Recruiting apprentices and graduates can sometimes feel uncertain. With limited working experience to draw upon, how can you identify those applicants with the best potential to grow and thrive in your business?
That’s where OPC Assessment’s Core Skills Test Series can help. Designed for entry-level recruitment, these tools assess key abilities and personality traits that can add confidence to your hiring decisions for early career talent.
The Core Skills Series brings together seven assessments designed to give a rounded view of early-career potential. Some focus on foundational capabilities, such as verbal or numerical reasoning. Others assess more applied reasoning skills, including mechanical, spatial and abstract problem-solving, highlighting how individuals may approach fault-finding or practical challenges. A personality questionnaire complements these by exploring behaviours such as motivation, teamwork and resilience.
As the tools are not industry-specific, they can be used across a wide range of roles, helping identify individuals with the potential to learn, adapt and contribute to areas such as operations, engineering and customer service.
For example:
The Core Skills Numerical Test (Core N) looks at how candidates interpret and reason with generic numerical information, an important ability for young professionals in roles requiring accuracy and logical decision-making.
The Core Skills Mechanical Reasoning Test (Core M) is a multiple-choice test using labelled diagrams that candidates must solve. It measures problem solving abilities and understanding of mechanical principles, indicating competency for technical and engineering roles.
The Core Skills Personality Questionnaire (Core Q) profiles behavioural traits such as motivation, teamwork and resilience. Key qualities that can be just as important as technical ability in early careers.
Looking for graduates?
OPC Assessment’s Graduate Situational Judgment Test (GSJT) helps assess how candidates may respond to workplace challenges. It presents realistic scenarios with four possible options that applicants rank in order of preference. Their ranked choices can reveal teamwork, decision-making or problem-solving strengths, helping you spot graduates most likely to thrive in your business.
Already used across transport and engineering sectors, the Core Skills Test Series and GSJT support Talent Acquisition teams in building stronger early talent pipelines. They offer an evidence-based way to identify candidates with the potential to develop and take on greater responsibility over time. They can help you identify apprenticeship candidates, technician trainees, and in-role learners most likely to succeed in training, and on the job.
You can read a case study exploring the successful use of the Core Skills Series here.
Want to make confident early-career hires? Get in touch with the friendly OPC Assessment team to see how our Core Skills Series and GSJT can identify apprentices, technician trainees, and graduates most likely to succeed in your business.
W: https://www.theopc.co.uk/assessment/
T: +44 1923 234646
