What is an alternative CV?

Not everyone has a CV bursting with impressive credentials.  52% of young people from disadvantaged backgrounds leave school without any qualifications at all.  Our Alternative CV gives people without credentials something incredible to shout about!  We supplement credentials for character strengths and talents to ensure employers know exactly what skills and attributes a person brings to the table!

Approximately 788,000 young people are not in education, employment or training (NEET) in the UK.   62,000 returning citizens leave prison each year without a job to go to.  Finding a career that inspires you is not easy, especially for those who are vulnerable to low-pay-in-work poverty.  Our Alternative CV is designed to guide individuals to a career that will maximise and cultivate their natural character strengths and talents - thus improving the likelihood of them staying in, and enjoying their career.

There are approximately 140,000 prison admissions every year in the UK.  Some 230,000 students aged 18-35 take a gap year each year.  There are plenty of reasons why a traditional CV may have gaps in work experience.  When this becomes problematic, sending an Alternative CV could help distract employers from focusing on the gaps, by instead focusing on what skills and strengths a person has to offer. 

120,000 veterans are unemployed and working-age veterans are nearly twice as likely to be unemployed as their equivalents in the UK general population. Our Alternative CV offers civilian employers recognisable virtues and talents required for civilian work.  Our Alternative CV is designed to complement military achievements and provide a clear steer on how a veteran's character strengths and abilities could translate to meaningful employment or self-employment.

Dead-end jobs that are low paid and insecure trap people in poverty. Five in every six people in low-paid work fail to escape low pay over 10 years.  A lack of credentials should not equate to a lifetime of hardship.  Our Alternative CV is designed to find the brilliance in each individual and show them how to maximise their inherent strengths so that they can accelerate their social mobility and change their lives for the better either in employment or self-employment. 

A study by Warwick University in 2017, revealed over 80% of 18 to 49-year-olds said they made the wrong decision about their career and only 10% said they would pick the same qualifications again.  Sometimes people simply outgrow their CV and want to make a completely fresh start.  Our Alternative CV maps core character strengths and talents to ideal roles so it's perfect for those wanting a new direction or a CV that reflects who they truly are.

According to research by Robert Half UK, more than one in 10 (13%) of UK employees are unhappy at work, accounting for more than 4.3 million people in the UK.  It doesn't have to be this way.  Our Alternative CV is designed to find out what makes a person 'tick'.  It uses social and strength-based science to establish the kind of work that really empowers a person to be the best version of themselves - and that means being happy and fulfilled at work!