Instructions: You have been asked to help design a career assessment program for your customers. What are one or two assessments [formal or informal] you would use with your customers? Make one original post and then respond to one classmate’s post. You will make a total of two posts.
Remember that our learning group works in a full-value environment: We treat our colleagues with respect and professionalism. Our comments should reflect this culture.
If tasked with designing a career assessment program for my customers, I would want to incorporate both formal and informal assessments. While formal assessments provide more data to make decisions with, the informal tests tend to be more approachable and fun, as well as easier to use with diverse groups. My favorite informal assessment is True Colors; a Forced Choice activity that divides people into Four Personality Groups (Orange, Gold, Blue, and Green). True Colors is a great assessment because it gets the customers to think about how their personalities drive the types of work best suited to them. For example, if someone knows that they like helping people and working with people, hands-on, they are not likely to want to spend their day in a laboratory doing research on lasers. As a jumping off point, I feel True Colors is a great way to look at jobs from a wide range of fields and narrow down the type of work and work environment that customers might be interested in. On top of that, if it is administered in a group setting, it’s a great ice breaking exercise and gets people talking about their similarities as well as career paths that they are considering.
For a formal assessment, I like the Nelson-Denny as it gives a grade-equivalent (it is limited in that it follows the U.S. grade scale for schools) based on the raw score of the individual who takes the assessment. The Nelson-Denny is an assessment that looks at a person’s vocabulary level as well as their reading comprehension and it is a really good way to incorporate reality into the career development process. Because the assessment gives a grade-level to an individual’s vocabulary level and reading comprehension, it can be used to help determine if an individual will need to further their education to improve their scores or consider an alternate career path. As for administration, the assessment can be given in a group setting or to an individual.
I agree that the True colors is a great informal assessment. Knowing that it can be done within a group setting it is also used as an ice breaker. learning what colors, you are, what they mean, and how it can focus your careers choices brings the group into a discussion of their outcomes. The True Colors assessment does not narrow down what careers you would excel in, but rather gives a self-awareness of your personality traits, that may assist you in focusing your careers choices. However, I do know that just because your main color may be working with people, you may want to use the second or third color that represents a personality trait that you prefer to work in.
The Nelson-Denny is a good formal assessment, but working with such a diverse population I think I would spend more time trying to explain the outcomes., rather than discussing the options of the outcomes. I would want a formal assessment that is understandable throughout different cultural and economic contexts. The Nelson-Denny assessment can be good to use in a work setting where you know that you can have the time to explain the results and what they mean. The main thing to remember is with formal assessments they must be given by a certified person, and it must be approved by fiscal or your company’s budget.
True Colors sounds like a great assessments to use. I have not had the chance to use the assessment with my clients, but I do think they would really benefit because it shows them what their interest may be and what their personality may be. I work with families facing homelessness so they have a lot of barriers and sometimes they may not know what they like or what interest them. By conducting this assessment it may give them a better picture on their personality.
True Colors and Nelson-Denny are beneficial assessment tools that help individuals find jobs that align with their skills, interests, and values. For example, True Colors is a personality assessment tool that identifies an individual’s unique strengths and provides insights into their communication and interpersonal styles. These insights can be valuable in identifying job opportunities that fit an individual’s personality and work style. Similarly, the Nelson-Denny test is a standardized assessment of reading and comprehension skills, which can help identify job opportunities that require a particular level of literacy or verbal reasoning ability. By utilizing these assessment tools, individuals can better understand their strengths and limitations and the job requirements for different positions. This information can help job seekers make informed decisions about their career paths and increase their chances of finding fulfilling and successful employment opportunities.
I agree, True Colors and Nelson-Deny are great assessments. I think True Colors allows the individual to discover a greater understanding of their preferences, where their strengths lie. and identify the types of careers they’re likely to excel in. In addition since Nelson-Deny measures oral reading abilities, accuracy, fluency, and comprehension, it helps the individual gain a better understanding of their educational and employment options based on their results.
I chose True Colors as well! I took it once in a group setting and it stuck with me. It’s a good self-reflection tool and I can see it really working in the context of career help. Understanding how you fit into each color category helps you understand your preferences and interests depending on the questions asked. It’s also customizable, so I can see someone tailoring it better to career assessment and having a list of careers that fit each color. And it’s informal so a discussion can follow on how accurately it describes someone or where they feel it’s wrong.
