Cognitive Pre-Selection for High-Volume Entry-Level Intakes.
SkillsPassport Pre-Selection sits upstream of your ATS. It benchmarks 500 to 10,000 learnership, YES, internship and graduate applicants on four proctored cognitive assessments — with verified identity and validated documents — before a single CV reaches your recruiters’ queue.
In one paragraph
SkillsPassport Pre-Selection is an upstream ATS cognitive firewall for South African employers running high-volume entry-level intakes. Every applicant completes four proctored cognitive assessments — Speed, Accuracy and Memory (SAM), Verbal Reasoning, Numerical Reasoning and Non-Verbal Reasoning — alongside ID verification, OCR document digitisation and selfie-to-ID face matching. Results convert to stanine scores on a 1–9 scale, where 5 is the national average, so thousands of applicants become directly comparable. Employers filter by stanine bounds, location, gender and B-BBEE demographic profile, then export the roster or push it into Workday, SAP SuccessFactors, Taleo or Sage. The assessments were designed by Dr. Lanette Hattingh, an HPCSA-registered Educational Psychologist with 40+ years of experience and over 1 million assessments completed, and the platform has run continuous high-volume intake screening for Tier 1 South African corporates, including EnviroServ, for more than three years.
Where high-volume entry-level recruitment breaks
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ATS keyword blindness
An ATS filters keywords on a PDF. It cannot measure cognitive speed, numeracy or accuracy under workplace pressure.
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Unverified CV inflow
Receiving 500 to 10,000 applications for one cohort? In the ChatGPT era, an AI-written CV passes a keyword screen easily and proves nothing.
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High early dropout
South Africa carries a roughly 30% learnership dropout rate. Candidates hired on unverified CVs often fail inside the first 90 days because they lack the cognitive speed and accuracy the role demands.
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Zero proof of integrity
Unproctored online forms invite cheating and impersonation, so shortlisting becomes guesswork and recruitment lag grows.
The Fix: an upstream cognitive firewall
SkillsPassport Pre-Selection benchmarks the entire applicant pool on objective, proctored cognitive metrics before anyone enters the recruiter’s review queue. Every candidate is measured on the same four assessments, scored on the same stanine scale, and verified against the same identity and document checks — with built-in tools to contact, shortlist, and manage exclusivity.
Why an ATS can’t do this on its own
Most enterprise employers already run a modern applicant tracking system — Workday, SAP SuccessFactors, Oracle Taleo or Sage. Those systems are excellent at managing a pipeline. They were never built to measure raw cognitive capability. An ATS filters keywords on a PDF; it cannot tell you how quickly or accurately an applicant processes data under corporate pressure.
What your ATS measures
- • Keyword and phrase matches on an uploaded CV
- • Stated qualifications, self-reported
- • Application status and pipeline stage
- • Nothing about capability under pressure
What pre-selection measures
- • Processing speed and accuracy under timed pressure
- • Verbal, numerical and non-verbal reasoning
- • Verified identity and OCR-digitised documents
- • Proctoring telemetry proving the result is the candidate’s own
SkillsPassport does not replace your ATS. It is a filtration layer that runs before it, and hands your ATS a shorter, benchmarked, audited roster.
Recruiter governance you can audit
1. Precision roster filtering
- • Stanine bounds per assessment (SAM, verbal, numerical, non-verbal)
- • Location (province/city/area)
- • Demographics (age, gender, race for B-BBEE)
- • Documents (matric, qualifications)
2. Verification checkpoints you can trust
- • ID verified (scanned + OCR extracted)
- • Face matched (selfie vs ID photo)
- • Documents validated
- • Assessments proctored
- • Age-gated: every profile in the repository is 18+ and has legally opted in
- • POPIA-compliant consent tracking and data storage
3. The Candidate Integrity Report
An anti-cheating auditing console attached to every completed assessment.
- • Random webcam snapshots captured throughout the session
- • Facial recognition comparison against the verified ID photo
- • Browser tab-switching timestamps
- • Window-minimisation alerts
- • Cheated assessments are flagged automatically — these are not unproctored “online quizzes”
The four cognitive pillars
Every applicant completes the same four proctored, current-reality cognitive assessments. No optional modules and no self-selection — which is what makes thousands of applicants directly comparable.
1. Speed, Accuracy & Memory (SAM)
The employability stress-test. Measures how quickly and accurately an applicant processes data under sustained corporate pressure — the capability most closely tied to surviving the first 90 days of a high-volume intake.
2. Verbal Reasoning
Measures language comprehension and logic — whether an applicant can read an instruction, a policy or a client brief and act on it correctly.
3. Numerical Reasoning
Measures fundamental mathematical pattern logic, independent of school-level maths marks or subject choice.
4. Non-Verbal (Spatial) Reasoning
Language-independent visual and abstract problem-solving, which keeps the assessment fair across South Africa’s official languages.
Deploy without an IT project
You are never required to replace an existing HR system or commit to a long implementation cycle. Pre-Selection runs standalone from day one, and integrates later if and when you want it to.
Standalone agility
- • Built for urgent intakes, such as a three-month learnership deadline
- • Applicants are directed straight to your pre-selection portal link
- • They complete the four pillars, upload ID and Matric documents, and pass proctoring checks
- • You export the benchmarked roster — no integration work required
Integrated ATS / HR workflow
- • Pushes pre-selected candidate rosters into enterprise HR systems via API
- • Sends stanine scores and audited candidate profiles with each record
- • Works alongside Workday, SAP SuccessFactors, Taleo and Sage
- • Standalone export remains available at any time
Build Your B-BBEE Talent Pipeline
Source pre-vetted, high-aptitude candidates from diverse backgrounds. Because every applicant is scored on the same objective stanine scale, transformation targets are met without loosening the capability bar. Filter rosters by location, gender and B-BBEE demographic profile, and export the underlying data straight into your B-BBEE compliance reporting.
