I read on the Internet that ETS is seeking to hire a “Senior Director, Assessment Transformation” who will “guide PSI’s transformation and assessment teams through the integration of PSI and ETS into a single assessment operating model.” The job posting refers to a “single technical and operating model and operational execution under PSI assessment services model” emphasis is my own).
That’s mildly interesting.
PSI administers and/or develops hundreds of tests. They have tests for real estate agents, tests for barbers, tests for funeral directors, tests for dentists, and tests for exterminators. They have tests for wrestling referees. They have tests for auctioneers. They do the HiSET. When I visited a PSI test center in Seoul a little while ago, I was told that a certain test for pilates instructors was quite popular among Koreans.
Sounds familiar, right?
PSI is a heckuva lot like ETS of the 1970s, 80s and 90s. Longtime readers will recall that ETS developed and delivered tests for every profession under the sun… before selling that part of their business to Thomson-Prometric back in 2004.
It seems that ETS finds itself at a critical juncture that will require intelligence and finesse to manage. On one hand, they’re going full steam ahead into the future with their “human progress” stuff (which is all over LinkedIn). That’s nebulously defined right now in terms of salable product, but it appears to be the main focus of ETS leadership. But at the same time, the leadership team seems to be looking to the past for inspiration as it rebuilds a deep catalog of more traditional assessments.
(It is also worth noting that we have been here before, sort of. ETS purchased Prometric and ran it as a hands-off subsidiary for about a decade before selling it to private equity in 2018).