CAREER ASSESSMENT

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Figuring out what to do can be

confusing...

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Overview

1. Why is career counselling important in high school? Rationale for assessment 2. Presenting concerns and questions 3. Case Study 4. Where to start? Informal Assessments 5. Formal Assessments 6. Follow up 7. Questions and Comments

Adolescence marks a period of change for young people as they begin to prepare for their future endeavors. This is the time when youth develop vocational interests and focus on changes that reflect possible career choices (Bailey, Larson, Borgen & Gasser, 2008).

Measures of career planning competencies focus on the cognitive aspects of career development including occupational knowledge, decision making skills, and employment seeking skills. Counsellors must look at a student’s competencies. (Einarsdottier & Rounds, 2009).

Career concerns of students differ from those of adults as they facing different types of transitions and challenges (Hood & Johnson, 2007).

Career assessments can provide insight into individual strengths and interests.

Therefore, a counsellor’s mandate is to provide students with reliable and valid vocational assessment tools. Students can benefit from resources that will clarify their abilities.

Bailey et al. note that, “Vocational interests represent an individual’s personal preferences for specific leisure and vocational activities and environments” (p. 136).

Why is Career Counselling Important ?

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Rationale for Assessment

“Career concerns include difficulties in decision making and in resolving developmental tasks, such as choosing a major or career …” ( Hood & Johnson, 2007, p. 93).

To determine the needs of the student in terms of counselling programs and services

To ascertain the needs of parents (career workshops, university requirements, etc. )

To assist the counsellor in planning for student and school based activities (career days, resume workshops, post secondary visits)

To prepare students for the transition from high school

To move students to create career profiles or portfolios

To create counsellor accountability (surveys)

To create roadmaps for students and provide support services for these needs (Planning and Resource Guide, Alberta Education, 1997)

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Alex, a grade 12 high school student, is feeling pressured by her parents to make an appropriate choice for her career path. While she is interested in the area of Conservation, a part of her is drawn to pursue her creative passions and, in particular, her affinity towards drawing and design. Alex’s counsellor extends an invitation to Alex to engage in a few sessions of career counselling wherein they can explore the plethora of future options available to her. The counsellor suggests that this process will be helpful in allowing Alex to gain a broader understanding of career choices and provide her with some resources she can bring back to discuss with her parents. Just like with ANY client, rapport and trust must be built.

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Case Study

Where to Start? Student Concerns

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4SG2i1iMBs&feature=BFa&list=PLB225E93FCF9F3727&index=2

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Career

Planning

•Occupational Searches

•http://alis.alberta.ca/ce/career-explorers.html

•Work experience

•Career Investigations

•RAP

•CTS Strands/Job Correlation

•Volunteer

Educational

Planning

• Open Houses

• Student for a Day

• Post Secondary Nights

• Costs of tuition, living, books

• High School Counsellor visit

• Apprenticeship Criteria

Possible Transitions

• University

• College

• Work

• Travel

• Military

• Upgrading

Further Concerns

Today’s society requires learners to acquire advanced learning skills and self-management competencies at school; people working in the professions are active in developing their own career and learning throughout their lifetime (Gysbers & Henderson, 2005; Jarvis & Keeley, 2003). ONGOING LEARNING

Schools are seen as ‘career centres’ in which students are able to acquire career competencies, such as being able to reflect on personal ambitions and motives, and to undertake actions and initiatives to direct their own career development (Geurts, 2003; Kuijpers & Meijers, 2009). MOTIVATION, RESPONSIBILITY

Self-directedness in learning and career development processes refers to students’ capacities to act for themselves, speak on their own behalf, and realize actions aimed at creating their preferred futures (McMahon & Patton, 2006). CRITICAL THINKING

Developing a vocational identity means going through processes of meaning-making in which students gain an understanding about what work means to them and how it relates to their personal norms, values, interests, and ambitions (Law, Meijers, & Wijers, 2002). SELF REFLECTION

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Fact versus Fiction

Faculty of Arts graduates are highly employable

University is best for all students

Money and job stability are the two most important factors in career choices

Students who take a year off rarely return to education

Students should choose jobs based on their strongest skills

The job market is rapidly evolving

The average individual changes careers 5-6 times before he or she retires

It’s important to be balanced and develop the total person

Career assessments will indicate the exact career choices for students

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fiction-the-san-carlos-real-estate-market/

Myths ? Facts?

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Card Sort Activity

The categories on the Preference Board are: MOST PREFERRED, MODERATELY PREFERRED, and NOT PREFFERRED AT ALL. The counsellor will observe the client as he/she reads the card and the timeliness of deciding where the card should be placed. Once all cards have been placed in a category, beginning with the MOST PREFERRED STACK, the client will rank them in order of importance or preference. Up to twelve cards must be chosen to be placed, in order under the pretence of job and life satisfaction. Follow-up: Follow-up steps include determining the types of careers and more specifically the occupations that will best match skills and abilities in chosen work preferences. Questions such as: What degree of satisfaction will you obtain from your choices? Do you have the knowledge and skills to meet you top preferences? Why are these preferences important to you? Will the occupational choice you have in mind match your preferences? How much are you willing to deviate from your preferences to obtain a satisfying career? How much will your preference affect your roles outside the world of work? (leisure time, future) Image retrieved from: http://tc.pagalguy.com/author/apurvpandit/

Things to Consider for the Student

Self-Assessment Tools To find a career that fits you, you need to know about yourself.

