Relationship Between ASVAB and Mechanical Maintenance Job Performance

The Marine Corps Job Performance Measurement (JPM) project was a long term research effort to develop objective measures of job performance and to relate these measures to the aptitude test used for military selection. The second phase of the project focused on mechanical maintenance specialties: automotive and helicopter mechanics. This research memorandum documents the ability of scores from the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) to predict several measures of mechanical maintenance performance: hands-on performance tests, job knowledge tests, initial skill training course grades, and supervisor ratings. We examined tradeoffs between aptitude and job experience in predicting job performance. We also derived aptitude standards for these mechanical maintenance specialties based on the hands-on performance criterion. The Marine Corps JPM project succeeded in developing reliable, objective, and representative measures of mechanical maintenance job performance. The results from the project provide the Marine Corps with convincing empirical evidence that demonstrates the strong link between performance on the ASVAB and future performance in selected mechanical maintenance jobs.