Competence Screening
Angela MUSC Ă
Institute of Educational Sciences, BucharestHistory
As early as 1922, in numerous European countries professional guidance centres and
offices were created. In the beginning there were conducted psychological and medical
examinations that required anthropometrical, physiological and psychological
measurements. The individual profile had to be correlated with the profile of professions.
Since there were no accurate descriptions of professions, practitioners were the ones to
examine the individual profile and analyse the data obtained from interviews. They were
requested to decide whether the individual profile corresponds to the client’s aptitudes
and then advise the latter accordingly.
In 1938, France initiated a project for re-launching the vocational training. Thus a public
service of vocational guidance was founded, whose role was to issue a vocational
guidance certificate on the basis of a psychological and medical examination. The
certificate included guidance advice, but the client was not obliged to follow it through.
This type of examination was abandoned in 1987. After the world war a more flexible
examination was developed, which included (Guichard, Huteau, 2001):
- synthesis of information gathered in the interview with the young person and
his or her parents; the interview was semi-directive and its aim was to
identify the degree of personality development and motivation, and the
counsellor had guidebooks signalling the aspects to be explored; - individual or group psychological testing (intelligence and aptitude tests,
professional interest questionnaires);