VIP PLUS 2000 SERIES MANUAL

1 VIP PLUS 2000 SERIES

INTRODUCTION

VIP Plus 2000 Series, comprises VIP Plus, JobsBase, Numerical Skills Analysis Test and PlusMan. This makes VIP Plus 2000 Series probably the most versatile and comprehensive set of careers assessment instruments available in a single application,

VIP Plus is an all encompassing suite of vocational assessment instruments. It provides all of the features that a Careers Guidance Professional may require in a busy practice. The instruments cover a very large target ranging from the high level literacy through to the almost zero level literacy groups. All of the test instruments are available in a single application.

VIP Plus comes complete with

Vocational Interest Profile Form 1 (VIP 1)

Medium to high level literacy

Vocational Interest Profile Form 2 (VIP 2)

High to very high level literacy

Vocational Interest Profile Form 3 (VIP 3)

Low level literacy

Vocational Interest Profile Pictorial Form (VIP P)

Zero to very low level literacy

Vocational Interest Character Traits Analysis Form 1 (VICTA1)

Medium level literacy

Vocational Interest Character Traits Analysis Form 2 (VICTA2)

Lower level literacy

included with the site licence is the VIP Plus Client Management System (VIP PlusMan) which gives you access to all of your VIP Plus test results as well as those from the VIP Suite. VIP PlusMan allows you to review previous test results and, should you so require, create computerised client files where you can record the results of interviews, etc. PlusMan also allows you to derive normative data from your organisation’s test scores. We have also included our jobs and careers database, JobsBase.

INSTALLATION

The installation procedure is identical for VIP Plus , Numerical Skills Analysis Test, PlusMan and JobsBase

It is important to stress before installing these programs that you exit from all other applications. Some applications may have been loaded when the computer was first started, these may appear as floating toolbars.

To check whether or not you have other applications running, you can press alt-tab together to see if a dialogue box is displayed with the name of the application, check your screen for a floating toolbar, or check your status bar to see if any other program is shown.

If you attempt to install these programs with other applications running in the background, you run the risk of corrupting those programs and possible data loss.

It is also important thing to stress here that you cannot copy the installation disks to your hard drive, the applications need to be installed to a specific directory. When you are prompted for the directory name, please do not enter a substitute as this will disable the applications.

Installation differs only slightly between the Windows 3.x and Windows 95 environments.

place installation cd into your cd drive

Windows 3.x open Program Manager

click File on the menu bar

Windows 95

click Start on the status bar

click Run

click Browse

select your cd drive

select the VIP Plus folder

select setup.exe

click ok

click ok (on the next box that appears)

A series of setup dialogue boxes will appear advising you of the progress.

Dialogue Box 1 Setup

the first operation involves copying system files to your computer, this may take some minutes if you have never installed any of our software before.

Dialogue Box 2 Setup

This box again warns about installing whilst other applications are running. If you are unsure about whether or not there are any, click Exit Setup, otherwise click OK

Dialogue Box 3 Setup

This confirms that you want to install the application, there is a large square button with a picture of a computer, click on this if you still wish to proceed. The setup process will then check to see if you have the necessary disk space to complete the installation. You will again be prompted to insert the remaining disks.

Dialogue Box 4 Setup

This should tell you that setup was completed successfully, click ok

PLUSMAN

Due to the fact that PlusMan is designed to examine sensitive information about your client group, it is recommended that you only install PlusMan on a secure computer, not on a computer to which clients ordinarily have access. This is to maintain the integrity of the information management system and your client files.

PlusMan is case sensitive to your password. If you entered your password in upper, lower or a mixture of cases, it is imperative that you enter it in exactly the same way when using PlusMan.

The Client Management Information System, PlusMan, is described in far greater detail in section CONSOLIDATE TEST RESULTS and the following sections.

REGISTRATION

The first time you use VIP Plus you will be presented with a yellow registration page which will ask you to type in your organisation’s details and to provide a password. You will need to be careful about how you do this because you only get one opportunity to enter this information.

The details that you will be asked to provide are as follows

YOUR ORGANISATION’S NAME

this is the name which will appear exactly as typed on all printed reports and as a header on the application each time it is run, so if you type in upper case, that is how it will be printed.

STREET ADDRESS

This can be a post office box or street number and name.

SUBURB, STATE AND POSTCODE

as stated.

STD

your area code

PHONE

your phone number

A FIVE CHARACTER PASSWORD

this can be any combination of letters or numbers, however, the length cannot exceed five characters. When you type in your password you will be presented with a series

of asterisks, this is security function to protect your password’s integrity.

