Formal education
An employer selecting from a pool of job applicants wants to find the person who has the right abilities and attitudes to be successful. A large number of cognitive, motor, physical, and interpersonal attributes are present because of genetic predisposition and because they were learned at home, at school, on the job, and so on. One of the more common cost-effective ways screen for many of these abilities is by using educational accomplishment as a surrogate for or summary of the measure of those abilities. For example, although this is unfortunately no always true, it usually safe to assume that anyone who has successfully completed high school or its equivalent has basic reading, writing, arithmetic, and interpersonal skill.