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Every day, we get a lot of feedback from users about Europass documents. Frequently, we don’t only receive questions about how to fill them in correctly, but also how much Europass documents can help those concerned succeed in the world of work. So in 2015 we also consulted the other side, employers, so that we can continue to develop the portfolio according to the actual needs.

We had already conducted a survey in the matter in 2012, which we have now repeated; we asked HR professionals from 70 companies what they thought about the Europass CV, motivational letter and skills passport. We mostly asked multinational companies, but also involved some small, medium and large enterprises in the survey.

We conducted personal interviews with HR professionals at career expos about Europass documents. The interviews pointed out that, as opposed to the figures in 2012, today every HR professional respondent is familiar with the Europass CV, and many emphasised that they preferred the new format to the old one. Based on the responses, an average of 3.75 out of ten CV’s are sent to the company in Europass format. More than half of the HR professionals still mentioned young people as the main users, since it serves as an excellent guideline for career starters. Both in 2012 and 2015, transparency and structure were highlighted as the main virtues of the Europass CV. According to the respondents, the Europass format helps selection, because it makes it easier to compare job applicants. Interestingly, this year many HR professionals pointed out that the linguistic part of Europass is definitely good, whereas in 2012 the majority preferred the conventional demonstration of language skills. Nevertheless, most of the respondents said that it was the job applied for section that helped their work most.

We also wanted to learn about experiences and opinions regarding the two latest members of the Europass document family.
According to half of the respondents, the format of the Europass motivational letter is good. Many think that the templates of the fill-in form may help applicants; of course, care should be taken to ensure the proper use of the templates, and the letter shouldn’t be filled with only sample sentences. The Europass motivational letter, however, does not contain any obligatory elements, the editing page only recommends language usage and expressions for the document, and thus the applicants can customise the style of the text to reflect their personalities.

Most of the respondents said that their companies did not require the applicants to submit a complete portfolio. We received very different answers to our question whether they found Europass skills passport useful when applying for a job – all in all, we found that in Hungary, using an electronic portfolio is not common practice yet. However, many highlighted that it was mailing system-friendly (as everything can be found in one file), as well as the usability ensured by the standard form.

Generally, we can say that Europass has now become a well-known and recognised format which can not only help job seekers, but one that also makes the work of those who select them faster and easier. 

 

Last modified: 04-04-2016