I__. - International Military Testing Association

Preferences for Military Assignments in German Conscripts
Introduction
K. Arndt
Federal Office of Defense Administration
Bonn, Germany
What German conscripts know about available military assignments is primarily based on
information from friends and acquaintances who have already done their military service. The
media, the military counselor and visits to military units (open day) constitute an additional but
less important source of information. It is generally true to say that knowledge and a general
overview of all the military assignments that are available depend on whether information has
been obtained passively or actively. Preconceived ideas about military activities do often lead
to discrepancies between everyday military life and expectations. Lack of motivation, indifferent
feelings about military service and discontent with the draft procedure are the consequences.
In addition to the need for objective standardized information on military assignments, measures
were required to counteract the negative image to the armed forces, since the willingness of
young men to do military service has continually been decreasing over the past years. Against
the background of a military threat, which was perceived to be real, the majority of those liable
to military service passively agreed to military service, but as early as 1987 this percentage
declined to less than 50 % for the first time. It must be assumed that this development has
continued to date. As a result of this findings, it was decided to develop a transparent and
efficient method designed to provide young men liable to military service with an overview of
the requirements and qualifications for military assignments and a clear picture of job dcscription.
The “Assignments - Interests - List” (AIL) is the result of this development during which variant
models of information transfer and target-orientated representation were prctestcd. The results
of a nation-wide AIL test are reported.
Description of AIL
On the basis of expert rating, the 117 possible assignments for conscripts were reduced to 2.5
representative assignments covering both fighting and non-fighting troops. A brief description
was compiled for each of the selected assignments, including a picture of a typical activity and
an account of the most important requirements and features of the job.
The Assignments-Interests-List comprises the military assignments as described in Table 1. The
AIL method can be used for groups or individuals. Each item is looked at wilhout any time limits.
Pretest results
An initial prctcst was carried out by sampling 105 persons liable to military service. Of the 452
preferences stated, 256 (57 %) fell to assignments with non-fighting troops and 196 (43 %) to
fighting troops. Application of the AIL method produced a marked increase in the number of
desired assignments indicated; without AIL, the average number of assignments considered to
be interesting was 2.6 while use of AIL produced an increase to an avcrapc of 4.4 . The education
level had no ascertainable influence on the preferences expressed. The LC~L time to work through
the test ranged from 6 to 22 minutes.
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