Professional development assessments evaluate a candidate’s skills and identify areas of strength and weakness. There are three types of tests: intelligence, personality, and organizational style. Results are confidential and used for career planning and training.
A professional development assessment is typically a series of specific tests used to identify areas of strength and weakness in a candidate’s skill set. This process is often the first stage in developing a professional development career or training plan. Professional development is a term used to describe the skills that all employees have acquired through formal education, work and personal experiences. The field of professional development is well known in educational circles, and the methods used to assess these skills are also used in career planning and psychological assessments.
There are three types of tests used as part of a professional development assessment process: intelligence, personality, and organizational style. The actual tests used to evaluate the team will vary, depending on the evaluator’s background, the desired outcome, and the sponsor of the tests. In general, professional development assessments can be conducted by a psychologist or career counselor, at the request of the individual, an employer or a professional association.
Intelligence tests are often used to assess the suitability of candidates for management or senior positions. While most people immediately think of intelligence quotient (IQ) tests, many experts believe that these tests are culturally biased and do not provide a good indicator of intelligence. Recently, there has been a shift towards emotional intelligence and critical thinking as better tools in the workplace. The measurement of these two types of intelligence is done through a combination of written and oral interview sessions.
The Myers-Briggs personality test is an industry standard and is an accepted tool for identifying strengths, weaknesses, and areas of potential difficulty. The questions are designed to elicit a person’s core values, beliefs, likes and dislikes. There are no right or wrong answers to this type of professional development assessment, but it is an unbiased way to identify areas the candidate may want to focus on.
Organizational style preferences used to be called a leadership skills assessment, but the term did not truly capture the information collected in this assessment tool. Not everyone wants to be a leader, but we all have our own preferences for our role within an organization. Finding the type of organization that will best allow you to work is an important part of any professional development assessment.
The tests themselves are usually conducted over a period of several days, as it takes some thinking and reflection to get a useful response from the candidate. Results are generally considered confidential and restricted to the human resources and staff development department if they are conducted at the request of an employer. Review the fine print before the process starts to find out who will have access to the assessment results.
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