Delivering independent career guidance for over half a century

A young psychologist, John Morrisby, spent the war years in the Australian Army Psychological Corps assessing troops using the psychometrics of the time.

His experiences convinced him that the idea of a single intelligence or IQ was a simplification that often meant natural talents and capabilities go unrecognised and people remain unfulfilled.

Recognising that abilities have shape as well as level, John set about developing a series of assessments to provide a comprehensive picture of a person's unique abilities and aptitudes.

During the 1950s John developed a series of assessments based on Paul Horst's mathematical model of differential prediction. In addition to the theoretical components, development also hinged on repeated cycles of field trials, analysis, development, and adjustment. His labours resulted in a series of 12 assessments covering six primary abilities, four cognitive style measures and two motor skills.

A person's scores were presented as a profile and it was the shape of this profile that effectively described the person, rather than their level. They could show whether a person was gifted in practical tasks, in dealing with other people, working with numbers or in many other areas. They could identify strengths irrespective of a person's academic performance.

The Morrisby Profile assessments were first published in 1955 and were quickly adopted by many companies as part of their recruitment process, proving particularly valuable as an indicator of success in the many different apprenticeships and graduate training schemes being offered.

In 1967, John and fellow psychologist and partner, Mary, established the Morrisby Organisation to publish, develop and support the Morrisby Profile. Alongside their use recruitment, an increasing number of careers practitioners and advisers see the value of this type of assessment and adopt Morrisby assessment as a key component of their consultancy services.

In the late 70s, Morrisby started work on developing a computer-based expert system to analyse the Morrisby Profile and prepare detailed narrative reports. It was built using 'fuzzy-logic' probabilistic modelling which is still used today.

Realising that accurate assessment of a person's abilities is central to career choice, Morrisby enhanced this system to be one of the first to analyse assessment results within a careers guidance setting. This entailed adding interest and aptitude questionnaires and linking the results to a library of career profiles and study areas. The result was a user-friendly narrative report complete with career and study suggestions.

Continued research and analysis resulted in a major update of the assessments. This also ensured that the assessments were successfully reviewed and registered with the British Psychological Society.

Morrisby developed 'Coursefinder', a questionnaire system linked to a database of all UK Degree courses presenting sixth-formers with course suggestions based on their objectively assessed study interests matching their examination results, university and geographic preferences. This was soon followed by a digital version, the first computer-adaptive interests questionnaire on the web.

The early 2000s saw Morrisby introduce the first web-based careers platform, Fast Tomato. This, coupled comprehensive assessments and career, career, subject and course suggestions with whole-school careers education with extensive online resources, lesson plans and activities.

It also introduced a management suite where careers advisers could mentor, monitor and support their students.

Soon after this, Barry Darnell, an experienced careers adviser and psychologist with a psychometric leaning, began work in Melbourne on adapting Morrisby for the Australian Market.

Barry introduced hundreds of VIC schools to the benefits of the Morrisby system and over the following years his company, Career Analysts, expanded into other States.

The Morrisby Profile underwent a major revision on its 50th anniversary. With revised items and layout, a new standardisation, it is successfully reviewed and registered with the British Psychological Society's Psychological Testing Centre.

During the 2010s, Morrisby Profile went online accompanied by new computer-adaptive career interests, work attitude, work styles, workplace, study interest and personality questionnaires.

The 2020s so far have seen further developments of the Morrisby careers platform with comprehensive, whole-school careers and destinations modules including integrated careers activities and lesson plans.

In October 2023, Morrisby proudly became employee-owned, run in the best interest of the staff.

From January 2024, Morrisby has been represented in Australia by the Australian Center for Career Education (ACCE)