Aspiring teachers must pay to sit Canadian personality test in new change

ASPIRING teachers already preparing for VCE exams must now fork out $80 to sit a Canadian personality test in their bid to get into a teacher education course.

Aspiring teachers will have to sit a personality test.

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ASPIRING teachers must pay $80 to sit a Canadian personality test that quizzes them on what to do if a retail customer demanded a refund.

Most Victorian universities now require VCE students to pass the personal attributes test to get into a teacher education course.

Students already preparing for VCE exams must now also complete the CASPer test before December, and fork out $80 to do so.

Career Education Association of Victoria president Frank Thompson said the cost was “concerning” and an added worry for families already struggling financially.

“If courses are selecting students, they should carry the cost of their selection process as any employee does when they’re interviewing applicants,” he said.

The Herald Sun has been told a scenario put to students in the test was to consider what they would do if they were a retail assistant and a customer demanded a refund.

Eight of 12 tertiary institutions with initial teacher education courses use CASPer as part of their candidate selection while others use different systems, including interviews.

Mr Thompson said schools only found out about the new requirement in August, while VCE students who wished to take education courses next year must complete the test by November 30.

“It’s adding stress for students who are preparing for exams,” he said.

Victorian Association of State Secondary Principals president Judy Crowe said the cost was “unfortunate”.

However, she did support the introduction of further testing for teaching students and hoped a more appropriate Australian-based test would be developed.

“The general principle is something our association supports in that for a long time we’ve been concerned with the low ATAR requirement for a number of teaching courses,” she said.

A department of education spokeswoman said the framework reforms “raise entry standards into initial teacher education and attract high quality candidates”.

However, the government did not respond to questions on whether an Australian-based test would be developed.

Students who face financial hardship can apply to their nominated university or TAFE for assistance.

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