AWP (previously BaFiA) was developed in Sweden and is an instrument used to assess, via observation, an individual’s skills in the performance of work. The instrument assesses the individual’s working skills in three areas (14 variables): motor skills, performance skills and communication/interaction skills.
AWP can be used to assess the working skills of clients with all types of work-related difficulties, i e the instrument is not tied to specific illnesses, injuries or diagnoses.
Assessments can be made of different work-related tasks, and may be carried out in real as well as more artificial settings, i e the instrument is not tied to specific tasks or contexts either.
Ratings of the client’s skills may be matched against a requirements profile produced with the AWC instrument.
AWP is currently used within a large number of rehabilitation activities in Sweden, including the Employment Agency, occupational health services, municipal activities, medical rehabilitation clinics and primary care.
The instrument’s face validity, content validity, construct validity and utility have been tested in a number of studies, with good results. Further studies are ongoing or being planned.
Recently there has been expressions of interest in the instrument from USA, UK, Netherlands and Iceland, and consequently English, Dutch and Icelandic versions of AWP have been produced. The English-language version was produced in collaboration with Gary Kielhofner and Jenica Lee at the University of Illinois at Chicago. There are also requests for translations of the instrument into Danish and Finnish.
Assessments using AWP can appropriately be combined with other assessments such as AWC, WEIS and WRI.
More information
Further information about testing and development of AWP is available in Jan Sandqvist’s thesis (DiVA):
For more information about user licences for the instruments and courses on the use of the assessment instruments:
