Prometric Wins Exclusive Multi-year Contract Renewal with European Personnel Selection Office
BALTIMORE, MD. September 10, 2009 – Prometric, a leading global provider of technology-enabled testing and assessment services, today announced that it has been awarded a new contract to be the exclusive partner of the European Personnel Selection Office (EPSO) over the next four years in the delivery of the EU staff selection examination process.
Under the new contract, Prometric will work together with EPSO as it transforms existing employee selection processes for all positions in the Institutions of the European Union (EU) in ways that will continue to modernize the process and hasten the overall selection timeline for candidates. Among some of the many improvements being built into the EPSO Development Program, a formalized action plan for optimizing the candidate selection process, the following will be implemented throughout the course of the new contract:
• Test content will focus more on competency based assessment, ensuring that successful candidates are those who have the "hands on" skills required to actually perform the job;
• To support the shift to skills based exams, test content will also grow to incorporate new item types, such as multiple choice multiple response, abstract reasoning, situational judgment tests, audio and other features;
• New annual testing cycles where competitions will be run for the major profiles, such as Administrators, Assistants or Linguists, allowing for increased candidate accessibility;
• All of the 23 official EU languages will eventually be supported across Prometric systems;
• An enhanced test center network with new monitors, computers and environmentally-friendly attributes to foster increased candidate comfort, ease of access to centers and support the new testing cycles.
"All the program enhancements and improvements we are working on will not only allow the selection of the most qualified and suitable candidates for the many various EU jobs, they will also shorten the candidate selection cycle from a current average of 15 months to between five and nine months," said David Bearfield, Director for the European Personnel Selection Office. "I look forward to working with them as we roll out major improvements to the selection process. Prometric's operational expertise will help ensure the seamless execution of all aspects of our program, including the satisfaction of our candidates."
Michael Brannick, President and CEO of Prometric, said, "The level of professionalism, dedication, collaboration and partnership that has been demonstrated over the course of our relationship with EPSO is truly inspiring. Our familiarity with its program, and the level of transparency they've shared with us, has established a solid base we can continue to build on. And while all the coming changes will make the process even more efficient, it will also guarantee that only the most qualified and talented employees are recruited to fill positions in the EU Institutions."
Prometric has delivered more than 120,000 exams for the EPSO through its established network of test centers across the 27 EU member states. Working together, Prometric and the EPSO have achieved above 95 percent candidate satisfaction on their overall testing experience.
About Prometric
Prometric, a wholly-owned subsidiary of ETS, is the recognized global leader in technology-enabled testing and assessment services. Its comprehensive suite of services, including test development, test delivery and data management capabilities, allows clients to develop and launch global testing programs as well as accurately measure program results and data. Prometric reliably delivers and administers more than seven million tests a year on behalf of 450 clients in the academic, professional, healthcare, government, corporate and information technology markets. It delivers tests flexibly via the Web or by utilizing a robust network of more than 10,000 test centers in 163 countries. For more information, please visit www.prometric.com.
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