The series of preparations for IFLS-5 through pretests or pilot tests for all new modules and the CAPI program went smoothly. Officers who had decades of experience in research and were even directly involved in the previous round of IFLS were the participants in the activities. However, brand-new field officers who previously never had basic survey skills would mostly carry out data collection for IFLS-5. That's really challenging.

Therefore, a pretest is needed to find and build the right field assistant training method and time allocation later in conducting the real IFLS-5 jobs.

Pretest Training Simulation for Live Respondents

Training for field assistant candidates. Moreover, the data collection method uses the Computer Assisted Personal Interviewing (CAPI) program that challenges more complex issues in the field. Later after the field assistants receive sufficient training, they will have high skills and more capabilities.

SurveyMETER held this pretest training for 21 days, from March 24 to April 17 2014 in the Meeting Room on the 2nd floor of the SurveyMETER Office. The last three days are pretest field practice planned in Kulonprogo Regency. Pretest participants are limited to only eight people who are committed to participating in the activity to completion. The eight participants who passed this selection were fresh graduates from a number of universities who had no survey experience at all. During the training, these eight participants were fully accompanied by instructors, programmers, and several senior field assistants.

The teaching materials for this pretest training include all training materials for prospective IFLS field assistants in general, namely: study background, objectives, survey components, general field procedures, household survey procedures, and questionnaires (including determining panel and non-panel respondents, types of books and who answered, interview techniques, types of questions and rules for filling out respondents' answers, detailed explanations of sections, tracking procedures, questionnaire filling exercises, interview exercises, live respondents, and field exercises), use of computers for CAPI and health measurement, as well as regarding the responsibilities, duties, and issues of supervision, and reporting.

While the teaching methods consist of: an explanation of the substance of each section by the instructor, a demonstration of filling out the questionnaire on the computer by the training facilitators, practice interviews in groups, practice interviews in pairs, live respondents, and field practice. In addition, there will always be a pretest and post-test every day to determine the readiness and ability of participants to capture the material presented. Also, discussions to accommodate participant questions and find solutions to each problem always be allocated at the end of each session. (JF)