Anyone qualified to BPS Level A or B (Occupational Testing)?

Yes I am.

Ask away

Thanks baublegirl

Firstly, can I be nosey and ask in what context you use it - ie, what job do you do - and how useful you have found the qualification to be in general? Not sure if you have level A only or A and B?

I am a careers adviser and it's an option I'm looking into for the future. My employer won't sponser me to do it so the course would be quite costly for me to do, but I'm thinking about doing private careers consultancy in the future (to work around childcare). Does you think the qualification would be a useful investment?

Thanks.

Hi

I work freelance as an Occupational Psychologist. I work in the Selection and Assessment side of things, running assessment centres, so I do use it quite a bit in the course of my work. I often have to administer psychometric tests so Level A is very handy, although my Level B is a bit obsure and not used so much these days (Hogan Personality Inventory) so I admit I haven't really called on that much!

For my field having Level A at least is invaluable. I think in what you want to do it could be useful to have both, certainly at least so that you could do OPQs on people or tests to look at people's aptitude for different careers. There are cheaper ways of doing the courses, but it is often expensive. I was lucky that mine was quite cheap because it was run by two of the lecturers from my Masters course and they condensed it into a weekend, although that meant a lot of pre- and post- work to do at home.

I would like to get into careers consultancy - so maybe we should keep in touch!

This is really useful.

Yes, I can see that Level B would be useful for me given my area of work and it seems that training providers offer pretty good discounts for doing both, so I would probably do that.

Can I ask, you say 'my level B is a bit obsure' - so do they offer different types of level B course then, ie based on different methodologies / theories? If so, is there anything you would recommend I look out for in a Level B course?

Also, do you find there is a pretty high demand for what you do?

Thanks so much.

x

Level B is a bit hard to explain. Basically you are trained in how to administer a particular test e.g. OPQ or MBTI or HPI and then you are qualified at Level B intermediate level. However, you can only (officially) adminster that particular test because you've been trained in how to understand the results and how to give feedback. You can then do conversion courses in how to administer additional tests (these conversion courses are cheaper than the full course) so that you can widen your range. So your Level B is in a particular type of testas opposed to Level A which is just a generic training in administering a range of tests. I wish that I had done one of the Savill & Holdsworth courses, because they are used more by companies. Some tests are more popular than others - I think Wave might be quite a new and popular one.

In terms of what I do, I am an 'associate' of a number of HR/recruitment agencies. I work for them on a regular basis and have done for the last 4 years since having my son. I choose to work 2 days a week, and normally have more than enough work. Most people I know in the same line work full time, although that does require a bit more chasing around in order to stay fully booked. I'd recommend it as a field for someone for children as it is quite flexible, although on the downside you sometimes don't get much notice of work (i.e. the day before) so sorting out childcare can be tricky. I'm lucky at the moment that one agency has a huge ongoing contract so I know I can book work up to 6 weeks in advance (most of the time!)

You don't have to be an Occ Psych to be an associate - most of my friends are HR professionals but some also have more varied backgrounds.

Let me know if you want more info, but am going out now, so maybe delayed in my response.

HTH

Ahhhhhh, that makes perfect sense. I'd been confused by a few websites talking about 'Level B Intermediate' and 'Level B Full' but I understand what they are going on about now!

Seriously, this is really really helpful to me. Funnily enough, I have a good contact at SHL as they 'use' our students every now and then (I work at an FE college) to trial some of their new tests. I think I will look into their tests. Actually my background was in HR (In-house Recruitment) before training as a careers adviser so this could fit nicely for me. And I also work part time since having my son, which is really the impetus for wanting to do freelance work - my current employer has been making life very difficult for me since I dropped my hours.

Thanks again so much.

x