Reference no: EM133097694
Question:
It appears that the RCMP is trying to incorporate a "practical intelligence" component into its examinations. Is this appropriate? What type of "job knowledge" should be assessed of applicants?
Case:
Applicant Testing at the RCMP
Applicants to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police must pass a written examination, an interview, and a physical ability test before being accepted for basic training at the RCMP's training center in Regina. As a federally regulated agency, the RCPM falls under the jurisdiction of the Employment Equity Act. Designed to further the employment of women, visible minorities, and other designated groups. The RCMP has had difficulty meeting recruiting targets of 20% women, 4.5% Aboriginal people, and 8.3% visible minorities that were set in compliance with the objectives of the Act. A review of testing data showed that Aboriginal peoples and visible minorities scored slightly lower than other groups ion the written tests and that 40-50% of women applicants fail the physical ability test, a rate considerably higher than that for men.
In response to concerns over failing to meet its recruiting objectives, the RCMP undertook a revision of the examination, which assesses cognitive ability. The new test retains, "academic' items related to composition and computation, but it also has new items in the form of scenarios that are directed at problem solving. The new questions are more job directed and operational in nature. The test items were rewritten to minimize the impact of different regional language styles to ensure that the questions are fair and equitable for all applicants.
With respect to the physical ability test, women had particular difficulty with the upper body strength requirements. To deal with this problem, the RCMP instituted a six-week training pretraining in fitness program to help women prepare for the fitness test. It also revised the evaluation procedure. The following document provides information on the new physical ability requirement and provides information on how to prepare for the test.