Please write this down and keep it safe as you will need to use it to

unlock tests and to utilise PlusMan.

You will be asked to re-enter your password, if they do not match, you will need to start again.

Once you have completed the registration form, click on the register button, this will save the information to file and will allow you to start unlocking your licenced tests.

UNLOCKING TESTS

VIP Plus comes with the entire range of Roseborn Press assessment software installed, however, you will only have access to those tests which you are licenced to use. To unlock your licenced test or tests you will need to access the administration function.

When you start VIP Plus, once it has completed checking the licence status of the tests it will present you with a welcome screen which asks you to select from either

vocational assessment

administration

the default for these options is vocational assessment, so change the option by clicking on the administration option and clicking enter.

You will now be asked to enter your password, after this has been correctly entered the message Password validated appears along with a button marked accepted, click the accepted button and you will be presented with the test vault.

On the left hand side of the screen is a list of the tests, in the middle are a series of text boxes and on the right, a series of padlocks. If the padlocks are closed, you do not have access to those tests until you type in the correct key, if they are open, you can access the tests.

To unlock the test padlock, you need to type in the unique key, provided with your installation disks, in the text box alongside the appropriate test. The key must be typed in exactly as shown on the user keys form. If you have been successful the padlock will spring open. As in the registration form, when you enter your keys, you will be presented with a series of # instead of the actual keys.

Once you have opened your tests, click on the button marked unlock tests. You now have unlimited access to these tests for one year, from now on, each time you start VIP Plus, the first screen after the opening titles will check the licence status and tell you when you unlocked these tests.

You can unlock further tests at any time afterwards should you so require.

2 TEST ADMINISTRATION

THE TESTS

All tests utilise the Roseborn Press Test Engine and are forced choice tests designed upon a matrix thus each interest area is compared twice with each of the others. Except in the first series of pairs in a test, the items are originally shown on the left hand side and secondly on the right hand side.

The number of interest areas reported upon, determines the number of test items presented, ie if there are 9 areas then the number of pairs is (9 x (9-1)) or 72.

Before administering tests to clients, it is imperative that you are familiar with the tests yourself so that you can answer clients’ questions. Perhaps the best way to familiarise yourself with the tests is to administer them to yourself first. The Roseborn Press Test Engine makes administration quite simple, the actual administration process is described more fully later on, however, in simple terms the test is administered by first completing the information screen and then proceeding to the test options menu and selecting your test.

In designing these tests, particular attention has been paid to the language used as this is a major determinant of the level of test to be selected, It is probably a good idea to keep a dictionary handy for the first few administrations, especially with VIP 2, to provide meanings for words with which you may not be familiar, eg What are tectonic plates?

The actual mechanics of completing the test are quite simple and through use of the single operating platform can be generalised from one test to another.

Following are descriptions of the tests and their suggested target groups.

VOCATIONAL INTEREST PROFILE FORM 1

72 pairs

medium level literacy, typically Year 9 and better education

reports on the following 9 interest areas

INTEREST AREA	GENERAL DESCRIPTION
ARTISTIC LITERARY	Generally describes an individual’s interest in the creative or literary arts
PRACTICAL	whether or not the individual is interested in "using their hands", practical in the sense that they are actually "doing something", usually with tools or machinery, such as trades or trades assisting
FINANCE	looks at how the individual feels about "number work" such as bookkeeping, accountancy, etc
SCIENCE MEDICAL	examines the interest in the physical sciences including medicine and paramedicine
HOSPITALITY TOURISM	with the growing tourism market providing many new jobs, this area examines whether or not the individual has any interest in working within the hospitality or tourism industries
OUTDOORS NATURE	this gives a good indicator of what sort of broad working environment the individual would be prepared to work in and gives more information than just if they are interested in working with plants, animals, nature, etc, it suggests whether or not the individual would be happier working inside or outside
CLERICAL ADMINISTRATION	examines the level of interest in office work
SOCIAL ORIENTATION	looks at the individual’s level of interest in the "helping" professions such as counselling, social welfare, etc
SALES	the level of interest in selling

VOCATIONAL INTEREST PROFILE FORM 2

342 pairs, high level literacy, typically Year 11 and better education, reports on 19 areas

