From the College of the North Atlantic

Student Services Counselors

• Most of the counsellors think there was too much testing. It is more than they would for other students. Realistically it wasn't relevant. What did it tell you?
• Nobody seems to be able to explain what are the goals in testing.
• What purpose did it serve them? She sat individually with every single person to discuss their results. How to screen for learning disabilities.
• The testing added extra undue stress to the participants.
• All that needed to be determined was achievement in terms of their reading level. Why is it so intensive? At most it would be math and reading. What is required for the employment? Once that is determined, you can get it from talking to a student about themselves and their experiences.
• College accepts people into an engineering program with only an achievement test which is so much less than the Bridging the Gap project piece.
• What are the benefits and the pros and costs? What do the negatives cost versus the positives?
• There needs to be physical fitness, vision, manual dexterity testing as well.
• What was the use of the interest test? (Self–directed search) It might have been more useful as a self–development tool throughout the program. Their desire is a self selection. Not as meaningful as a selection tool – the participants didn't get out of it what they could have. Especially for some of the younger people who may have re–training options.
• Testing was unnecessary – a week long was unnecessary. Was there a reason? Could they have tested for specific aptitudes?
• The College can go in and do an inventory of skills and aptitudes and test for that the same way as they can go in and determine what is the curriculum involved. The two can be done together.
• Goals and objectives of the BTG project are very sound and timely.
• Would like to have seen more consultation from the educational perspective. I would like to have seen more educational consultation up front.
• Purpose for an assessment needs to be crystal clear. In this case the objectives were defined, but the curriculum development process needs to be defined up front. There needs to be a very different testing process – one which is tailored specifically to those workplaces.
• Critical to be able design the testing to the levels of the population you are testing. Sometimes the levels are two diverse.
• There is a disconnect between the professional knowledge and issues of the Counsellors at the College and the goals and activities of RNDA. Why is that?