Britain's Welfare Minister Iain Duncan Smith speaks at the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham
Secretary of State for Work and Pensions Iain Duncan Smith launched the Universal Jobmatch site in November 2012 Reuters

A recruitment advert which read like it was "written by a five-year-old" has been removed from the Department of Work and Pensions-run employment website.

The job listing, asking for someone with a "good sales back ground (sic)" for Birmingham-based company Intelligent Candy LTD, appeared on the troubled Universal Jobmatch website, the taxpayer funded website launched two years ago at a cost of £17m.

The job description contained a series of spelling errors and no punctuation in its 60-word description.

The advert, spotted by Reddit user Stormy Sam, was online for nearly two weeks before it was changed by the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP).

The full, unedited job description said:

"u must have good sales back ground we are a specialise confectinery company dealing with high quality products and are looking for good experienced sales people to join us also want sales people to travel abroad on confectinery shows plus u must have a clean driving licence u will be dealing direct with shop outlets retail schools and dentist chemist"

The advert also said an education level of CSE (Certificate of Secondary Education) or equivalent is needed for the role, despite CSEs not being an academic qualification since 1988.

The company who posted the advert is listed to an address at Highgate Business Centre in the Sparbrook area of Birmingham, but does not have a website, email or phone number.

The DWP said it closely monitors Universal Jobmatch – a website the government forces jobseekers to use in order to receive their benefits - to make sure all the adverts posted meet their standards.

The site was previously ridiculed soon after its launch for hosting a series of bogus or inappropriate adverts, including a spoof James Bond-style "target elimination specialist" vacancy, an "international courier" for the Sicilian mafia Cosa Nostra and a listing asking for female presenters for "internet babe chat".

A Channel 4 News investigation also showed how the site was a "scammer's paradise" after hackers were able to obtain passport and national insurance details from users by posting fake job adverts.

A separate investigation with Labour MP Frank Field also showed how the site was "bedevilled with fraud", including one scam which asked jobseekers to pay a £65 fee upfront for a Criminal Records Bureau check for a company which didn't exist.

In March, the government confirmed it had removed more than 120,000 adverts from the site for failing to meet the site's terms and conditions.

The situation was so bad that the DWP and Monster, the site's creator, were forced to downplay suggestions the website is going to be scrapped.

The advert for Intelligent Candy was eventually altered after it was brought to the attention of the DWP by the IB Times UK.

A DWP spokesperson said: "Universal Jobmatch has revolutionised the way jobseekers look for work with half a million employers now registered.

"As part of agreeing to use the site, employers are responsible for ensuring their job vacancies are correct and easy to understand for jobseekers.

"We also have thorough checks and balances in place to remove anything which doesn't meet our standards and have worked with the employer to amend the vacancy."

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