Determining Value of Technical Training by Statistical Analysis

In today's customer satisfaction-driven marketplace, modern automotive training programs must accurately determine their value and effectiveness to be competitive. There are sound statistical methods of analyzing student test data that can more accurately determine a technician's achievement than a “final exam”.

Intra-course testing can be used by technical instructors to determine entry level understanding and help technicians get acclimated to written tests. This data serves multiple purpose: to determine a statistical baseline for each technician, and to give the instructor feedback as to the group's needs so he/she can make curriculum modifications as necessary.

Test questions should be of a type already known to most technicians (such as ASE-style) to avoid confusion. Skill improvement can be quantified by score improvement over the time span of a technical course, providing automotive training groups an accurate reflection of the effectiveness of their program.