I would be grateful if you would feature aptitude tests. Are there different types of test? Is it up to individual teachers to choose their own favourite? How are the results interpreted? Any information would be appreciated.
Professionals in the business of staff selection and career guidance are generally of the opinion that for people to be happy in a job they should find it interesting, they should be able to do it or learn how to do it, and they should have the personality characteristics relevant to it. In selection they usually do a job analysis to answer the question "What is involved in this job?" and once it is written down it becomes a job description.
The next question they ask is: "What does it take to do that job competently?". The answer constitutes a "person specification" and usually includes requirements such as education, training, general qualifications, specific qualifications, occupational interests, general ability, aptitudes, personality attributes, experience and so on. These elements vary in importance depending on the complexity of the job, whether the employer is seeking experienced people or graduates.
In career guidance the approach is similar. Some people use the word "aptitudes" to cover the full package of requirements, ie the interest or motivation element, the aptitude element and the personality element. An example of such a broad usage is the comment "some people have the aptitude for medicine", meaning they have the motivation for or the interest in helping patients; they have the relevant aptitudes, for example communications, diagnostic and interpersonal skills and the appropriate personality attributes, for example warmth, empathy, professional detachment; or they have the wherewithal to acquire them.
Other people use the term "aptitude" in a more restricted way, as in "Tony has technical aptitude" or in the specific sense, as in "Pauline has computer programming aptitude". However, irrespective of usage, there are "instruments" - formerly called "tests" - to assess the occupational interests and relate them to the requirements of jobs, occupations and careers. These instruments are: general ability or intelligence levels; general and specific aptitudes; and personality characteristics.
The guidance counsellors in our second-level schools and the career officers in our third-level sector are well equipped to use many of these instruments in their work and many people in the HR departments of companies are equally well equipped to use them for selection purposes.
Publishers such as NFER, ASE, The Psychological Organisation of New York and Saville and Holdsworth make available, through Irish distributors, a wide range of instruments.
These describe the rationale of each instrument, its use, the age groups and/or the types of "client" with whom it is best used and all the relevant norms and statistical data in their catalogues which are updated every year. New instruments are being developed regularly and instruments that have proven valid in helping selectors make better decisions and helping guidance counsellors give better advice are constantly updated.
In Ireland, some of the universities in the public sector and organisations such as ETC Consult in the private sector train people to international quality standards in the use and interpretation of such instruments. They supply these instruments only to properly trained and qualified users.
Brian Mooney is president of the Institute of Guidance Counsellors. E-mail questions to bmooney@irish-times.ie
