What is a vocational assessment?
A vocational assessment is an objective evaluation of an individual's skills, capacity, employment experiences and vocational goals, to inform recommendations about sustainable and suitable job options. More information regarding suitable work can be found in section 9.2 [2] of this library.
Information to inform a vocational assessment should include, but not be limited to, the following tools and activities:
Each component of the vocational assessment should be undertaken by suitably qualified professional. A comprehensive vocational assessment should include information about a person’s:
Note:
* DVA delegates have a responsibility to consider the cost-effectiveness of any education or retraining option available to individual clients. Where more than one option for education or re-training to achieve suitable and sustainable employment exists, the delegate should preference the lower cost option for support unless there is compelling and supporting evidence that the client will only gain the required benefit from the more expensive alternate. When considering the appropriateness of further education for upskilling/ retraining, the further education checklist in Chapter 9.8.3 should be considered.
** A client’s vocational preference should be noted as part of the assessment process. Where a client’s personal goals/preferences vary from the recommendations arising from an objective vocational assessment, this should be documented. This provides transparency around any subsequent vocational activity options pursed and a client’s participation in these.
Suitably qualified professionals must be used
Each component of a vocational assessment should be undertaken by suitably qualified professional. While generally a registered psychologist may be the most appropriate professional to undertake psychometric elements of a vocational assessment, other practitioners should be used to gather information which informs the assessment. This includes for instance where testing requirements are outside their scope of practice (eg, undertaking functional capacity evaluation).
Transferable Skills Analysis
A transferable skills analysis (TSA) is an assessment of the skills and knowledge a person acquires from the actual performance of a job and from learned situations, community, work and school enviroments.
TSA is most beneficial when assessing people who have a wide range of experiences, skills and employment history and who generally do not require retraining to re-enter the open labour market. A TSA can define a person's skills and experience for new job placements or a change in role with their current employer.
This tool is used to guide employers, rehabilitation service providers, Rehabilitation Coordinators and clients to define a person's skills and experience for new placements or positional changes.
Recognition of Prior Learning
Recognition of prior learning (RPL) is a process that involves assessment of an individual’s relevant prior learning, including formal, informal and non-formal learning, and the extent to which this prior learning can provide credit towards a destination qualification. Credit through the RPL process may allow for entry into and/or provide credit towards a qualification. Credit given may reduce the time required for a student to achieve a qualification.
For veterans undertaking vocational rehabilitation through DVA, an RPL assessment should be considered where the destination qualification is consistent with the veteran’s vocational rehabilitation and future employment goals.
For more information about retraining and further education, please visit section 9.8 of this chapter [8]. For more information about the Veterans’ Vocational Rehabilitation Scheme for VEA clients, please visit chapter 12.5.4 of this Library. [9]
Designed by psychologists, psychometric assessments are used to assess a person's abilities, personality, motivations, values and interests under standardised conditions in line with a particular role. There are many different types of assessment all with the aim of helping the assessor build an overall profile of the client and, importantly, how that client might fit within a specific workplace.
Psychometric assessments typically fall into two categories: aptitude tests and personality inventories.
Psychological assessment (psychometric testing) can add value to the whole-of-person assessment approach by:
There are a large number of psychometric testing tools available and the test required will depend on the type of rehabilitation setting (medical, psychosocial and or vocational). They must be selected and administered in ways that are unbiased and don't lead the client.
Psychometric assessments typically fall into two categories: aptitude tests and personality tests.
There are aptitude tests for:
There are personality tests for:
Psychometric tests should not be the sole instrument used for the assessment and placement of clients. They should be used in conjunction with other assessment tools, as one element of the assessment process. Most commonly, they are used to assess the person's preferred strengths for a position or job type.
These tests define the critical characteristics needed for success in a position, to determine the match between the person's profiles and the "ideal" profile for a specific workplace.
Psychometric Tests may be used in conjunction with general assessment tools. Some of these are discussed in the following topics.
The Congruence Occupational Reading Test (CORT) is one type of aptitude test used to assess the reading ability of individuals in relation to work reading demands at different levels.
The specific skills assessed by CORT include:
The content of the tests are based on materials used in a variety of occupations. The sorts of material include work environment signs, words from labels, invoices or tickets, written job instructions, memoranda, factory signs, traffic signs, diagrams, plans and street directories, tables, reports, work-related legal documents, and policy statements.
The Congruence Arithmetic Test (CAT) is another aptitude designed to assess the basic arithmetic skills used in sales, clerical and technical occupations.
The ACER Short Clerical Test is designed to measure two aspects, speed and accuracy, of aptitude for routine clerical work. This test is used as an aid in vocational counselling to assess aptitude for clerical work.
The Congruence Personality Scale Form 1 (CPS-1) is an example of a personality test used to facilitate career decision-making.
The CPS-1 assesses how a person prefers to relate to others, how people react to pressure, how dependable they are in performing tasks, how they approach problem solving and how they behave in a group.
It is designed to assess the following personality traits:
Links
[1] https://clik.dva.gov.au/user/login?destination=comment/reply/21196%23comment-form
[2] https://clik.dva.gov.au/rehabilitation-policy-library/9-vocational-rehabilitation/92-what-suitable-workemployment
[3] https://clik.dva.gov.au/rehabilitation-policy-library/9-vocational-rehabilitation/95-vocational-assessments/951-assessing-transferable-skills-and-experience
[4] https://clik.dva.gov.au/rehabilitation-library/9-vocational-rehabilitation/95-vocational-assessments/953-aptitude-inventories
[5] https://clik.dva.gov.au/rehabilitation-library/9-vocational-rehabilitation/95-vocational-assessments/952-psychometric-testing
[6] https://clik.dva.gov.au/rehabilitation-library/9-vocational-rehabilitation/96-functional-capacity-evaluations
[7] https://clik.dva.gov.au/user/login?destination=comment/reply/21217%23comment-form
[8] https://clik.dva.gov.au/rehabilitation-policy-library/9-vocational-rehabilitation/98-retraining-and-further-education
[9] https://clik.dva.gov.au/rehabilitation-policy-library/12-veterans-vocational-rehabilitation-scheme-guidelines/125-other-assistance-veterans-participating-vvrs/1254-education-programs-through-vvrs
[10] https://clik.dva.gov.au/user/login?destination=comment/reply/21198%23comment-form
[11] https://clik.dva.gov.au/user/login?destination=comment/reply/21221%23comment-form
[12] https://clik.dva.gov.au/user/login?destination=comment/reply/21209%23comment-form