The selection and progress of young mining employees in the National Coal Board with special reference to the use of the Industrial Training Research Unit (Cambridge) job disposition questionnaire

Abstract

This thesis is concerned with a project to find a valid form of selection in the recruitment of young trainees for the N.C.B. It describes an attempt to establish the predictive validity of two tests devised by the Industrial Training Research Unit (Cambridge): one is an occupational interest inventory called the Job Disposition Questionnaire and the other is a special aptitude test called the Trainability Test. The design and completion of the J.D.Q. study was the responsibility of the writer who was also one of the team who designed the N.C.B. Trainability Test and throughout the whole study acted as liaison with the I.T.R.U. The structure and procedures of the W.C.B. were a major influence in the design, methodology and outcome of the project. The J.D.Q. is based on finding a statistically proven "job profile" of likes and dislikes of the present successful incumbents of the job to compare with those of potential recruits. Thus the validation of the J.D.Q. consisted of successfully establishing the mining profiles, using them to score the J.D.Q. performance of recruits and then recording absence and supervisors' assessments of their performance over an eighteen month period to compare Kith their J.D.Q. scores. The Trainability Test is a job-specific test, designed around the essential elements of that job. This part of the study consisted of designing and staging a test, giving it to pre-selected recruits and, as before, monitoring their progress. No statistically significant correlations were found between tests and job progress scores but there was an observable match between test scores and supervisors' assessments for the J.D.Q. These findings are partly confirmed in two other industrial studies where no empirical correlations were found but one showed a similar positive trend on their J.D.Q. study. The difficulties of sustaining a long study, relying on people in many different locations, were well illustrated as were also the limitations associated with some of the chosen criteria. T'he results were sufficiently encouraging to suggest setting up a second stage of the study to assess the participants now that they have more job experience; and the results from the external studies point to a need to continue with the work on special aptitude testing