A few years ago in a previous role, I also took this in a group setting. I cant say that I surprised at what it revealed, but rather I was finally able to agree or confirm with the results because it was solid proof. As you pointed out, it help me to self reflect, it helped me with my personal communiction style at work and wshowed me areas where It certainly helped me to improve personal communictiona leadershipe , positive
A few years ago in a previous role, I also took this in a group setting. I can’t say that I surprised at what it revealed, but rather I was finally able to agree or confirm with the results because it was solid proof. As you pointed out, it help me to self reflect, It helped me with my personal communication style at work and showed me areas where I could improve with regard to problem solving and leadership. ( Sorry for the previous comment that was entered in error)
I agree with your take on the True Colors assessment. With formal assessments, I think that a large aspect of an individual isn’t accounted for–primarily because formal assessments tend to have more pressure, be more exhaustive, focus solely on employment, etc. The way someone answers questions about employment interests, for instance, is significantly different from how they answer questions regarding their personal interests. I think that employing both informal and formal assessments allows us as professionals to gauge an individuals” likes and dislikes in their entirety, so that we can more accurately apply them to the workforce or employment choices overall. With that said, I think that the True Colors assessment does exactly that, in a low-stress casual manner it allows for clients to relay their personality traits and characteristics that can then be applied to employment and be used to narrow potential career paths or choices.
I feel True Colors is a great way to look at jobs from a wide range of fields and narrow down the type of work and work environment that customers might be interested in. On top of that, if it is administered in a group setting, it’s a great ice breaking exercise and gets people talking about their similarities as well as career paths that they are considering.
I am tasked with assisting designing a formal and informal assessment program for our customers I need to focus on our audience and group size. For the informal assessment I would suggest the My Vocational Situation. I like that it is basic paper and pencil questions that can be translated into other languages. It is not a long assessment and results are immediate. This informal assessment gives the participants a clear picture as to what they do and do not enjoy, occupational information, and barrier scales. This assessment can give people a self-awareness in different areas that they may not have been aware of and can help focus them on their next steps, whether it be training, school, or a career path. This is a level A assessment; anyone can administer it.
For a formal assessment I like the Holland Code. This assessment takes all aspects of a person into account such as, interests, jobs, and work personality environments. This assessment can be translated into other languages, so any person can partake in the assessment. The assessment uses a two or three letter code that provides information on the relationship between job personality and key characteristics. The Holland assessment takes between 5-10 minutes to complete, and you get your code after. This assessment can also be done in a group and can be discussed in smaller groups based on their outcomes. This assessment is completed online, and results given, so you do not have to be certified to give the exam, just make sure it is the correct website and your companies budget allows it.
I have no experience with My Vocational Situation assessment. Would love to try it. I also like paper and pencil assessments, old school. That its available in other languages, not long and provides immediate results is a huge plus. If you were to give in a different language, how does the translation occur? Is it accurate? Would love to hear your feedback!
I didn’t have a chance to do the full assessment myself since I am quite new to the Employment Services, But working mostly with people who doesn’t speak English I can definitely say that informal assessment might be very cool instrument to get them involved in culture and atmosphere of the country the moved to. Unfortunately there are not so many tools and techniques for non-English speakers but I guess using services of real person translation and informal assessments, like for example True Colors, would benefit a lot to build rapport, establish needs and goals and same time practice your helping skills. I would definitely be interested in providing translation for both informal and formal assessments.
I would use the Tests of Adult Basic Education (TABE). This formal assessment is a standardized test that measures the basic academic skills of adult learners, including reading, math, and language abilities. Incorporating TABE in a career assessment program can offer several benefits, such as identifying an individual’s strengths and weaknesses in fundamental academic skills required for many jobs, determining an appropriate career path based on an individual’s skill level, and guiding the development of customized training programs to improve academic skills. Additionally, TABE scores can help employers in hiring decisions, as they provide a standardized measure of an individual’s academic abilities. Ultimately, including TABE in a career assessment program can lead to better job matches, improved job performances, and higher career satisfaction for individuals.
I would also use the OCAT (Online CalWORKs Appraisal Tool) for an informal assessment. This online tool offers numerous benefits, including assessing an individual’s strengths, interests, and values, which can help guide them toward a career that is fulfilling and aligned with their goals. Also, it can identify any barriers or challenges individuals may face in achieving their goals and provides resources and support to help overcome these obstacles.
