JavaBlackBelt, a provider of Java learning and powered by over 50,000 developers in its global community, today announced the worldwide availability of SkillScan, its cutting-edge, automated tool to assess the Java skills of job candidates.

SkillScan is used by recruiters and hiring managers to screen Java candidates and staff teams with the right combination of skills. In less than two hours, SkillScan provides a comprehensive and conclusive report of candidate skills in Java programming, sub-topics in Java, and related technologies.

SkillScan speeds and improves the recruiting process in a variety of ways, including:

-- managers and recruiters screen and hire top talent far faster

-- developers spend less time interviewing on basic skills and more time on deeper skills

-- removes "stack of resumes" bottlenecks

-- HR managers have a reliable tool to quickly assess candidates from recruiters, and

-- with early screening, companies cut travel and recruiting costs

JavaBlackBelt CEO Nicolas Meeus comments, "SkillScan is practical technology born out of the JavaBlackBelt community and is particularly useful for these times. A recent survey by Robert Half International showed that the number one challenge in hiring is ‘too many unqualified applicants' followed by ‘too many resumes'." He adds, " As the economy recovers and managers begin filling technology positions, SkillScan can add competitive advantage to the recruiting process."

SkillScan uses a series of self-assessment questions to establish skill levels in selected topics, then validates these levels with a series of weighted, rapid-fire, multiple-choice technology questions - a unique combination that produces a timely, conclusive report. Questions are derived from many years of recruiting Java developers and mass-collaboration by the JavaBlackbelt community. Test topics are configurable based on job requirements, including skills in Ant, Hibernate, Servlet, OO, Spring, and XML. As SkillScan is an online tool, candidates can be evaluated anywhere and anytime during the recruiting process.

Consulting companies also use SkillScan to screen internal candidates when staffing projects and to verify skills before relocation. Meeus explains, "We've had a major client with a startup operation in India quickly shortlist 200 internal candidates down to 20 using SkillScan. Another client assessed their entire set of Indian Java developers before selecting a core team to relocate to Belgium on a key project. And a third global client regularly attaches SkillScan reports to their project proposal bids."

Learn more at www.javaBlackbelt.com.