GRADUATE INTERNS ARE TRAINING IN OUR OFFICES, BUT ARE THEY LEARNING? Jeff Jenkins, LCPC; Christina Siders, LCPC

Northwestern Career Advancement, Northwestern University

ASSESSMENT STRATEGY

PROGRAM LEARNING OUTCOMES MAJOR FINDINGS

Students who participate in the Graduate Intern Training Program will be able to: • Demonstrate effective career counseling skills (Personal

Development, Cognitive and Practical Skills) • Describe when it is appropriate to administer the MBTI and Strong

Interest Inventory as part of a counseling strategy (Cognitive and Practical Skills)

• Interpret the MBTI and Strong Interest Inventory as part of their counseling strategy (Cognitive an Practical Skills)

• Critique a resume/cover letter by industry in an express advising appointment (Personal Development, Cognitive an Practical Skills)

• Describe at least two career development theories and recount how they applied these theories in a specific counseling session with a student (Personal Development, Cognitive an Practical Skills)

Summer readings and assignments (delivered via

email)

3 day intensive onsite training

Ongoing weekly group supervision

Shadowing of counseling appointments/express

advising sessions

Co-counseling of appointments/express

advising

Taking the lead in appointments and express advising with staff member

Taking own appointments and express advising shifts

TEACHING STRATEGY

Counseling Appointments

60%

Express Advising Shifts 15%

Case Notes and Conceptualization

14%

Individual Supervision

5%

Group Supervision 5%

Workshop Development

5%

Qualitative and quantitative data was collected at three points during the internship training year: • Pre-test: A 51 question evaluation was given to each of the 3

interns and 3 supervisors prior to the beginning of training to assess perceived and actual baseline skills in these areas: counseling/advising, professional performance, case conceptualization, self awareness, and supervisory behaviors.

• Mid-point and Final Evaluation: A 51 question evaluation was given to each intern and supervisor at the mid-point and close of the internship year to assess skill development.

• Session recordings: Each counseling session is audio recorded and reviewed weekly for supervisor feedback.

• Performance: Supervisors sit in on the first few sessions to directly observe intern performance.

• Case notes: Interns write 1 page case notes for each student appointment, which are read and signed by the supervisor.

Interns undergo extensive training and shadow/co-counsel for 5 weeks prior to taking their own individual student appointments:

What do NCA Career Counseling Interns

do?

3.40 3.13 3.00

2.67

3.25 3.60

3.11 3.42

3.00 3.25

3.40 3.27 3.42

3.58 3.80 3.78 3.92

3.33 3.56 3.60 3.60 3.67

3.92 3.87 3.67 3.75

3.33

0

1

2

3

4

5

Fall Winter Spring

2.90 3.05

2.87 2.58

3.42

3.82 3.67

2.87

3.33

3.85 3.87 3.73 3.83 4.17

4.52 4.55

3.87 4.00

4.52 4.67

4.47 4.42 4.75 4.78 5.00

4.12

4.67

0.00

1.00

2.00

3.00

4.00

5.00

Fall Winter Spring

1

2

3

4

5

Fall

Winter

Spring

1

2

3

4

5

Fall

Winter

Spring

FUTURE CONSIDERATIONS

EVALUATION OF SKILLS: SUPERVISOR

EVALUATION OF SKILLS: INTERN

EVALUATION OF COUNSELING SKILL DOMAIN: INTERN

EVALUATION OF COUNSELING SKILL DOMAIN: SUPERVISOR

There are several key lessons learned from the assessment project: • The current set of evaluations uses a rating-based scale, which fosters too much subjectivity and results in variations in supervisor feedback. In the future,

we will develop a counseling skills rubric to ensure a more accurate assessment of intern learning. • The counseling skills category is too large and somewhat redundant. In the future, we will pare the list from 20 to 10 counseling skills. • As with many evaluations, there is a need to more carefully distinguish between a performance review and a learning assessment. • Due to the size restrictions of the intern program and the yearly modifications to each evaluation, the sample size is small and it is therefore difficult to generalize the information gathered.