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Designed in line with the new curriculum, The Basic Skills Test for Teaching Assistants provides a consistent and reliable way to check vital literacy, numeracy and IT skills for existing Teaching Assistants or as part of the recruitment process.
All questions are multiple choice and are presented in a randomised order. Candidates only receive credit for correct answers and are guided throughout the test to questions at their own level of achievement. Our software ensures that good candidates are not asked inappropriately simple questions, whilst at the same time ensuring that weaker candidates are guided to questions of a suitably revealing level.
Every candidate gets a different set of 75 questions chosen from our bank of over 5000.
How do I give the candidate a test?
The Basic Skills Test is conducted entirely online. As the employer, you simply complete a form giving the candidate’s name, their email address and the e-mail address for where you wish the test result to be sent. For accounts with multiple users, you can also associate or attach a candidate with a specific vacancy.
The candidate is then emailed a link to the test, and a unique PIN number, which will work in any browser, on any device. Once candidates have logged in and completed the test, the results are emailed to your chosen email address immediately in PDF format.
How long does the test take
The test takes around 45 minutes. There is an option to turn off the time limit however, for candidates with learning difficulties such as dyslexia.
Written to complement the Level 3 Award in Supporting Teaching and Learning in Schools, The Basic Skills Test for Teaching Assistants was created to evaluate the skills a TA needs in today’s changing educational climate. It tests the candidate’s numeracy, literacy and IT skills identified in the new National Curriculum. It is a consistent and effective tool designed to measure the basic skills of each job applicant, allowing you to make informed recruitment decisions.
Upon completion of the test you will immediately receive a report grading the candidate in the following areas:
Literacy
Creating sentences and punctuating correctly.
Demonstrating comprehension via reading.
Demonstrating an ability to spell words.
Recognising the meaning of words.
Understanding different uses of language.
Understanding the structure of paragraphs.
Numeracy
Calculating simple probabilities.
Recognising and calculating with numbers.
Recognising shapes and applying measures.
Solving problems with variable elements.
Understanding percentages and fractions.
IT Skills
Databases.
Email.
Internet.
Spreadsheets.
Word Processing.
Who writes The Basic Skills Test for Teaching Assistants questions?
The Basic Skills Test questions are drawn from a bank of multiple choice questions set and moderated by professional educationalists/UK teachers.
Teaching Assistants in the news
Making the best use of TAs [Education Endowment Foundation and MITA]
The freedom to make decisions about teaching assistants is nothing new, but now school leaders have the means to unlock their potential [MITA]
How headteachers are maximising the impact of teaching assistants and getting results [Institute of Education]
How teaching assistants can make a real difference in the classroom [The Guardian]
Basic Skills in the news
Making maths and English work for all [The Education and Training Foundation]
School leavers ‘lack basic skills in English and maths’ [The Telegraph]
Young people lack workplace skills, firms say in survey [BBC News]
Mind the skills gap: from classroom to career [Politics Home]
Try our FAQ or please email [email protected] with any questions you may have. You can also contact us via our contact form.