Trade and Post-Specific Technical Knowledge: Tools, Measurement and Safety
What this domain tests
The trade paper is set for the post you applied for - clerical, MTS, store, catering, tailoring, carpentry, fire fighting or a technical trade - so its content differs between candidates. What stays constant is the foundation: knowing your tools and their correct use, measurement and units, workplace and fire safety, properties of materials, and the record-keeping language of your trade.
Common core to prepare
- Measurement: least count, zero error, correct reading of steel rule, vernier calliper and micrometer; conversions such as 1 inch = 25.4 mm and 1 kg = 2.2046 lb.
- Safety: the fire triangle of fuel, oxygen and heat; matching extinguisher type to fire class; correct use of personal protective equipment.
- Tools: be able to name a tool from its description and state its purpose, for example a try square for checking squareness or a centre punch for marking hole positions.
- Clerical and store trades: dak receipt and despatch, file numbering, stock registers, and issue and receipt vouchers.
Worked example
A vernier calliper has a main scale division of 0.5 mm, and 25 vernier divisions coincide with 24 main scale divisions. Find the least count, then the reading when the main scale shows 12.5 mm and the 7th vernier line coincides. Least count = 1 MSD − 1 VSD = 0.5 − (24 × 0.5 / 25) = 0.5 − 0.48 = 0.02 mm. Reading = 12.5 + (7 × 0.02) = 12.64 mm.
Traps that cost marks
Forgetting to subtract a zero error from the observed reading, mixing imperial and metric units in one calculation, and describing a tool's use vaguely instead of naming the operation it performs.