Testimonials

This year we delivered our Morrisby session during a staff inset day at St Joan of Arc School. The staff were in, clearly the school was open but quiet and this provided the ideal environment as it turned out. Parents were happy to drop their children off at school for the morning as usual and they were pleased that the inset day was being made available for student learning as well as staff training.

Young people aged 16 and 17 found the Morrisby Profile to be the most illuminating, supportive and motivational aspect of their careers education, information advice and guidance programme. Year 10 and 11 students have found the reports valuable as they plan their post 16 learning routes while the year 12 students used the reports to kick start their higher education research.

The Morrisby Profile has established itself as one of the best and most useful psychometric tests for those wishing to decide on a career or further / higher education path. It is a series of tests assessing a student’s logic, verbal, non verbal and numerical reasoning, spatial awareness and mechanical aptitude. It also examines personality including awareness, flexibility, commitment, leadership and initiative.

In respect of engaging parents within the whole careers education process the Morrisby Report has generated the most effective and extended conversations. These conversations with careers staff and tutors have ranged across subject choice, career choice, learning approaches and have also led to some young people being added to the schools Gifted and Talented Register. The Morrisby profile dates have now been built into the school inset calendar for next year!

"I am really concerned with offering people 'second chances'.

My work covers three sorts of clients: First, there are the young people who need to make choices about higher or further education; then there are the young people or graduates for whom things have not gone well, and who need to re-assess their aptitudes and interests; a growing area involves people who are well advanced in life, and whose present career does not seem to offer a way forward.

I am always concerned that people look at their own personal style of working and think about the work they do in relation to what makes them feel comfortable with themselves. Peoples' home commitments, finance, state of health and personal situation can play a large part in the decisions that they are able to make.

I am a practitioner, trying to solve the problem that a client brings to me. As well as talking through issues with a client, I need to know where their potential is strongest.

In order to have an informed discussion, I need a quantitative analysis of the client's profile. If I did not do this, I would be guessing, or going on public exam results, perhaps taken a long time ago, depending partly on a teacher's skills or a person's state of emotional development. In that case, I could just as well made a pot of leaf tea and read the leaves in the cup. But with the Morrisby Profile report I have an accurate, reliable measurement. In addition, the client is given confidence in the assessments, for they are based on a series of tasks that do not depend on previous knowledge. The client also has the benefit of a written report that they can take away and use in furtherance of their subsequent career moves."

In North London, Prospects uses the Morrisby Profile with school pupils, mainly in year 11 but also some in year 12, and with college students, year 12 or above.

Participants are asked to complete evaluations and these have been overwhelmingly positive. Very often, the response to the feedback is "It's spooky! How does it know that about me?" One boy recently said, "It knows me better than I know myself!"

The Morrisby Profile assesses abilities but also personality and certainly gives our clients a better understanding of themselves. It often makes them think about issues they have not previously considered. For example, when considering a job it is not only the nature of the work which is important, but also the working environment. Such things as working under pressure, taking responsibility, or strict time deadlines, may have a bearing on whether a job might be more or less suitable. Does the young person have the right personality for this type of work? It is often the first time they have thought about themselves in this way, and this self-knowledge is crucial in helping them make informed decisions about their future.

I find the section on preferred Learning Styles useful, especially when discussing the post -16 options. Young people have a choice about where they go and what they study, and the methods of assessment can vary hugely. If you are a person who goes to pieces during exams, don’t take a course where the outcome depends entirely on exams! I have also found the pattern and statement "You may not find it easy to learn facts and pass exams" really encouraging for some young people who obviously have ability and yet are struggling in the school system.

Because we deliver the Morrisby Profile mainly in year 11, we use it particularly for discussing post 16 options and the suitability of possible next steps. It can also provide a much needed wake-up call for some young people. There are two groups: those who tell me they are going to get lots of high passes and continue in school for A/S levels, but whose profile would indicate they will achieve considerably less; and those who think they are unlikely to achieve much, but whose profile shows abilities off the scale. The first group can be encouraged to aim high but to put in place some alternative plans just in case. The second group may not be achieving for many reasons, such as a hidden disability, and these positive results can be the first steps on the road to investigating the cause and hopefully dealing with it.

