Prime Minister Keir Starmer has announced a new AI-assisted tool designed to help job seekers – and young people in particular – to get into work. Including a “CV builder” feature, government officials hope the tool will function as a “job centre in your pocket”.
Kevin Chan, CEO of workforce intelligence and optimisation expert Epitome, has shared his comments. He said: “With over a million young people not in employment, education or training, the government is desperate to address this issue, and thinks that AI could be the solution – they’re right in thinking that, but not in the way proposed. In fact, talking about a ‘CV builder’ and ‘job centre in your pocket’ just sounds like the same old same old.
“AI can already produce a convincing looking CV in a matter of seconds, but that’s of no use whatsoever to either job seekers or prospective employers when the market is flooded with similar CVs. And for young people in particular, job centres’ approach to employment based on skills, qualifications and past experience simply isn’t fit for purpose in the world we now live.
“The job market is changing fast, much of it driven by AI, and existing qualifications and skills are now often less important than personal qualities such as motivation, ability to adapt and learning agility – qualities that many young people have in spades. But CVs are almost useless as a means of conveying this information, because they’re about what people have done rather than what they could become.
“AI could be a real careers game changer for young people – but not in the way the government is suggesting. The real opportunity is using AI to produce – at scale – ‘whole-person’ profiles of potential employees which give employers accurate predictions of who could thrive in a job regardless of their current status. These aren’t just old-school psychometric tests, but in-depth measurements of a person’s essential qualities and their future potential.”
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