As someone who has sifted through many an job application for prospective employees from the ranks of school leavers I was wondering if the MySchool web site might assist us small business people in our selections.

Given that the schools are ranked already I wouldn't imagine it would be too hard to give a corrective figure for a student's ENTER score based on what school they had attended.

I mean I don't want the dunce level of some independent school even though his/her results might place them above smarter state school kids.

For instance some schools battle to get 5% of their students achieving 90 or above while others have 30% +. But we all know that from the 200 odd kids graduating in each the mean IQ rank will not vary all that much if at all.

I would love the ability to pick from the top 25% of any school, I just need the data to do so. It should be easy, just have a drop down list of schools and a place to put in their score and bingo!

I suppose I could get a rough guide from the listed ICSEA value but it is hardly definitive. My scheme would be much better.

csteele,

The OP levels are normalised across the state, as are the field scores for each subject. Just ask to see them as part of the job interview.

What are you hiring for?
That necessitates such narrow parameters?
Perhaps you need do a bit more research on employment selection techniques.

Dear rstuart,

What are the OP levels? I am unfamiliar with the initials.

Dear examinator,

Unfortunately in small business one does not have the luxury of personality or aptitude tests. I have employed school leavers for retail, wholesale and manufacturing. After a while you develop a gut feel for what works. Generally minimum top 50% academically for retail/sales positions, manufacturing needs smarts and an ability to stick at something (sport history seems to be a fair guide). Wholesale demands good problem solving skills and calmness under pressure (beware of any art subjects).

The ones I feel are the hardest to fill are trade apprenticeships. I have a plasterer mate who runs a couple of plastering teams. He now only employs private school kids from top end schools because he found them to be the best at taking orders without being smart arses. One of his best was a chap who had won a number of literary prizes.

But for me ultimately it is around 20% about what they bring on a piece of paper and the rest is the interview. I will admit to these being pretty crude employment selection techniques but I can't remember any not making it through their trial periods.

Sorry guys, forgot to ask, would either of you have a problem with having the MySchool web site altered to accomodate these proposed changes?

Myschool has been so crippled to prevent anyone from comparing all schools and HSC results, or teacher that I found it pretty useless.

I would be happy with some Myschool functionality.