Before I wrote this, I looked at my own report again. I think it is astonishingly accurate. In fact, the more I read it the more accurate I think it is!

"We all find that the Morrisby Profile provides a sound foundation both for our guidance interviews and for the client in providing an objective starting point to our Futurewise scheme (www.myfuturewise.org.uk).

We're constantly reminded by clients how perceptive the personality measures are. They produce a useful perspective, sometimes in reinforcing acknowledged traits and at times challenging assumptions.

A number of individuals have visibly grown in self-confidence as they read the analysis of their strengths and could see themselves in a wider context than the small school community in which they currently operate.

The immediate reaction to the career suggestions frequently provides a sense of direction for the individual, be it in reinforcing an existing idea or in offering a highly valued area for exploration; the combination of objectivity and proven connection underpins our guidance activity.

As attention increasingly turns to skills the Morrisby Profile once again demonstrates its relevance and versatility.

“Within VT Careers Management Indigo, we use the Morrisby Profile as a highly useful and objective basis to support career and educational guidance.

Good quality guidance needs to be objective in relation to each individual and so it is the actual measurement of key abilities and personality factors which allows us to be entirely realistic in our work.

The Morrisby Profile is especially useful, where in providing our guidance we have little other supporting information upon which to pitch our help. Even where we may be aware of, say, subject grades, the Morrisby Profile, because of its objective measurement, gets underneath this information to provide a more substantive basis for guidance - since how well someone does at a particular subject can fluctuate because of a change of teacher, a less interesting phase of the subject at a certain time of year or because of various other personal reasons which can affect school performance at any time.

Although the career suggestions are useful, we tend to suggest that each one is an example of a type of career i.e. not definitive, and research is needed around each suggestion into other related areas and possibilities.

Apart from career suggestions, in a good guidance session, it is possible to extrapolate higher education or other courses or subject choices which would suit an individual.

The Morrisby Profile is also capable of demonstrating other key issues for a person’s individual development. These can often be more important for a client than career suggestions. It may be, for example, that a pupil is being dismissed as not very bright, uninterested or even disruptive in school. The Morrisby Profile can occasionally show that a person is particularly bright in terms of their reasoning ability, but a school’s tendency to didactic teaching doesn’t suit them and they may learn far better from observation and visual demonstration, rather than through words.”

“We currently use the Morrisby Profile as a selection tool for our Graduate recruitment, in order to shortlist Graduates for interview.

During interviews, we can tailor our competency-based questions to each candidate, depending on their profile. For example, if the profile suggested a graduate was very flexible, we would investigate this further with specific questions.

Once they commence employment, graduates attend a group presentation and one-on-one feedback on their profile from fully Morrisby-trained HR representatives.

We find that since using the Morrisby Profile, we have a better hit rate in terms of the number of candidates interviewed. Our Corporate Banking divisions in particular find graduates that are successful on the job display similar traits to those suggested by their Morrisby profile.”

The selection of trainee commercial pilots for sponsored/assisted airline programmes requires specific assessment across a full range of an individual applicant’s ability and capacity.

Initial testing is all computer-based, starting with an investigation of academic levels in mathematics, physics and English language (when selecting for overseas airlines). This is followed by more practical assessment of psychomotor skills, spatial awareness, decision making, confidence and capacity.

We use the Morrisby Profile to support these tests and find it to be invaluable as confirmatory tool when evaluating assessment results. The clear and concise manner in which the Profile is constructed allows easy comparison through the range of ability tests and personality dimensions, greatly assisting in the selection of the best candidates for each individual operator. Easy access to the Occupational Psychologists is of great value throughout the process.

Quality and speed of delivery are of paramount importance when conducting trainee pilot assessments for major UK and overseas airline customers and in a relationship extending over fifteen years, The Morrisby Organisation have provided a faultless performance.