Self-assessment—or identifying what's important to you—is the first step towards making effective career decisions. Your career foundation is based on: Who you are, what you do best, the places (environments) and people that give you energy, and the things that motivate you.

Self-Assessment Tips Complete at least one assessment activity in interests and

personality type.

Do the values, skills, and other assessments to gain a complete picture of your strengths.

Reflect on what fits, and record your findings at every step.

Summarize your results and research.

Share your findings with others; ask questions and listen for feedback.

Use a comprehensive model rather than relying on one from of assessment

0

Discovering Interests Interests Yes Sometimes No

I like to be active

I like to listen to music

I like to learn about the

environment

I like to sing, dance, act

I like to help others

with their problems

I like to be in charge

I like to work with

numbers

I like to operate

machines and

equipment

I like to teach children

Formal Assessments

Strong-Campbell Interest Inventory - Measures interests in a broad range of occupations, work and leisure-activities, as well as school subjects. The Strong is one of the most widely-used surveys. The survey is based on John Holland's six personality types: Artistic; Conventional; Enterprising; Investigative; Social; and Realistic . Time required: 35-40 minutes.

http://www.psychometrics.com/docs/strong_p_sci.pdf?PriceCat=1&Lang=EN-US&SID=8f0b3285-a3d8-405c-87b3-0ef1c0860e28

COPS (Career Occupational Preference Survey) - An interest survey designed to help individuals involved in the career decision-making process and to define the kinds of work one might be interested in doing. Survey results match the user with his/her highest work clusters and offer a sampling of occupations to explore along with related skills, activities, and majors. Time required: 30 minutes .

Question Samples

Career Cluster Sample

Formal Assessments

MYERS-BRIGGS TYPE INDICATOR (MBTI) - A self-report personality type survey designed to provide the individual with insight into their natural behaviour and attitudes. Results describe four dimensions: 1. Extrovert/Introvert 2. Sensing/Intuitive 3. Thinking/Feeling 4. Judging/Perceiving. Time required: 60 minutes

http://www.knowyourtype.com/sample_interpretive.pdf

Holland Code Quiz-Each question is an opportunity for you to describe the kinds of things you as a person can do, might like to do or the action that most fits you. The Holland Codes is a system to classify jobs into job categories, interest clusters, or work personality environments. In the Holland Model, these categories represent work personalities.

http://www.roguecc.edu/Counseling/HollandCodes/test.asp

The work personalities are: Realistic: You are usually assertive and competitive: you are interested in activities requiring motor coordination, skill, and strength. You usually prefer to work a problem through by doing something rather than talking about it. You like concrete approaches to problem solving, rather than abstract theory and tend to be interested in the scientific or mechanical rather than cultural and aesthetic areas. You like to work with THINGS. Investigative: You like to think and observe rather than act: you prefer to organize and understand information rather than to persuade. You tend to prefer individual rather than people oriented activities. You like to work with DATA. Artistic: You are creative, open, inventive, original, perceptive, sensitive, independent, and emotional. You do not like structure and rules, and like tasks involving people or physical skills. You are more likely to express your emotions. You like to think, organize, and understand artistic and cultural areas. You like to work with IDEAS and THINGS. Social: You seem to satisfy your needs in teaching and helping. You are drawn to seek close relationships with other people and are less apt to want to be really intellectual or physical. You like to work with PEOPLE. Enterprising: You are a good talker and use this skill to lead or persuade others. You also value reputation, power, money, and status. You like to work with PEOPLE and DATA. Conventional: You like rules and regulations and emphasize self-control. You like structure, order, and dislike unstructured or unclear work and interpersonal situations. You place value on reputation, power, or status and like to work with DATA. Assessments using Holland Personality Styles link vocational interests to job families. Assessments use a two or three-letter RIASEC or Holland code. Different assessments provide information on the relationship between job personalities and key characteristics, college majors, hobbies, abilities, and related careers.

Reference: John Holland (1985) Making Vocational Choices (2nd ed.) Odessa, FL.: Psychological Assessment Resources, Inc.

SII(2005) MBTI

The Strong Interest Inventory (SII) began in 1927 as a result of the work E.K. Strong Jr. had completed. The original test was empirical and used contrasted group scales (Leierer, Blackwell, Strohmer, Thompson & Donnay, 2008).

The SII is not a test and requires no security features. The counsellor begins by explaining the purpose and intent of the inventory to the student. The manual suggests that the administrator clarify that results are not indicative of ability but rather of interests.

The SII has 291 items which require the respondents to indicate preferences within five points of information (Leierer et al. 2008).

Leierer and Colleagues (2008) state that the SII is one of the most scientifically sound, thoroughly researched, and widely used interest inventories.

A variable that brings strength to this test is its solid norm sampling base with over 30% of the general representative sample (GRS) made up of women and 22% of GRS men coming from ethnically diverse backgrounds engaged in 373 different lines of work (Strong et al., 2004).

A study by Gasser (2007) provides initial validity estimates confirming that the 2005 SII is a useful tool in predicting college majors (Bailey et al. 2008).

What adds to the SII’s reliability is the fact that the 244 Occupational Scales are divided into 122 pairs with separate scales for men and women; this contributes to the reliability and appropriateness of occupations for both genders.

In the early 1940s, Isabel Briggs Meyers developed the Meyers Briggs Type Inventory which was based on Jung’s personality research (Pittenger, 1993).

The MBTI is the most widely used personality inventory in the world and assesses aspects of normal personality believed by its authors to be universal (Beuke, Freeman & Wang, 2006).

This test measures the following aspects: Extroversion-Introversion (EI), Sensing-Intuition (SN), Thinking-Feeling (TF), and Judging-Perceiving (JP). (Beuke et al., 2006).

The MBTI assessment can be administered either online or on paper; this tool should be administered by a certified individual who has met the professional requirements for interpreting the results of the instrument (Pittenger, 1993).

Despite the fact that the Meyers Brigg is a commonly used instrument, studies reveal inconsistencies in its reliability and validity. Several studies have indicated that as many as fifty percent of individuals who re-tested in as short of a period as five weeks were classified into a different personality type (Pittenger, 1993).

Proving the test’s validity becomes more complex as the nature of the instrument presents ipsative data which reflects priorities and is normed against itself.

This type of data limits the methods of study that can be used to determine validity. Because the MBTI is designed to implement Jung’s theory of psychological types, its validation data must be focused on the construct validity of the instrument. Evidence regarding the validity of the MBTI suggests that this assessment is only a moderate predictor of behaviour (Kuipers et al., 2009).

Values Impositions

Pressures from outside sources

Cultural Implications

Societal expectations Larry Dick ( Personal Communication, June 2011)

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Cautions

FOOD FOR THOUGHT? Image retrieved from: http://www.destination360.com/europe/portugal/dining

Follow Up

Resources provided to the student, when used in a complimentary fashion, can provide the necessary tools and information to allow students to think at a more critical level.

Creating ongoing portfolio Check–ins with counsellor Counsellor assessments Planning and instruments Continued Questioning Providing additional information Being personally interested in assisting students

High School Career Counselling requires rapport

High School Career Counselling is comprehensive

High School Career Counselling takes time

High School Career Counselling involves many viable resources

Conclusion

References Bailey, D., Larson, L., Borgen, F., & Gasser, C. (2008). Changing of the guard: Interpretive continuity of the 2005 Strong Interest Inventory. Journal of Career Assessment, 16, (2) 135-155. Beuke, C., Freeman, G., & Shanping, W. (2006). Reliability and validity of the Meyers-Briggs Type Indicator. Psychological Type and Culture, 1-9. Einarsdottir, S., & Rounds, J. (2009). Gender bias and construct validity in vocational interest measurement: Differential item functioning in the Strong Interest Inventory. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 74, 295-307. Finnestad, H., Morrow, R., & Millar, G. (1997). Building a comprehensive school guidance counselling program. Edmonton, Alberta:Desktop Publishing. Hood, A. B., & Johnson, R.W. (2007). Assessment in counselling: A guide to the use of psychological assessment procedures (4th ed.). Alexandria. VA: American Counseling Association. Kuipers, B., Higgs, M., Tolkacheva, N., & de Witte, M. (2009). The influence of Myers-Briggs Type Indicator profiles on team development process: An empirical study in the manufacturing industry. Small Group Research, 40, (4) 436- 464. Leierer, S., Blackwell, T., Strohmer, D., Thompson, R., & Donnay, D. (2008). The newly revised Strong Interest Inventory: A profile interpretation for rehabilitation counselors. Rehabilitation Counselling Bulletin, 51, (2) 76-84. Pittenger, D. (1993). Measuring the MBTI... And coming up short. Journal of Career Planning and Employment, 54, 48-53. Strong, E., Donnay, D., Strohmer, D., Morris, M., Schaubhut, N., & Thompson, R. (2008). Strong Interest Inventory Review. Rehabilitation Counselling Bulletin, 51, (2) 122-126. Schaubhut, N., Herk, N., & Thompson, R. (2009). MBTI form M: Manual supplement. CPP Inc., 4-17. Mittendorff , K., den Brok, P., &Beijaard D. (2010). Students’ perceptions of career conversations with their teachers. Teaching and Teacher Education. Edmonton, AB: Desktop Publishing