How to Add Non-Employment Periods in Your Career History

If your prospective employer has requested reference checks for a certain period of time (for example, 3 years worth of references) but you have a gap in your employment or periods where you are unemployed, you will need to add **non-employment periods**. For the reference type you are providing, scroll down to the bottom of the page and click **Add a non-employment period**. ## What you need to add To continue, you will need to add in the following: - **How would you define this period of non-employment?** which can be selected as - Education/ Studying/ Training - Travelling - Seeking employment - Other - **Start date of this period** - **End date of this period** - **What was the reason for this period?** - Briefly explain why you were not employed during this time and why an employment reference is not available. Justifications that are private or sensitive do not need to be disclosed. ## Optional documentation After completing this above section, depending on what you picked, you will be asked to provide optional documentation for each of these types. - **Travel**: visas or boarding passes - **Seeking work**: Jobcentre or benefits letters - **Education**: enrolment or acceptance letters, or student ID - **Other**: no specific documents suggested Once you’ve provided documentation or want to proceed, click **Next**. ## References you may be asked for If you’ve selected **Education/ Studying/ Training**, you will be asked to provide an **Academic Reference** for this period. If you’ve selected any other option, you may be asked to provide a **character reference** but this depends on your employer. If Zinc asks you to enter a **reference name**, **referee**, or **character reference** after you click **Next**, this means your employer has requested a character reference for that non-employment period. In this case, the non-employment period or optional documents alone will not complete that reference requirement: you will need to add the character referee details requested in the form. If you cannot provide a character referee, contact your employer so they can review what is possible for your check. ## Submit your non-employment period 1. Once you’ve provided those details if required, move onto the next page to provide your digital signature. 2. After completing this, click **Submit** to add your non-employment period. You can repeat this process as many times as needed to complete your reference requirement by either adding more non-employment periods or adding additional references where needed.