OCAT is a great tool that we currently use to not only learn many different things about our participants, but to also help mitigate any barriers they may have, just like you stated. I also believe that while completing the OCAT you can help break the ice as it is one of the first appointments with our participants. I’ve also learned that after completing the OCAT one can have a different understanding of the participant and certain details about their answers to the questions kind of tie it all together. In all, OCAT can be lengthy but the upside would definitely be the many different details we obtain about our participants. It is a great first steppingstone in learning about our participants and their situations, and how we can help them mitigate through their barriers to help them become more self-sufficient and employable adults.
I have yet to perform formal assessments however reading your description of both TABE and OCAT, I believe these will be useful tools to help career assessment. I think that being able to have these structured assessments with the clients and getting results from their unique and specific answers will help us better guide them to a more enjoyable career path. These assessments seem to help with identifying where the clients are currently at in their professional development stages and allows us to better assist them with finding success and even provide more resources that we believe may help.
We have been using TABE and soon we will be in training to use CASAS. I’m looking forward to testing it, because I know from experience, I can better put a client at ease as to what to expect.
I agree with you, Tannaz
I think it is a very good practice for us to use OCAT system so we can see the application of assessment instrument in real life. Even though it doesn’t look fancy and fun and is not a big excitement for our clients, but workwise it’s been an effective technique not even to find and establish somebody’s strengths and interest but also figure out all the barriers and obstacles on their way to self sufficiency and stability. I like the way it gives you extra little questions to remind about services we have to solve their problems before they can start working on their goals. Having read the students manual as well as feedback of my classmates, I find True Colors instrument very useful and same time entertaining for both parties. I guess it is very important to make the process of assessment easy, relaxing and proactive so clients can orient their resources and potential on their practical part of achieving their goal, that’s why I’d prefer informal assessments in case I am tasked to this kind of service.
When it comes to categories of Formal assessments, I’m intrigued by one which delves into the client’s career beliefs/thoughts/levels of decidedness-type of instruments such as Career Beliefs Inventory. This is one which utilizes Krumboltz’ Learning theory could be a great tool in a career counseling process. From my experience, a job loss, among other things, hits the person’s self-esteem and emotional well-being. In many ways, a loss of job brings an immense sense of failure, especially when a job is also one’s sense of identity, such as a physician, a lawyer, or a pastor. There’s a lot to sort out in terms of realistic and/or unrealistic expectations and assumptions when one suddenly is no longer a physician or lawyer.
In line with my choice of CBI inventory in the different formal assessment instruments, I would use the Structured Interview type in the Informal assessment categories. Every person has a story to tell, a unique story to be revealed and realized primarily by the person with the help of the counselor. Through a series of questions, the approach is to reveal underlying themes, strengths and weaknesses, life roles to discover life skills that may lead to a new career path. The obvious challenge for the counselor would be designing the questions and the analysis of themes for the specific client, especially a new counselor like myself. The aim is self-discovery on the part of the client through dialogue where the willingness to open one’s inner self is essential to the desired result of a sense of self, not limited to a job lead per se. The counselor would need to establish a professional relationship with the client based on trust and acceptance for this dialogue to succeed.
I find that sometimes during the assessment process things can get a little quiet between the participants and I. This can be caused by many reasons, either the participants are just by nature quieter, or we are in the process of completing a timed assessment that requires their full attention. From this, I have found the there are also a few assessments that can get the conversation going and that allows me to learn more about the person sitting right in front of me. One of those assessment is Holland’s Code – Personality Mosaic. We start out this assessment by attending “The Party”. At The Party there are six different groups: Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, and Conventional. Under each group there’s a brief description of that groups characteristics and once the participants have read all six, they choose their top three groups whom they believe they would “mesh” with at this social gathering. Afterwards, they answer a set of questions on the Personality Mosaic. From their answers, we obtain the top three groups and can compare these top three groups to the top three that they initially chose. It is always interesting to see what a participant will score, and if their chosen groups align with the groups derived from their answers. Although Holland’s Code is a personality assessment, it is very helpful in finding which careers most align with each personality based on their results, as Holland argues that “the choice of a vocation is an expression of personality”. After reviewing their results together, we read together the different combinations of each personality based on their results. I tend to find that once completing this assessment participants usually have a deeper understanding of their different personalities and how they can correlate with what they want to do with their careers and/or vocational training.
