PREEMPLOYMENT JOB-SPECIFIC PHYSICAL EVALUATION: IRONWORKER APPRENTICE CANDIDATES

Abstract

1800 The purpose of this project was to develop a fitness test that would: 1) identify the best potential ironworkers among apprentice applicants and 2) provide a realistic awareness of the physical demands of the ironworker trade for candidates. An extensive, comprehensive list of ironworker physical ability tasks were obtained from a panel of experts. These tasks were prioritized regarding their importance in successful job performance. Nine assessment stations were identified to simulate job demands for high priority daily required tasks. Three sets of data were collected during the winters of 1994, 1995 and 1996. After careful inspection of the original data, stations and measures were modified from test session I to test session II and, again, for test session III to more exactly address specificity of testing issues. One hundred one apprentice candidates were assessed in their ability to perform job-specific physical tasks that included: 1) beam walk [pass/fail],[X, ±SD] 2) equipment pull-up [51.5±16.1sec], 3) bolting up[111.1±14.6sec], 4) lift and carry [43.3±12.5sec], 5) well wheel[66.7±43.7sec], 6) float carry [25.1±5.3sec], 7) beater positioning [1.6±0.3m], 8) chain fall lift [2.2±0.5m], and 9) chain fall down [1.1±0.3m]. Inspection and introspection were the analyses used to evaluate each candidate's overall performance compared with the group. A total of 40 applicants from the three test sessions were retained as apprentice candidates. Establishing norms is an ongoing process of this project.