If you’re trying to get a job by falsifying your education credentials, don’t even bother because it will most likely land you on some sort of blacklist with HR tech company Xref (ASX: XRF) adding a new education feature to their automated reference check platform. 

The new feature comes via an exclusive partnership with Higher Ed Serviced (HES) which is a not-for-profit organisation owned by Universities Australia. At present, HES operates the My eQuals database which is a collaborative project involving 47 universities across Australia and New Zealand as a digital platform that houses information on graduates from each university. 

Utilising this database, HES has commenced building the Graduation Verification Service (GVS) with Xref’s identity checking business Rapid ID appointed the exclusive wholesale partner of the service. This will be a centralised depository of graduate information for those that have passed through a University in Australia or New Zealand over the past 20 years, enabling employers, recruiters and background checkers to confirm a job applicant’s credentials. 

“Ask any recruiter and they’ll likely bemoan just how long a graduate qualification check can take,” said Rapid ID General Manager, David Haines. 

“For many years the tertiary education sector has lagged behind in its ability to verify qualification data in realtime. HES’ move to digitise graduate checks will revolutionise the way businesses access qualification data and dramatically reduce their time to identify, screen and hire in this hyper-competitive labour market.”

Utilising technology to improve the speed and quality of reference checks has been a rising trend in recent years, accelerated even more by the COVID-19 pandemic which has limited face-to-face meeting opportunities. Existing Xref services enable automating reference checks by inviting referees to complete surveys with data which is then processed into consumable reports, as well as social media footprint checks to ensure an applicant will be a cultural fit. 

Prior to the creation of GVS, there has been no centralised platform to verify education information which has required recruiters to individually contact the University. 

“The industry has been asking for a solution like the GVS for many years and its potential is enormous. HES firmly believes that in RapidID we have found a partner that we can trust to fully capitalise on this unique opportunity,” said My eQuals Program Director, Jay Sageth. 

Professionals that have landed their jobs after falsifying their education have continued to make headlines in recent times, most of which have resulted in fraud charges. These after-the-fact discoveries however have not resolved the gross misappropriation that may have been avoided had the relevant reference checks taken place. 

It was recently discovered that former Victorian teacher Neil Lennie carved out a 50 year career as an unqualified teacher across various prestigious schools – including Caulfield Grammar, Haileybury and Mount Scopus – which was only attained after falsifying his tertiary qualifications while never being a qualified teacher. 

After being charged with fraud and found guilty in May 2021, Lennie was sentenced to three years imprisonment and ordered to pay back $500,000 which was obtained by deception across a teaching career that he earned more than $840,000.