I agree; Holland Codes are a wonderful tool, even with the less talkative participants. I like the way that it can be used to build on itself (moving from the party to the personality mosaic) and can help individuals really consider how important their personality is when thinking about choosing a profession. Like you stated, it can also help to guide them in fields of study, if they haven’t reached their educational goal/want to go in a different direction. Over the years, I have had many participants ask why assessments such as these aren’t used in our school system to help younger people make choices in their lives. Another aspect of this assessment is that it can be a lot of fun for people in a group setting. With our (former) workshop classes, Holland Codes was always a fun day because it was another way to get the class to engage with each other and discuss their similarities (and differences). With a large enough class, after completing both the party and the mosaic, you can have them stand in groups in different parts of the classroom and discuss what they related to in their group. Some groups can get a little loud (Realistic), but it was a really good way to strengthen the group and build a positive learning environment.
I agree that assessments based on Holland Codes are really valuable for the insights they provide clients into themselves and also into careers that may be a good match for them. Personality Mosaic and the Party Game are nice because they are very straight forward. I personally prefer the O*Net Interest Profiler assessment for this because it comes with some built-in suggestions and information about careers that are compatible with the clients’ interests and provides a more nuance in the way clients can answer questions.
Kimberly, I agree with your preferences for both Formal and Informal assessments due to its simplicity and accuracy. When participants come in, the obvious reason would be to find another job, but these 2 assessments based on Holland’s theory of 6 personality types show a wider perspective for the participants in terms of which jobs fit their personality types they may not be aware of in the first place. Depending on how consistent a person’s codes are, the likelihood of job matching will be done sooner than later as the codes basically clarify interests before any job exploration or occupational options are initiated.
If I were to design a career assessment program, depending on the needs of my group, I would use both formal and informal assessments. I think that informal assessments can be used in the beginning of the career program to help ease the nerves of the clients and help them start thinking about the direction they are headed. This approach would be less intimidating from the beginning. This will also help direct the worker to which types of formal assessments might be best to help the client.
I have not yet administered a formal assessment but after an informal assessment, I feel that the O*Net Interest Profiler would be a great formal assessment to give clients. After doing it myself, I think this would be a useful tool. I think after reviewing informally what their interests are, measuring how much they like certain tasks and generating potential career choices will help them jump start their journey to career searching.
It is always important to be able to be flexible with the participants. I think we would gather a great deal of useful information from using a combination of both formal and informal assessments.
I like the idea of using informal assessments as a beginning step to both inform the client and the service provider of potential directions the client can take as well as a way to build trust and respect early in the working relationship. I also agree with using the results of informal assessments and that early relationship-building phase to help determine the most beneficial formal assessments.
My plan is to use Super’s Life Rainbow as a visual aid or touchstone to introduce assessments According to Super’s Life Rainbow, when we mature, we have different needs. Depending on their age, I would focus on a client’s strengths and interests. For students, their transferrable skills can be pulled out of the courses they enjoyed or excelled in; color-theory is an assessment that is fun and inclusive. The goal is to gain their trust because soon they will be asked to engage in formal assessments such as TABE or CASAS. For someone in their midlife who are parents and workers, I think Onet Interest Profiler might be more useful to this established worker. Having a discussion about their transferrable skills together can be illuminating the client. CareerScope would also be helpful for someone who wants a career change. Someone who is maintaining their lifestyle but needs career assistance, they might benefit from an interactive workshop like AARP Back-to-Work at 50+ workshops. In this workshop there is an exercise where they rid themselves of baggage that is no longer useful for them. The values inventory cards would provide them help focusing on how they want to spend what is left of their time as a worker. Providing an independent living assessment would be incredibly helpful to this aged population. Hopefully, what they have taken away from these assessments will be useful to them well into their sunset years…. Rainbows and sunsets, how nice!
I was intrigued to see the TABE in action and liked the experience. I am not a career service provider but can see where this would be a useful tool. Gaining the trust of our fellow mankind is a difficult task. Your ability to see where and to whom the various tools would assist is quite impressive, especially for the 50+ age group, and understanding what may or may not benefit them in a current career shift. I agree, rainbows and sunsets, are very nice!
