What is the Business Test Publishers Association ?

Formed by thirteen leading publishers of test and development tools, the BTPA is an association dedicated to increasing and improving the use of such instruments in any UK organisation.

Who can be a member ?

Membership of the BTPA is open to publishers of assessments and development tools used to make work –related decisions. These can range from recruitment or promotion exercises; planning for development, training and coaching; reorganisation, restructuring and team building; advice and counselling to students, school-leavers and work returners on work-related courses, career direction and appropriate jobs.

All members of BTPA adhere to a Code of Conduct. Membership is conditional upon members taking all reasonable steps to ensure that their materials (psychometric tests, questionnaires, assessments and techniques for business and organisational development ) are constructed, used and interpreted properly. These steps include:

• Providing all available and relevant information which enables users to judge which is the best instrument for the intended purpose and how it should, or should not, be used.
• Accurately presenting and making transparent each instrument’s research background
• Ensuring that claims about instruments’ effectiveness are backed up by specific data and/or general psychometric theory and research and appropriate, clear training requirements.

Is the BTPA just about tests ?

No. Many of the BTPA’s members do publish psychometric instruments; measures of individual human difference based on specific scientific principles. However, collectively we supply a huge range of instruments:

• informal assessments;
• techniques for recruitment and selection;
• training delivered both face-to-face and at a distance;
• ways of deciding on development programmes relating to individuals professional and personal skills;
• organisational analysis and structural tools;
• methods for providing careers and educational advice to people of all ages.

Our collective business is people and how they can maximise their potential.

What will the BTPA do ?

The BTPA works with users, and professional and scientific bodies to consistently improve the quality of published techniques, the professionalism of their use and general understanding of their benefits and limitations.

More specifically the Association:

• advises and complements scientific, legal and professional bodies in the UK involved in major testing initiatives
• encourages members to challenge each other to improve the quality of their products and services and to adhere to agreed scientific, professional and ethical standards
• offers independent information on practical, day-to-day issues to anyone interested
• develops and communicates a range of good practice guidelines in new areas of assessment and development
• proactively communicates accurate information on techniques for human development among the public and an increasingly interested media, via public relations campaigns.
• helps to create a responsible, vigorous and successful UK industry devoted to high quality selection, development and guidance practice.
• raises awareness of the broad range of differing instruments available for the professional management of people at work.

While the Association is primarily focused on the UK, it has numerous links with organisations throughout the world and draws on best practice internationally.

Why Is There a Need For Such an Organisation ?

There is huge interest in tests and related techniques, caused by:

• effective recruitment, selection, development, management and organisation of people has become the key business issue of the new millenium. They are the key to financial performance, brand differentiation, customer service, efficiency and – a key topic - fairness.
• programmes such as the BBC’s Test the Nation, which is now being adapted throughout Europe, have renewed interest in test technologies
• increasing use of the internet in job recruitment and training
• renewed scientific interest in human psychology
• vastly increased test use throughout UK business. Most large companies now use some form of testing in their HR practice.
• increasing pressure on employers not only to have fair employment practices but to be seen to have them.
• controversy about the value of educational qualifications: what they tell employers about candidates and whether they guide job seekers to positions in which they will succeed.

With such widespread interest, there is huge diversity in the quality of materials available; in the understanding of what assessments and development tools can and can’t do; and the professionalism and fairness with which they are used. The BTPA will seek to improve all these areas, in order to make the most of individual talent in pursuing organisational success.

Who Are the Members ?

The founding members are

Criterion Partnership; Cubiks; Holst Group; Knight Chapman Psychological; Morrisby; OTL/Tests Direct; PSL; The Psychological Corporation ( Europe ); Team Focus; Test Agency; Thomas International; TMS Development International Ltd; Verax.

What about companies that haven’t joined ?

Membership is open to any company that meets the criteria, signs up to the Association’s Code of Conduct and will pay the Associations modest annual dues. One of the BTPA’s first tasks is to ensure that all potential members who have not yet joined have full details of the organisation.

What is the Association in formal terms ?

The BTPA is a company limited by guarantee with a budget to fund its many activities. Directors are elected by the members and both the board and the full group meet regularly. The first directors of The Business Test Publishers Association Ltd are:

Chairman: Richard Alberg: PSL
Roy Childs: Team Focus
Rob Feltham: Cubiks
Martin Reed: Thomas International

Contact Details

BTPA Ltd registered offices: 50 New Street, Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, RG9 2SX

For further information on the Business Test Publishers Association and to arrange interviews with its directors , please contact Ian Florance, Secretary, BTPA on 01491 573648 or 07966 509390 or on ian.florance@btpa.org