When selecting applicants for training places, enterprises have different means for getting an idea of whether the individual candidate is suitable for the targeted vocational training. Most base their assessments on the grades listed on half-yearly certificates or leaving certificates from secondary school.
This information is often supplemented by recruitment tests that are conducted to identify whether the individual has specific skills and competences that are relevant to the occupation to be learned. But can reliable conclusions regarding an applicant's later performance during vocational training be drawn from this information?
This question is examined here with the help of a data set that contains information on school grades, the results of recruitment tests taken by young applicants and information on their performance during vocational training.
Young people differ from one another in terms of their occupational interests and abilities. At the same time, occupations and jobs also differ with respect to the requirements and possibilities they entail. In light of this, it is wise - with a view to training successful future employees and avoiding trainees dropping out - to select 'suitable' applicants whose abilities are in line with the demands that will be placed on them in the particular occupation.
For this, companies that provide in-house vocational training ('training companies') have a wide range of diagnostic tools at their disposal to determine applicant aptitude and suitability. Nearly all companies carry out a preliminary screening of applicants on the basis of application documents and school certificates. This is almost always followed by personal interviews with the individual applicants whereby one third of the companies surveyed conduct tests.
However, using diagnostic methods to determine a candidate's suitability makes sense only when it can be proven that this would substantially increase the likelihood of finding suitable applicants. This in turn requires studies in which statistical correlations between the results from selection procedures (predictors) and performance measures (criteria) are determined on the basis of a larger sample. Only in this way is it possible to assess how reliably later occupational performance can be predicted on the basis of selection procedures.
The grades recorded on the individual's vocational school certificate or earned on the interim or final examination conducted by the competent body are often used in the research field and in actual recruitment practice as criteria for predicting whether the individual will complete initial vocational training and pass the final examination.
The results from the study are largely consistent with the findings from earlier research projects. Thus an individual's success in vocational training (as measured by the grade earned on the interim examination and the final examination) can be best predicted using the average grades earned in secondary school.
It is not surprising that the average grade is a better means of predicting success in vocational training than the grades for the individual subjects, since an average grade reflects the assessment of several teachers over a longer period and should consequently provide a comprehensive picture of the individual pupil's performance. As a result, the average grade probably reflects not only academic performance but also general aspects of the individual's work conduct such as diligence, motivation and level of perception.
In contrast to previous findings, the data does not reveal any marked differences between the accuracy of the predictions of the written part of the final examination and the accuracy of the predictions of the practical part of the final examination. Only the recruitment test exhibits significant correlations, albeit only with the written part of the final examination and not with the practical part. This can be explained by the fact that additional competences which are not part of the recruitment test play an important role in the practical examination. As the results of the regressions show, a combination of the average school grade and a recruitment test can improve the accuracy of the prediction of an individual's performance in vocational training.
Based on these findings, it cannot be disputed that the use of grades from the individual's school leaving certificate have a certain relevance in the selection of training place applicants.
The inclusion of recruitment tests which entail specific technical/occupation-related content that is of relevance to the particular occupation can also be considered useful based on the findings presented here since these tests further improve the reliability of predictions of an individual's training performance compared to the use of just the average grade. However, this increase in the degree of reliability is quite small. For these reasons it would be desirable to follow up the use of recruitment tests with an empirical evaluation to examine whether it is possible to predict later performance or even predict other criteria for successful performance in vocational training and/or in working life - such as job satisfaction - using such tests.
Data concerning training place applicants who were rejected by a company and their possible subsequent training performance in another enterprise is not available. This lack of data must be viewed as a qualification in terms of the interpretability of the data. Furthermore, the findings permit statements at group level only and under no circumstance for individual youths. Consequently it cannot be generally concluded that all youths who earned poor grades in general secondary school can be expected to be poor performers in vocational training.
Therefore based on these findings, it is not possible to make a general recommendation to reject youths with poorer school records when they apply for a training place. Rather, these youths should particularly be asked in a personal interview what their interests and motivation are because empirical studies have shown the importance that interest and motivation (to achieve) have for later performance during vocational training.
It would also be advisable during vocational training to tap into the trainees' interest in the occupation they are learning, instill in them enjoyment of their work through a wide variety of tasks and collegiality and, in doing so, foster and maintain their intrinsic motivation on a long-term basis.