The annual CBI/ Pearson Education and Skills survey has just been published and it has produced some worrying statistics.

More than two-thirds of businesses surveyed, representing employers with more than 1.2 million staff, are expecting to need more highly skilled staff but more than half believe that they will not be able to recruit them in the current market due to shortages.

But do those employers need skills or qualifications?

Graduate training schemes are often proposed as a solution to the problem, however, how do you select? Should personal interests and ambitions be given precedence over degree subject during the interview process?

A board meeting at a local company was recently discussing its new graduate recruitment programme as a potential solution to the skills shortages.

Then it was pointed out when the people in the room were analysed, all relatively successful and with professional qualifications among them, that none had degrees, yet were intending to select the next 'bright young things' only from degree qualified candidates.

Were they following a trend and did they genuinely believe that only people with degrees would be able to fulfil the roles that were needed to be undertaken? The attitude in the room quickly changed.

The board could all name people that we worked with, had worked with, had employed or knew who were highly successful and very good at their jobs with few or no qualifications.

So the question then became how do you attract and identify people with ambition, desire and ability to roles and successfully recruit and develop them to be the next generation in any sector.

Sir Ken Robinson, seen as a world leader in thinking on education, promotes a theory that the education system works for certain types of individuals, who thrive in the single dimensional system that we currently run, but what of those who do not, who are better practically demonstrating their verbal, reasoning or physical skills?

Perhaps we should look to hacking as a blueprint of what is possible. Most hacking is not reported as the skill of the hacker will be seen as a weakness of those they have hacked – however, hackers who are identified, and can be enticed from “the dark side” are rarely out of work as the demonstration of their abilities counts as far more than a qualification.

The potential is out there for more bite size learning of skills to be recognised and acknowledged. Open Badges is a new online standard to recognise and verify learning meaning that any organization can create, issue and verify digital badges, and any user can earn, manage and display these badges all across the web.

NHS Borders is currently investigating whether awarding open badges for its internal training both motivates staff and acknowledges a skill that has been obtained whilst encouraging other employers to accept them as they would do a formal qualification. As with a reference, the credibility of the person or organisation issuing it would potential control the standards.

Is it time to look past the list of qualifications and start looking at the experience and potential of the applicant?