Abstract

The Vocational and Career Psychology Service (BPS) of the German National Employment Agency has developed four new services for competence assessment. They can be used by job placement officers and case workers to better identify soft skills of their customers and use the results for job search and targeted integration measures. The four services differ in the competencies they assess and in their mode of operation.
The qualitative evaluation project whose results are presented in this report is an integral part of a large evaluation project that followed the nationwide implementation of the services. The main research question focuses on the effects that these new services have on the further processes of integration and job search. Related research questions focus on the constellations, in which the services are used, the communication about their use and the role the results play for decision making and further support of customers. Central to this project have been qualitative interviews with job placement officers, case workers and customers in six regions or cities.
The most important result is that the competence assessment services can have a positive effect on the further job search and integration processes, if they are embedded in a generally strength-oriented approach. Positive effects are strongest if the communication process between job placement officers / case workers and customers was already constructive and solution-oriented, and if the reasons for using a competence assessment are made transparent to the customer.