Kuriculam vitay's that spell trouble for jobseekers

Job-seekers are ruining their chances by submitting CVs riddled with poor spelling and bad grammar, research revealed yesterday.

Nearly half of the recruitment agencies questioned said the majority of CVs they receive contain grammatical errors.

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For many job-seekers, the mistakes start before they have even begun to chronicle their careers and achievements.

At the top of their CV they write "Curriculum Vitae" - the Latin for "course of life" - but get the spelling wrong. One applicant wrote "Kuriculam Vitay", the study said.

The misuse of the apostrophe is the most common mistake, such as a reference to "Wale's largest computer warehouse".

Other common errors include using the word "wood" not "would"; "there" not "their"; "roll" not "role"; and "personnel" not "personal".

The research, published by the Recruitment and Employment Confederation, reveals male applicants are the worst offenders overall.

When it comes to particular jobs, secretaries are most likely to send in poor CVs - even though they are regularly required to write letters for their bosses.

Among the age groups, those in their early twenties are most likely to make a mess of their CV, while older workers tend to be more accurate.

This fuels fears about the "text generation" whose ability to spell is being ruined by text messaging on their mobile phones and reliance on a computer's fallible spell-checking facility.

REC chief executive Marcia Roberts said: "Candidates who make errors run the risk of missing out on being short-listed for a job despite having the right experience and qualifications. Job-seekers should first pay more attention to getting the basics right."

Comments made by some of the 266 recruitment professionals interviewed for the REC's survey gives an insight into the problem.

One said graduates often claim to have "an excellent eye for detail" but send in CVs full of spelling and grammatical mistakes.

The REC also warned that job-seekers whose spelling and grammar is perfect can make other mistakes.

About 60 per cent of recruiters describe the inclusion of interests and hobbies, such as "going to the cinema", as a "waste of space".

The REC urged workers to ask their family and friends to check their CVs several times before sending them out.

Susan Anderson, a director of the Confederation of British Industry, said: "Sadly, while basic literacy and numeracy should be a given for school-leavers, too many are not picking up these fundamental life skills."

A recent CBI report showed one in three employers has to send staff for remedial training to teach them basic English and maths skills. A fifth of the workforce has literacy or numeracy difficulties.

The REC report comes after a study found one in five job-seekers put a "significant lie" on their CV to try to impress a future boss.

The lies uncovered included workers claiming to have first-class degrees even if they did not go to university.