Specific Vocational Preparation

AnyoneCanAchieve recommends 330 job titles or 36 million top jobs to the attention of minorities (African Americans, specifically). These occupations are occupations with specific vocational preparation of levels 7-9. Most of the jobs have an SVP rating of 8. A DOT SVP rating of 8 is rather typical for professional jobs requiring a bachelor’s degree or more. Please see SVP Explanation from the government’s Dictionary of Occupational Titles.

Specific Vocational Preparation (SVP)

“Specific Vocational Preparation is a component of Worker Characteristics information found in the Dictionary of Occupational Titles (U.S. Department of Labor, 1991).

Specific Vocational Preparation, as defined in Appendix C of the Dictionary of Occupational Titles, is the amount of lapsed time required by a typical worker to learn the techniques, acquire the information, and develop the facility needed for average performance in a specific job-worker situation.

This training may be acquired in a school, work, military, institutional, or vocational environment. It does not include the orientation time required of a fully qualified worker to become accustomed to the special conditions of any new job. Specific vocational training includes: vocational education, apprenticeship training, in-plant training, on-the-job training, and essential experience in other jobs.

Specific vocational training includes training given in any of the following circumstances:

1. Vocational education (high school, commercial or shop training, technical school, art school, and that part of college training which is organized around a specific vocational objective)
2. Apprenticeship training (for apprenticeable jobs only)
3. In-plant training (organized classroom study provided by an employer)
4. On-the-job training (serving as learner or trainee on the job under the instruction of a qualified worker)
5. Essential experience in other jobs (serving in less responsible jobs, which lead to the higher-grade job, or serving in other jobs which qualify).

The following is an explanation of the various levels of specific vocational preparation:
Level Time (Appendix C)
Short demonstration only
Anything beyond short demonstration up to and including 1 month

1. Over 1 month up to and including 3 months
2. Over 3 months up to and including 6 months
3. Over 6 months up to and including 1 year
4. Over 1 year up to and including 2 years
5. Over 2 years up to and including 4 years *
6. Over 4 years up to and including 10 years *
7. Over 10 years *

Note: The levels of this scale are mutually exclusive and do not overlap.

U.S. Department of Labor. (1991). Dictionary of Occupational Titles (Rev. 4th ed.). Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office. “

Source: http://online.onetcenter.org/help/online/svp