I’ve just published a new piece on the ISE blog entitled How to encourage young hires to dress more professionally. This builds on the finding that we had in the Student Development Survey that employers were four times more likely to raise concerns about the way apprentices dress than graduates.
This is what I have got to say about the subject.
We have just launched our annual Development Survey, which raises some interesting insights on skills and how employer expectation matches reality.
One of the more interesting findings was around professionalism and that that employers were four times more likely to be unhappy with the way that their apprentices dressed than the way that graduates dressed.We know that in this context this is not a question about who is the snappiest dresser. Employers are (generally) not fashion experts and so the question is not about whether students are bang on trend, but rather about whether they fit in, represent the company appropriately, look professional and send out the right messages.
The issue for young people, or for people moving into a new environment, is that a lot of what may seem obvious to the employer is completely new to the new employee.
Read on for more discussion and tips for employers and young people.
Adventures in Career Development 