Vocational Training

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XX, Issue 162, 28 June 1930, Page 9

Vocational Training

Some Scientific Tests

Vocational training suffered in its initial stages from too great publicity. Startling results were sometimes published in a form that made their scientific analysis almost impossible and before sufficient time had elapsed to test their reliability. This gave rise to a belief among some of the uncritical that it was a very simple matter and that any ingenious person could devise a few “tests” which would select those most likely to do well in any particular occupation. Most of this early optimism has now been destroyed by more careful consideration of the facts, while the attitude of the public and the scientific world is far m ore critical than previously.

—Eric Farmer.

QONTINUED RESEARCH has served to differentiate certain main principles, each one requiring careful study before it can be applied practically, and vocational training, far from being one of the simplest branches of applied psychology, has become one of the most complicated, continues Mr. Eric Farmer in the “Empire Review.” The connotation of the term has also become wider and vocational fitness is no longer regarded as referring solely to the narrower economic factors involved in industrial proficiency. It is measured not only by industrial success but by relative freedom from accidents, sickness, and occupational disabilities. Vocational fitness is now looked upon not merely as a capacity to produce a large output, but as a capacity to serve the community in a useful way, bringing happiness and success to the individual while running the least possible risk of causing harm to himself or others. I FUNCTIONS OF TRAINING. Before considering some of the principles involved in vocational training one must get a clear idea of its exact function and the extent of its sphere of operation. It is idle to talk of scientific vocational selection being able to increase industrial proficiency by ioo per cent, or to employ any other of the glib and meaningless phrases that have sometimes been used for the purposes of propaganda. Selection—both conscious and unconscious,— is always at work in industry and no group of workers is ever brought together purely by the laws of chance. The grosser types of unfitness are automatically eliminated, and the scale of rennfneration and the state of the labour market, by limiting the field for selection, are also very powerful factors in determining the final The most that vocational training can 'do is partially to readjust the distribution of labour and so make its uses more economic. The value of such a result should not be minimized, for, if the industrial community were on the whole better adjusted to its environment, we should see more successful careers and fewer failures, and, since success is ono of the most fruitful sources of happiness and one cf the most powerful deterrents from crime, the general well-being of the community would be improved and. its human resources used more economically. SELECTIVE METHODS. ' It is most important in vocational training to keep clearly in mind the exact nature of any criterion that may be used for judging the success of a method of selection. In some cases the actual output of a worker is no measure of his capacity to perform the task well. Recent research has indicated that there is a tendency in certain repetition processes for workers to gravitate towards a mean output,' the quick workers tending to raise the level of the slow workers and the slow workers tending to lower the output of the quick workers. This tendency is not caused solely by the workers being dependent on one another, for it has been found to be present in groups of women workers each one of whom had full control of her own output. It is probably due to the unconscious effect of imitation, which is one of the most powerful influences in conduct. Whatever its causes, it is obvious that no method of vocational selection can materially improve output where this phenomenon exists, and that the remedy lies in altering the organization so as fully to stimulate the workers’ efforts. SOME TESTS. The usual method of devising selection tests is first to try them out on those already at work m tire occupation concerned, and, when a satisfactory correlation between the tests and proficiency has been obtained, to apply them to' new entrants. This method is open to the objection that the correlation between the tests and proficiency of the experienced workers may be due, not to any inherent qualities they possessed on entering their occupation, but to mental and muscular habits acquired since entering. It may be argued that ’.hose who on entry possess such qualities in a higher degree

than others are also likely to develop them to a higher stage of proficiency as the result ot their subsequent experience. This may be but it is not necessarily so, and cases are not wanting whpre it has proved a false assumption. REPETITION PROCESSES. Trades mainly composed of repetition processes, and the more highly skilled trades, of which engineering is the most typical examine, present fundamentally different vocational problems. There is no definite dividing line between these two forms of occupation which can be accepted as phychologically accurate, although there is a very definite social cleavage. In practice, it is often found that so-called unskilled trades actually demand a considerable amount of skill, and that the so-called skilled trades are often reduced to repetition processes. Analogous tests are practically useless in the more diversified types of occupation since t+iere will be no set of movements sufficiently typical of the operations in-» volved to warrant its imitation in an analogous test. The most that can be done to determine vocational fitness in the skilled trades is to seek to discover the relative part played by more general psychological functions than those involved in analogous tests. There is evidence to show that the ’ high correlations existing between all tests, mental and otherwise, among young children are not found in more developed minds, and it has also been found that certain tests well adapted for differentiating college students are ill adapted for differentiating manual workers. For these reasons, among others, caution must be exercised in ascribing universal application to principles arrived at bv a study of the mind in one of its various stages of development or in any one of its many spheres of activity. To those who are not fully cognizant of the difficulties involved in vocational training this elaboration may sometimes appear to be futile since all that is required is a practical and simple test for measuring oocupational proficiency. Such a demand Is natural and justifiable, but .it can ciJj hs supplied after careful and extensive 1 • \ -THE OUTLOOK. '■;/ ’■ / At first sight this article may appear to strike a somewhat pessimistic note, but this is verv far from the author’s intention. The history of any new movement in thought is .characterized by certain well marked stages. First comes a period of enthusiasm when those who are endeavouring to advance it meet with opposition and prejudice and in their efforts to overcome these tend to overstate their case:* to magnify facts that help it, and to overlook those Which are unfavourable. Afterwards comes a more critical stage when the main idea has been accepted and those who are developing the movement are relieved from the necessity of defending it. During this stage attention is focussed more searchingly on the problems involved, details are more carefully examined and brought into proper perspective, and systematic research is undertaken. This serves to enrich the content of the idea and factors which at first were not thought of are found to be relevant and to need exploration. Vocational training is in this second stage now: it has passed the early enthusiasm of its inception and has entered the critical and experimental period of its development. It is no longer a new theme about which enthusiasts can write popular books; it is an engrossing and difficult subject, attracting more and more the serious attention of the experimentalist. That this should be the case is very gratifying and there can be little doubt that as time proceeds and experimental data accumulates valuable contributions will be made by vocational psychology to the general body of scientific knowledge. Progress will be slow because the task is difficult and the experimental methods . involved laborious, but they are the only methods that can ultimately assure reliable results.