It is not necessarily unlawful for an employer or recruitment agency to state that a certain amount of experience is required to do a job.

This could discriminate indirectly against younger jobseekers who obviously may not have been in a position to acquire the required number of years. (It can also discriminate against older candidates if the amount of experience required is being regarded as a maximum by the recruiter.) As a result, an employer needs to justify why it is looking for that level of experience in years.

In these circumstances, it is worth trying to get the employer or recruitment ageny to translate the ‘years experience’ they are looking for into the skills and competencies they require suitable candidates to possess. This is particularly true where even more years of experience are being asked for.

Skills, competencies and experience gained whilst working during university or school holidays, along with practical work experience sessions, may mean you have already acquired them, even though you may not have had a full-time job previously.

The bottom line is that if an employer requires a certain number of years’ experience, it should be able to justify why this is necessary, rather than listing the skills and competencies required for the job. Depending on the job specification, it may not be reasonable to ask for any significant period of experience at all.

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