candidate assessment for Automobile Association provides platform for Jobcentre Plus to satisfy corporate employers

ISV Group, the UK technology training and assessment company, today announces that Jobcentre Plus, Britainís largest job-matching agency, is using its Fastpath testing and assessment software to help select the right candidates for its corporate customers. The first implementations are in the West Midlandís Dudley & Sandwell District, which includes 11 Jobcentre Plus offices. As a result, Dudley & Sandwell District Jobcentre Plus completed a major project in October 2003 for the Automobile Association to recruit more than 100 people to the new 10,219 m2 Centrica Plc Swallowfield site which houses call handling and deployment staff, and which is situated at junction two of the M5.

Field Account Manager of Jobcentre Plus in Dudley & Sandwell, Dave Feakes, comments, ìMore and more of our corporate clients are looking for faster throughput and turnaround for candidate assessment and selection, and ISVís Fastpath testing and assessment software allows us to do exactly that. For the Automobile Association, we were able to process more than 400 applications in a matter of days to deliver the 108 deployment staff that were required for its new facility. The whole recruitment process from advertising, open days, assessment and selection took less than three months from start to finish. We intend to make ISVís PC-based testing and assessment available for all 16,000 employers on our books in the Dudley & Sandwell district.î

Fastpath was first developed by ISV in 1997, and provides candidates with full replication of live software such as Microsoft Office, Lotus, WordPerfect and Sage, and includes keyboard shortcuts to give a more realistic picture of skills. It enables recruiters to quickly identify candidates with the required skills and knowledge. The Microsoft Office 2000 assessment simulations emulate real-world software applications and business processes and use both on-screen and audio instructions to guide candidates through each test. A candidate database produces a comprehensive range of reports that enable recruitment consultants to analyse the performance of different candidates, and identify those with the required skills and knowledge. In addition, Fastpath has been specifically developed for use on the Web, providing recruiters with the full functionality and super-fast download capability that are essential for this market.