Education Zones – Bridging the Gap Between Candidate Education and Employer Requirements in Online Job Matching
Anyone using online job-matching services has undoubtedly encountered seemingly obvious or even ridiculous mismatches. Many of these mismatches are based on inadequate processing of the information related to education. For instance, when a job matching algorithm focuses only on the level of education (e.g. Bachelor or Master or high school), a travel agent may be suggested a job as an IT specialist. They both have a degree, but – crucially – in a different context. In addition, recently completed lower level courses or certificates become more significant as they complement work experience, in many cases gradually rendering the highest level of education obsolete. But these matching algorithms still match jobseekers with 20 years of work experience primarily based on a university degree dating back 20 years instead of their more recent and more relevant further training.
To address these challenges, JANZZ.technology has created the concept of Education Zones, which are clusters of educations related to a given professional field such as “Tourism” or “Computer Science”. This way of recombining degrees, training and other education at various levels and from different fields of education provides a much more realistic representation of professional fields, and when used in a matching algorithm, can generate significantly better matching results between a candidate’s education and a job’s requirements.
Education Zones are most beneficial when a job description contains popular generic phrases like “has an educational background in …”. At the same time they are well-suited to help matching algorithms more accurately capture the growing number of candidates with non-linear education paths by generating a more precise profile of the candidate’s specific knowledge, competences and skills. JANZZ’s Education Zones provide a more effective categorization of educations according to professional fields, creating the basis for sounder, more accurate matches. To find out more about Education Zones, read our white paper: