Trainability assessments were designed for predicting apprentice performance in four skills in the shipbuilding industry. The results showed that the assessments were successful in predicting performance after a three‐month period in the skill for which they were designed. They were less successful, however, after a 12‐month period and no one assessment predicted performance for all skills. It is suggested that trainability assessments may be best suited to predicting performance for skills which require a short training per