Testing for a flying start!
How do you ensure that people with a distance to the labor market get the right workplace or training? NOA's tailor-made test helps with this. In Brabant, IBN uses the test in its trajectories to guide people to a suitable job or a work-learning trajectory that trains them to a promising profession and that ensures results. "Starting the process with an NOA test gives a flying start," says José Castermans, psychologist at IBN. "You immediately have all the essential information."
IBN is a social employer. Six municipalities have a long and successful collaboration with IBN as the implementing organisation of the Social Employment Act (Wsw). With the advent of the Participation Act, the influx into the Wsw has stopped and the cooperation has been renewed. There are now about 3500 people working for or through IBN. The company has been a customer of NOA for more than 10 years and that cooperation is paying off. "In those 10 years, attitudes towards people with a distance to the labor market have changed, as has the insight into how this target group can best come into its own. And NOA has grown with us in this," says Castermans. "You can see that in this tailor-made test".
In practice, people are registered from the municipalities for which IBN works. The classic intake, a conversation, did not always provide a complete picture of the client, the information was often insufficient and sometimes even incorrect. "This way you do not come to good decisions about the path to education or work to be followed and the points of attention for the supervisor."
NOA's tailor-made test does provide that information. The test has several scans and the trajectory director determines which of them will be used. IBN uses the Talent Scan for people who have been out of work for between zero and three months, the Participation Scan for people with a greater distance to the labour market and the Selection Scan for people who go from job to job, i.e. in the case of labour mobility and/or a second track.
"We make a distinction between people who are linguistic and less linguistic and it's nice that we have different tests for that. With the Op Weg! Integration as a nice addition to the palette of choices. After all, it makes no sense to take a test from people who are less linguistic that they have to struggle through. You will not receive the information you need for a suitable follow-up process. It is also nice that NOA has made the custom test in word, so that our people can immediately put their notes in it. This is particularly efficient and saves a lot of cutting and pasting from PDF files."
"We now always start our processes with the NOA test, so we immediately have all the essential information and we can go into the intake interview based on that. You already know what to focus on at the start of the conversation," says Castermans. "If the route directors read the test report in advance, it has enormous added value. And NOA's scientific substantiation ensures that the data you get is reliable. That's a nice feeling."
