An Achievement Based Approach to Evaluating Engineering Technicians

Abstract

A national survey was conducted with all state highway departments (Departments of Transportation) which revealed that engineering personnel were assessed primarily with training and experience questionnaires and internally developed objective exams. Several problems were identified in reference to these assessment procedures and an alternative was proposed which utilized the National Institute for Certification in Engineering Technologies (NICET). Two studies were conducted to evaluate the usefulness of the NICET assessment program. Study I involved a sample of 33 applicants for engineering technician positions and study II involved 411 engineering technicians covering a variety of subfields and job levels. Both studies found the NICET assessment program to be well constructed and to exhibit adequate reliability and validity. In addition, it was found to be useful as a training needs assessment and to be very favorably received by those assessed under the program. A model was presented for incorporating the NICET program into an organization's on-going assessment procedures and conclusions were drawn concerning implementation of the program.