One of the Assessments I use in my line of work is the OCAT (online Appraisal Too) Which assesses client’s barriers and gives us an idea of what they are going thorough or what they have gone through. It really helps us understand them a little more and helps us see what referrals we may be able to help them with. Another assessment I used is a CalWORKs Housing Support Allocation Housing Needs Assessment Questionnaire. This assessment helps us understand what led clients to their homeless situation and what barriers they may have regarding housing. These two assessments are the ones I use daily and help me understand clients’ needs, situation, and barriers.
If I had to design a career assessment program, I would use the interest inventory and Self-Directed Search. The days that we live in are changing vastly. Traditional work locations are ever-changing. Therefore, the mindset of our workforce must also change. The Self-Directed Search may assist clients in being able to see multiple job options that they may never have considered in the past. For instance, I am a seasoned Certified Safety and Health Official and last year obtained the CIT (Certified Instructional Trainer) through the BCSP. I never would have dreamed that I would be working in Workforce Development. I figured I would be destined to work on construction sites for the duration of my career. Now, I am assisting our workforce through career training and planning. The Self-Directed Search and interest inventory is used often in my daily discussions with my folks, and I am comfortable with using it.
I would use the O*Net Interest Profiler because it provides a lot of valuable insights and information considering how short and simple it is. When searching for a career path it is important that the type of work and work environment are a good match for the client’s personality. If the career is a good match, the client is more likely to have higher job satisfaction, motivation and perform better at their work.
I prefer the O*Net Interest Profiler over other assessments based on Holland codes because it is very comprehensive. It can assist with career exploration, decision making and education planning because in addition to giving the client their Holland Codes and an explanation of them it also informs them of specific careers that match their interest and gives a lot of information about requirements, compensation and the level of demand for that work. I also like how the clients can give more nuanced answers to the questions (strongly dislike, dislike, unsure, like, strongly like) rather than a simple binary yes or no used in other assessments like the Personality Mosaic.
I have used the O*NET Interest Profiler in a past position, and I have taken it myself. I agree with you it’s a much simpler assessment and easier to answer in the sense of I would see myself doing that job or I definitely would not do that job. The results are also easy to understand. Overall, this assessment is fairly simple and straightforward.
I like the way the Hollands Party is reliable and gets things moving in the right direction with the client and myself. I think I would stick to this assessment because when read appropriately we can infer quite a bit of information from it.
If I’m asked to design a career assessment program for my clients, I would focus on an informal method. My favorite is True Colors. True Colors offers a greater understanding of preference, motivation, and strengths within; it also helps identify the types of careers one is likely to excel in. This assessment is engaging. It gets the individual to potentially discover insights about their personality unknown to them. Ultimately, Colors introduces the best suited jobs for an individual based on their personality or perhaps confirms desired career goals and objectives. In comparison to another informal assessment, I’m familiar with, OCAT (Online CalWorks Appraisal Tool). With OCAT, we review demographics, and barriers. Although vital in identifying and assessing barriers, it can trigger sensitive emotions and hinder the outcome of the interview as this is likely our first interaction with the participant. However, in utilizing both assessments simultaneously, this can give us an ample overview or patterns, barriers, limitations, goals, and recommendations for a successful outcome for the participant.
I agree, often clients have never had their True Colors determined and this is a very useful tool in aligning work/team relationships. Veronica’s awareness of how clients can/do respond to this or any type of assessment is right on, so being able to realize when to use multiple types of informal/formal tools is crucial. Reading this blog and the others has been a valuable experience for me, providing some wonderful insight to other approaches to career advising.
I’ve also often thought about how personal the OCAT can be. While you are right, it does allow for us to identify potential barriers and provide referrals, I do agree it can feel very much so like an interrogation. It would be interesting if prior to the OCAT having something more interactive such as True Colors.