INTEREST AREA	GENERAL DESCRIPTION
VISUAL ARTS	visual arts such as painting, sculpture, ceramics, glass, etc
PERFORMING ARTS	performing arts such as acting, performing, etc
LITERARY	literature and writing
MATHEMATICS	Mathematics
SCIENCE	physical sciences such as physics, chemistry, astronomy, etc
NATURAL SCIENCE	natural sciences
SOCIAL SCIENCE	social sciences such as psychology, sociology, social ecology, etc
MEDICAL	medicine and health care
ENGINEERING	engineering professions and architecture
TRADES	whether or not the individual is interested in "using their hands", practical in the sense that they are actually "doing something", usually with tools or machinery, such as trades or trades assisting
NATURE OUTDOORS	this gives a good indicator of what sort of broad working environment the individual would be prepared to work in and gives more information than just if they are interested in working with plants, animals, nature, etc, it suggests whether or not the individual would be happier working inside or outside
MANAGEMENT	managing the operations of an entity
FINANCE	looks at how the individual feels about "number work" such as bookkeeping, accountancy, etc
CLERICAL ADMINISTRATION	examines the level of interest in office work and administrative careers
SALES	selling, marketing, advertising, etc
TEACHING	teaching, training, adult educator, etc
EARLY CHILDHOOD	preschool teaching
SOCIAL ORIENTATION	looks at the individual’s level of interest in the "helping" professions such as counselling, social welfare, etc
LAW	legal professions

VOCATIONAL INTEREST PROFILE FORM 3 and VOCATIONAL INTEREST PICTORIAL FORM

42 pairs, very low to low level literacy, typically for people with educational deficits, reports on 7 interest areas. VIP Pictorial utilises graphics to enhance the meaning of the test items.

INTEREST AREA	DESCRIPTION
CREATIVE	being artistic or creative
PRACTICAL	using tools, working with one’s hands
INDUSTRIAL	possible interest in factory or process work
OUTDOORS	working outdoors in preference to inside
DOMESTIC	household tasks, possibly hotel/motel work, cleaning, bed making, etc
OFFICE ASSISTING	assisting in an office, office assistant, clerical aide
SALES ASSISTING	sales assisting, shelf stacking, etc

VOCATIONAL INTEREST CHARACTER TRAITS ANALYSIS FORM 1

110 pairs, medium level literacy, examines11 character traits that could provide useful information to assist in helping the client to make good career choices.

INTEREST AREA	DESCRIPTION
SUPERVISION	does the individual want the responsibility of supervising the work of other people?
SCHOLARSHIP	is the individual interested in undertaking further study or training?
INDEPENDENCE	is this a person who can work on their own or needs to be part of a team?
ORGANISATION	does this person need to have a high degree of order in their work environment?
SELF CONFIDENCE	can the individual move freely from one strange situation to another with comfort, do they have faith in their own abilities?
FAMILY	how important is the concept of family to the individual?
ADVENTURE	how much stimulation does the individual require?
LEADERSHIP	does the individual want to run the show?
INTEGRITY	how important is being trusted to the individual?
JOB SECURITY	how important is the idea of a secure job to the individual?
WORK ETHIC	how dedicated to the job is the individual?

VOCATIONAL INTEREST CHARACTER TRAITS ANALYSIS FORM 2

42 pairs, lower level literacy, examines7 character traits that could provide useful information to assist in helping the client to make good career choices.

INTEREST AREA	DESCRIPTION
GREGARIOUS	does the individual want the responsibility of supervising the work of other people?
INDEPENDENCE	is this a person who can work on their own or needs to be part of a team?
WORK ETHIC	how dedicated to the job is the individual?
ADVENTURE	how much stimulation does the individual require?
TRAINING	is the individual interested in undertaking further study or training?
ORGANISATION	does this person need to have a high degree of order in their work environment?
RESPONSIBILITY	Does the individual seek responsibility in a job?

ADMINISTERING TESTS

One of the better features of VIP Plus is the use of the Roseborn Press Test Engine as a common operating platform for all of the tests, thus the instructions are identical for all tests.

To administer a test, open the application in the normal way. Immediately following the opening titles, the licence status check will tell you which tests have been licenced for use and are currently available.

Once the status check is concluded, you will be presented with an option box giving you the choice of vocational assessment or administration.

Select vocational assessment

click on enter

You will now be presented with a client demographic page, this asks for some very basic information about the client, ie

First Name

Surname

Gender

Age group

The first name and surname are required for the printed report, the gender and age group are required for norming purposes. As a result of a previously large number of anonymous reports, it was decided that the names should be mandatory. Should you not wish to enter names, you could insert reference numbers, however, both name boxes must contain some information.

Once your client or you have completed the demographic page, click on the button which will then move you to your test selection page.

