What is Aptitude Assessment?
Suppose that two persons have the same opportunities to learn
a job or develop a skill. They attend the same on-the-job training or classes, study the same material, and practice the same
length of time. One of them acquires the knowledge or skill easily; the other has difficulty and takes more time, if they
ever master the skill. These two people differ in aptitude for this type of work or skill acquisition. Aptitude is variously
defined as innate learning ability, the specific ability needed to facilitate learning a job, aptness, knack,
suitability, readiness, tendency, or natural or acquired disposition or capacity for a particular
activity. Aptitude assessments are used to predict success or failure in an undertaking. For vocational/career
guidance and planning they are used to measure different aptitudes such as general learning ability, numerical ability,
verbal ability, spatial perception, and clerical perception. Objective aptitude tests are based on timed sub-tests –
results are compared to age-group norms or other criteria – as opposed to self-report inventories of abilities often
found in computerized career exploration systems. For helping a person find and pursue a career or course of study,
aptitude assessment should logically precede achievement testing or skills assessment.
History of Aptitude Testing
The General Aptitude Test Battery, or G.A.T.B . was developed
by the U.S. Employment Service from 1942 to 1945 and used through to the 1990’s for both job screening and career guidance.
Other aptitude tests such as APTICOM began to appear in the 1980’s. APTICOM is a dedicated-computer replacement
for the G.A.T.B. – developed with a U.S. Department of Labor grant by the Vocational Research Institute. In 1995, a
PC and MacIntosh-based version of APTICOM was developed by VRI – called CareerScope. The U.S. Department of Labor has
attempted to replace the G.A.T.B. with the O*NET Ability Profiler, to be used with it’s new O*Net occupational classification
system. Privately developed assessments such as CareerScope already link with the O*Net system.
Aptitude vs. Skills Testing
APTITUDE & SKILLS TESTS = APPLES & ORANGES
An Interest and Aptitude assessment like CareerScope helps to objectively clarify what
you would like to do and would likely succeed in. It is used to objectively plan for future learning and work.
It is a career guidance test.
A skills test tells you what you can do now, given your previous learning.
If you have not had much previous learning, it can only tell you that you lack skills - but not your potential or what your
innate strengths are. Despite it's backward focus, skills assessments are often used as a screening test
for employers (incumbent scores provide a criterion reference) and a prescriptive test for educators. For helping
individuals find a job or enter training, this kind of assessment usually requires analyzing the requirements of
individual local jobs to determine their requirements, testing the incumbents, assessing individual applicants to determine
skills gaps, and then perhaps providing training to close those gaps.
Both kinds of assessments are useful (as are both apples and oranges, but you can
eat an apple right out of the box, and make more things out of it - like apple pie and apple sauce, etc.). Assessing
aptitude and interest first will help focus the job seeker, make the comparative skills testing and any subsequent training
more likely to produce a trained worker who is more likely to stay on the job. Also, CareerScope can be taken with only
a fourth grade reading ability. Skills tests typically require a higher reading level.
Aptitude vs. Achievement Testing
Aptitude tests are used to predict success in a career path
or course of study. Achievement tests are designed to measure how much a person has already achieved or learned in academic
knowledge. Achievement testing is becoming ever more important as the accountability increases to prove that students are
learning. But for guidance, aptitude might be a better measure for showing potential. For instance, a student who has not
learned "the basics" in primary and secondary education - for any number of reasons - can still have the "aptitude" to do
well in a career and related studies - especially if they are interested - although they might have some catching up
to do academically.
Combining Interest and Aptitude for Guidance
The results of an interest assessment can be combined with aptitude
results to show types of work that a person would most likely enjoy and perform well. Two models of interest groupings supported
by the U.S. Department of Labor: the six "Holland" type codes and the 12 "Guide for Occupational Exploration" (GOE) codes.
While Holland codes are the most often used in this country (Self-directed Search, O*Net Interest Profiler, etc.) it is the
GOE interest categories that tie directly to the U.S. DOL Occupational Aptitude Pattern (OAP) and other extensive research
relating to aptitude requirements for occupation categories. Since there are 12 categories, the GOE areas also give more precise
definitions of the world of work.
Aptitude and Career Clusters
The potential benefit of aptitude testing for placement in Career Clusters is enormous. Career Clusters, Career Academies, Smaller Learning Communities - all focus on teaching
skills and academics in the context of a field of work. Extensive research has already been done on determining which
aptitudes are required for learning various types of work. The U.S. Department of Education's 16 Career Clusters
are tied directly to the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Aptitude Patterns in the latest version of CareerScope -
allowing reports that show a student's interest and "aptness" for the 16 Career Clusters, the 74 Career Pathway subsets, and
even the 1800 Career Specialties defined in the U.S. DOE system.
Click here to learn more about CareerScope.
You can read more about aptitude at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aptitude
You can read more about Career Clusters at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Career_Clusters
Good description of how aptitude connects to learning at: http://it.coe.uga.edu/~treeves/WebPaper.pdf
Book chapter reviewing the GATB
CareerScope Users click here to return to the CareerScope Training Site
Click here to return to the Work Suite Info Page
If you are (still) really interested in aptitude testing - check out the wealth of
research on the ASVAB (Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery). The military relies heavily on aptitude testing
for determining enlistment eligibility and job placement. A comprehensive paper on ASVAB is at the National Assessment
Governing Board's site: www.nagb.org/release/sellman.doc
You should also know about Frank Parsons, who said, back in the 1890's:
"In the wise choice of vocation
there are three broad factors:
1) a clear understanding of your self, your aptitudes, abilities, interests, ambitions,
resources, limitations and their causes;
2) a knowledge of the requirements and conditions of success, advantages and
disadvantages, compensation, opportunities, and prospects in different lines of work;
3) true reasoning on the relations
of these two groups of facts."
Any good library should have a biography written
about Frank Parsons - and a short bio can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Parsons
And finally, as heard at a seminar on corporate training strategy:
"Never try to teach a pig to sing . . . it's a waste of your time . . . and it annoys
the pig."
(Quote Attributed to Robert Heinlein)
