Four from every ten job applications are rejected by large employers in London because of the many grammatical and spelling errors that litter the forms. This information was revealed as Iain Duncan Smith Work Secretary stated that poor literacy and numeracy skills could result in a life claiming benefits.
The minister told how he had witnessed the lives of youngsters ruined as poor educational skills prevented them finding work. Duncan Smith, who started the Centre for Social Justice said:
“Literacy skills are absolutely vital to getting into employment and staying there. Education is the cornerstone of success or failure.”
Major London firms are feeling forced to invest millions each year to teach recruits the literacy attributes they should have learnt while at school. The problem is thought to be becoming worse as pupils are now being taught by a generation of teachers who have grown up in a ‘text’ culture. Employers are not happy to accept poorer standards of spelling and grammar, which ought to be a basic skill. According to research carried out by Every Child a Chance Trust, employees with poor literacy skills were less likely to get promotion, staying at the bottom of the career ladder.
A company website with copy that has poor spelling and grammatical errors will suffer in much the same way, with customers preferring to deal with a company that has a professional image. Content outsourcing to a UK copywriting agency will ensure that poor literacy is never a problem for your company website.
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