Whilst the full range of tests is shown on this page, you will only be able to access the tests for which you are licenced. Select your test and click on the begin button to proceed.

The next screen gives the basic test instructions. It is important to stress to clients that when making their choices, they should look purely at whether or not they would like to do that activity. They should not consider extraneous issues such as if they are trained to do, what the salary is, what qualifications are required or any possible perception of gender issues. At least for the period of time that they are completing the test, they are living in a perfect world where they can do anything that they want.

Once the instructions have been read, they click on the next button and the test items are presented in two panels. In the case of VIP Pictorial, there is also a graphic representation of the test item above it to enhance the meaning. To make a choice, the user simply clicks on the test item or picture, that item then changes from lower to upper case. Users are now able to change their selections by clicking on the other item or picture, once they are satisfied with their choice, they click the next button and the next pair of items (and in the case of VIP Pictorial, pictures) will be presented. The common test administration screen shows the VIP Pictorial screen with the graphic images, the two test item panels, the next button and in the bottom right hand corner the question number and the total number of items in the test.

At the conclusion of the test, the test item panels disappear and the user is asked to click a button to view their vocational interest profile.

THE VOCATIONAL INTEREST/CHARACTER TRAITS PROFILES

The end result of the test is the actual profile. In all tests with the exception of VIP 2, the profiles are presented on a single screen. The number of variables assessed in VIP 2 has necessitated the profile being displayed over two pages, however, users have the option of moving backwards and forwards between the pages.

A print button is displayed at the top of the page, however, if the user chooses to exit before clicking print, a report and profile will automatically be printed out. If your printer is colour capable, the profile will be printed in colour.

In previous editions of VIP tests, if the printer malfunctioned before the report was printed, the data was lost, in VIP Plus all data is saved to file before the profile is printed and in a worse case scenario, the profile can be retrieved and printed using PlusMan. The profile is presented in traffic light colours of Green for high interest, Yellow for average interest and Red for low interest.

The level of interest bands are quite broad and each correspond to a of the total. From this point, it is vital that clients do not become preoccupied with the numbers shown on their scores, rather that you concentrate on the size and colour of each interest area in relation to the others. The actual numbers represent the levels of interest shown at the time of testing and are subject to change, however, the shape of the profile will generally remain reasonably constant.

For those professionals who are interested in mean scores, as a measure of interest level, PlusMan has a normative data function that calculates the mean score for each interest area derived from the total number of tests.

THE PRINTED VOCATIONAL INTEREST PROFILE REPORT

The actual printed report now extends to three pages. Page 1 covers the actual test scores and gives a brief description of each of the categories together with a three letter key for each area. Other features of page 1 include the name, address and telephone number of the assessing organisation.

Page 2 shows the actual profile, if your printer is colour capable, the profile will be printed in the traffic light colours. The three letter key appears at the base of each column in the profile.

Page 3 is the test norming page, as you will see, there is no way that your client may be identified by an outside party from this information. These pages should be forwarded to Roseborn Press approximately monthly to enable national norming of the test results. You will be advised of these results as they are calculated.

If the printer malfunctions, or the client has made a mistake in spelling their name, or you require additional profiles, an identical or amended profile can be printed from within PlusMan. However, if you have already forwarded a norming copy to Roseborn Press, please do not send another as this will serve to confound the results.

3 NUMERICAL SKILLS ASSESSMENT TEST.

INTRODUCTION

NSAT allows you to assess numerical skills. It is divided into two parts, the first assesses basic arithmetic skills and looks at how well the person being assessed can handle the four functions of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. The second part assesses how well the person is able to integrate these functions into problem solving. The first half of problem solving examines how the person solves simple problems through use of the four basic arithmetic functions, the other half asks the person to make multiple calculations using a combination of the functions.

4 VIP PLUS CLIENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM, PLUSMAN.

INTRODUCTION

PlusMan is the powerhouse which makes VIP Plus one of the most powerful vocational assessment tools available in Australia today. VIP Suite used an internal administration function to track past client results, whilst this was found to be a useful tool, it was quite limited. Also , the Publishers felt that being a part of the running application, unsupervised clients could possibly access other client scores if they could crack the password. It should be mentioned that no instances of this happening have been reported. Accordingly, VIP Plus has an external client management system, PlusMan, with very high levels of security built into it. With PlusMan you can examine past results from VIP Suite, current results from VIP Plus and you can create your own client files on your computer.

