Indigenous Assessment

ValueEdge is Australia's leading provider of specialised language-free Indigenous Assessment services using the unique language-free, culture-fair assessment tool called the Q Test.

These assessments can be utilised to assist organisations with the training and career pathway development of their Indigenous candidates.

The Q Test - Culture Fair and Language Free Assessment

The Q Test is a tool for assessing general cognitive capacity and subsequent training potential or 'trainability' of candidates. It has been established that performance on the Q Test is predictive of an individual's ability to successfully learn and apply complex new skills. The language-free and culture-fair qualities of the Q Test mean that the instrument is uniquely placed to provide fair and unbiased assessment when:

Recruiting candidates from local indigenous groups in remote locations
Assessing the cognitive ability of candidates from non-English backgrounds with barriers to employment or training due to language or communication challenges
Testing hearing impaired or language impaired subjects

The Q Test is distinct from traditional standardised instruments in that it assumes no previous experience with traditional paper and pencil 'test' environments and requires no verbal behaviour (written or spoken) from assessor or candidate. Instead, test administration involves the assessor working with one candidate at a time, communicating via a series of non-verbal instructions and gestures relating to six tasks, with each task requiring candidates to perform a series of increasingly complex manipulations of physical material.

The Q Test represents a refinement of an earlier test, the PIR Test, which had been developed by the Australian Army to assess recruits for the Pacific Islands Regiment during Australia's administration of New Guinea.

More information

For more information, please read our Indigenous Assessments flyerwhich provides general information about these assessment services and the Q Test itself - its application, benefits and assessment components. It also highlights the range of Q Test clients throughout Australia, Indonesia (West Papua, Kalimantan) and Laos.

In addition, please find attached the following documents including media and research articles and ValueEdge resources which provide some broad information about our other services at ValueEdge:

a case study of the Q Test (named here as Queensland Test) from the recently published Indigenous Employment in the Australian Minerals Industry report developed by the University of Queensland's Centre for Social Responsibility in Mining (CSRM)
a copy of 'Barrier Breaker', a recent article in Australia's Mining Monthly (AMM) magazine about the Q Test

If your organisation is looking to fairly assess individuals who are disadvantaged by language or culture related factors, the Q Test may be able to assist.

For further information about the Q Test, please contact Peter Davidson on +61 3 9690 4550 or email peterd@valuedge.com.au