A small number of students are prepared to cheat to get through various stages of the recruitment process, according to research from HR consultancy Cubiks.

The study revealed that 15% of students said they would be prepared to gain unfair advantage using their CV, 13% said they would use an application to gain unfair advantage, 11% via unsupervised ability tests and 10% through unsupervised personality or competency tests.

It found that 5% had asked friends or family members to assist them in ability tests, 4% said they had managed to get hold of test questions in advance, and 4% said they had practiced tests under a pseudonym.

“This demonstrates why it is so important for employers to use a combination of different security measures to beat the cheats, and not simply trust CVs which will show candidates in the best possible light,” says Cubiks principal consultant Louise Tate.