OPENING PLUSMAN

PlusMan will ask you for your password, this is the same password that you entered on the registration screen when you first used VIP Plus

If you have entered your password correctly, the message password accepted - press enter to continue will be displayed at the top of the page and a button captioned enter will appear. Click on this button and you will be on the opening menu page. You now have a choice of three options, these are

view test results

client management system

mean scores.

VIEW TEST RESULTS

You can use PlusMan to view VIP Plus test data and data from the later versions of VIP Suite, unfortunately, earlier versions which did not have the timer function will present corrupt data. To load the data, simply click on the test you wish to view, clicking VIP Plus will load all test data derived from VIP Plus irrespective of the tests administered. Once the results have been loaded, you can manoeuvre through the various sets of results by using the movement buttons

||<< go to first record

>>|| go to last record

these two functions are useful if you know the relative position of the file that you wish to see, the positioning can then be fine tuned using the single record buttons

<< go back one record

>> go forward one record

Client records are then displayed and show the information saved from the test. This opens up other options for client management such as saving this data as a client file or printing a profile report.

You can also load test results from VIP Suite by clicking on the load vip1 ex vip suite, etc.

Clicking print client record will print a profile report identical to that printed from within VIP Plus

CONSOLIDATE TEST RESULTS

VIP Suite was limited in that whilst you could install it on multiple computers, to examine results on computers other than your own, you had to move from pc to pc collecting the scores. PlusMan allows you to set up a master/server network of computers so that you administer tests on multiple computers such as in a workshop or group situation, these are referred to as VIP Plus servers. Once the tests have been completed and you have explained the test profiles, you can then remove the data from those machines and consolidate it with existing data on the VIP Plus master computer.

The ideal computer to use as a master, is the one to which you have the major access, this gives you the freedom to work on client files without the risk of clients accessing information on other clients.

To consolidate data from a server,

Load VIP Plus

Enter administration

Click on the test consolidation button

you will be prompted to insert a disk into your a: drive

Click on consolidate

the data will be moved from that pc and stored on the floppy, repeat this process on each server using the same disk, the data will be added to that already collected.

To consolidate data to a master

Load PlusMan

Enter view test results

Click consolidate test results

you will be prompted to insert your consolidation disk into the a: drive

Click on consolidate

the data will be moved from your consolidation disk and added to your existing VIP Plus files.

SAVE AS CLIENT FILE

The other really significant button on this screen is the button marked save this as a client file. This saves the client name along with their test results as a separate file that may be accessed from within the client management system.

CLIENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

The client management system allows you to enter data about your client and save this as a client file.

The navigation buttons are identical to those used on the test results screen, so you can move through the different records quite freely.

There are three main views on the client information screen, these are

view test results

view address

view notes

VIEW TEST RESULTS

This view essentially shows the same information as that from the test results screen, however, here you have editing access so that you can correct spellings, etc. You can also edit the names which were saved as a single field in VIP Suite .

VIEW ADDRESS

This view allows you to enter client details such as their address, date of birth, phone number etc.

VIEW NOTES

View notes provides you with a simple word processor which allows you to store notes about your client.

ADD NEW CLIENT

This is another significant change from VIP Suite, you can add new client files for clients who have not completed a VIP or VICTA.

Once you have made changes to any client record in either of these views, it is vital that you click on the save button to ensure that your changes have been saved, otherwise all data will be lost.

PRINT CLIENT PROFILE

As in the previous screen, this prints the identical profile to that from within VIP Plus

MEAN SCORES

Mean scores provides you with the average scores generated in each interest area from each test. To derive these mean scores, enter mean scores from the main menu, click on the derive mean scores button. Once the calculations have been completed, the 5 test buttons will be enabled, clicking on any of these will show you the mean scores, from your organisation, for each interest area in that test.

It is not possible to derive national mean scores at the local level, this is why the printed profile has a third page headed NORMING COPY: PLEASE GIVE THIS COPY TO YOUR ADVISER. These copies should be forwarded to Roseborn Press approximately monthly for national norming. As results are calculated, you will be advised by mail of the national norms for each area in each test.

5 JOBSBASE

INTRODUCTION

JobsBase is a jobs and careers database. To use it, simply click on the test that has just been completed, then select the various interest categories to see a list of potential jobs and careers which fit into those categories. It should be pointed out that this list is by no means exhaustive and that some jobs may appear within different categories. This reflects the various aspects of the job.

The aim is to see how many jobs share the same interests as your client, thus if your client scored highly on two or three areas and the same job appeared within those areas, then the chances are that they would be interested in those jobs.