How it works
Candidate registers (two entry paths)
A) Your employer link (Exclusive)
- • Linked to your organisation token
- • Locked exclusively to your intake for 14 days
- • Private view only
B) Generic platform (Open)
- • No employer token
- • Immediately available to all
- • No exclusivity applies
Candidate completes secure registration checks
Account creation, ID upload with OCR, Selfie verification (face match), and personal details confirmation.
Candidate completes 4 cognitive assessments (proctored)
Only after completing all four does the profile become fully searchable. Every attempt carries a Candidate Integrity Report.
Assessment scoring that’s easy to compare
Stanine Scoring (1–9)
Results are converted to stanine scores on a 1–9 scale, where 5 is the national average. This is what makes 500 or 10,000 applicants directly comparable, regardless of school, format or background.
Set your thresholds
Configure minimums per assessment. The platform visually flags candidates as "Exceeds", "Matches", or "Below".
Candidate Exclusivity
Candidates who register through your intake link are locked exclusively to your organisation for 14 days. During that window, no other employer can find or contact them.
Once you finalise your intake, the remaining benchmarked, proctored Stanine 6–9 candidates transition into the Shared National Talent Repository — a single source of truth that stops strong youth talent from being discarded and lets cross-industry partners access the same verified pool.
Manage Your Bulk Recruitment From One Dashboard
Direct Messaging
Message single or bulk candidates. All tracked with email notifications.
Notifications
Alerts when candidates reply. Activity history logged for audit trails.
Audit Trail
Every shortlist, decline, or extension action is logged with timestamps.
Psychometric pedigree, enterprise battle-tested
Designed by Dr. Lanette Hattingh
HPCSA-registered Educational Psychologist
The four cognitive pillars were designed by Dr. Lanette Hattingh, an Educational Psychologist registered with the Health Professions Council of South Africa, with more than 40 years of practice and over 1 million assessments completed.
Proven on live corporate intakes
SkillsPassport Pre-Selection has run continuous high-volume intake screening for Tier 1 South African corporate leaders, including EnviroServ, for more than three years. This is not a pilot product — it has been stress-tested against real learnership and graduate intake deadlines at scale.
- In production
- 3+ years
- Applicants per intake
- 500–10k
- Assessments completed
- 1M+
- Data compliance
- POPIA
Frequently asked questions
Straight answers on ATS integration, proctoring, stanine scoring, exclusivity and POPIA.
Does SkillsPassport Pre-Selection replace our ATS?
No. Pre-Selection is an upstream filtration layer, not an ATS replacement. It benchmarks your entire applicant pool on cognitive capability before candidates enter the recruiter review queue, then hands your existing system a shorter, verified, benchmarked roster. You keep Workday, SuccessFactors, Taleo or Sage exactly as it is.
Does it integrate with Workday, SAP SuccessFactors or Sage?
Yes. Pre-selected candidate rosters, stanine scores and audited candidate profiles can be pushed directly into enterprise HR systems via API. Integration is optional — the platform is fully usable standalone with roster export, so you can run an urgent intake without waiting on an IT implementation cycle.
How do you stop candidates cheating on an online assessment?
Every assessment is proctored and produces a Candidate Integrity Report. The platform captures random webcam snapshots, compares faces against the verified ID photo, and logs browser tab-switching timestamps and window-minimisation alerts. Assessments showing integrity breaches are flagged automatically for recruiter review.
What is a stanine score?
A stanine is a standardised score on a 1 to 9 scale, where 5 represents the national average. Converting raw assessment results to stanines makes candidates from different schools, provinces and backgrounds directly comparable. Employers set a minimum stanine per assessment, and the platform flags each candidate as Exceeds, Matches or Below.
Can we screen 5,000 applicants for a single learnership intake?
Yes. Pre-Selection is purpose-built for high-volume entry-level intakes of roughly 500 to 10,000 applicants — learnerships, graduate programmes, internship cohorts and YES (Youth Employment Service) initiatives. Applicants self-serve through your intake link, so throughput is not limited by recruiter capacity.
How long are candidates exclusive to our organisation?
Candidates who register through your organisation-tokened intake link are locked exclusively to you for 14 days, and can be extended in 7, 14 or 30 day increments. No other employer can find or contact them during that window. Declining a candidate releases the exclusivity immediately.
What happens to the candidates we do not hire?
Once you finalise your intake, the remaining benchmarked and proctored Stanine 6 to 9 candidates transition into the Shared National Talent Repository. This single source of truth prevents strong youth talent from being discarded after one unsuccessful intake, and allows cross-industry partners to access the same verified pool.
Is the platform POPIA compliant, and do you assess minors?
The platform provides 100% POPIA-compliant candidate consent tracking, document OCR digitisation and verified candidate rosters. Minors are strictly protected: every individual entering the corporate talent repository must be 18 years or older and must legally opt in.
Who designed the cognitive assessments?
The four cognitive pillars were designed by Dr. Lanette Hattingh, an Educational Psychologist registered with the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA), with over 40 years of experience and more than 1 million assessments completed. The platform has run high-volume intake screening for Tier 1 South African corporates, including EnviroServ, for over three years.
Screening an entry-level intake this quarter?
If you are running a learnership, graduate programme, internship cohort or YES initiative and need a shorter, benchmarked, proctored shortlist before your recruiters start interviewing, SkillsPassport Pre-Selection is built for exactly that. Standalone deployment, no IT project.