If I’m asked to If I was asked to help design a career assessment program for my customers, the formal assessment I would choose is the O*NET Interest Profiler. In my profession, there aren’t any formal assessments that we’ve taken or administered to my knowledge. I think I’m someone that very much values self-reflection, so interest and personality inventories are what seem the most interesting to me based on the readings. I took the O*NET Interest Profiler to get a better sense of my career interests and if my current profession falls in line with them. My top interests are artistic and social, which I think librarianship encompasses very well (although I looked up the interest code and it’s CSR…). Taking the assessment for myself made me realize how beneficial an assessment like this would be to someone who is feeling a little lost (during high school/college or post-college) or someone looking for a career change (wish I had taken this post undergrad!). I’d choose this career assessment because it’s a good starting point. And the possibilities of different interest codes are vast and varied. O*NET also includes information about how much education and training is needed for each career and has career profiles with a great overview that includes tasks, skills and work activities, requirements, characteristics, values and styles. The career profile even includes wage trends, job openings and related occupations. It’s a really great tool.
The informal assessment I would choose is the forced choice True Colors Assessment. I still remember the one time I took this assessment, I got Green and the facilitator made us create something out of legos with our “group” (there was only 1 other Green; everyone else was mostly Gold or Blue). We panicked and quickly made something. When the facilitator read out the kinds of things each group would most likely make, she got to Green and she said we would either make something elaborate (we did not…) or something outlandish (we made a one-eyed train conductor). It was a great icebreaker and group activity. I think it would be a great activity if we ever do a career-related program for teens. It’s pretty stress-free but is a good self-reflection tool. And it’s customizable too and lent itself well to a group discussion.
I agree with Clifton Strengths Assessment, the focus is on strengths not weaknesses. As part of onboarding staff were required to take this assessment. By knowing each others strengths we has a better understanding of each other and were able work in alignment with our strengths.
Designing a Career Assessment program is a great resource for customers. It’s a great way to learn and understand the best suitable options for a career. I think that the Career Assessment program should have a combination of both informal and formal assessments. I would for sure use the Clifton Strengths Assessment. This is an assessment that not only helps you to discover or uncover your top 5 strengths, but it also fosters more development in those top five strengths. Another great assessment that I would use is the True Colors Personality Test/Assessment. In a previous role this assessment was given during a one week in service to staff, and I really got a chance to learn more about my coworkers and also about myself. More importantly, I learned the WHY of certain decisions and situations. The True Colors Test suggest that we all fall within 4 color categories of our temperament, which are Blue, Yellow, Orange and Green. This assessment also discovers strengths and weaknesses. Both of these assessments again reveal strengths, and they both also look at traits that would best fit the culture of a workplace environment or help a customer in making the best career choice.
The Keywords/Competencies Checklist from this week’s reading, I actually really like, and would have that available for customers to use to identify their skills when job searching. I also think that having Mock Interviewing (informal) is another great way to increase customers confidence and also helps the employers with matching candidates.
Yes, I agree with using Clifton Strengths assessment. This assessment I think gives you a unique look into your strengths and weaknesses. I have taken this test myself and I was impressed to see what my strengths were. I have also taken the True colors assessment and found it to be pretty insightful as well. I fell into the blue and gold categories and felt that it described me quite accurately. I don’t typically use the True Colors assessment with my customers, but I may start implementing it in the future. Thanks for the great insight!
The concept of “assessment” can be intimidating for a client. My preference has always been to initially do some sort of “structured” interview, an informal assessment, presented in a seemingly free flow manner. No one wants to be interrogated. In doing this, I believe, the client will realize that I am concerned for them as a person which will allow us to develop rapport. By building this trust and confidence, the client will be more willing to allow me to help them find the career in which they will be most likely to succeed.
After we have established a relationship, introducing a formal assessment is easier. In our office, ofttimes Careerscope is used to target aptitude and interests in multiple occupations. it is a fairly easy to take and provides immediate results to both the client and the counselor. It also provides indication of the client’s General Learning Ability, Verbal and Numerical abilities, descriptions of many occupations and an order of client’s occupational preference priority.
Creating an assessment plan for everyone is extremely important to help you continue to provide the best guidance to your customers. I assign careerscope to my customers to assist with their interests and aptitudes assessment. This helps with creating either an educational plan or a career path. The strengths finder is also an assessment that is great. This assessment helps to describe what you are strong in and what you might need assistance with. The population that I work with typically has little or no work history. I find these two assessments to be helpful in uncovering and selecting future career paths for my customers.
If I were to help design a career assessment program for my customers, I would use a formal assessment. My assessment choice would be CareerScope. It works well with my customers, many who are unsure what career path they want to follow. This assessment measures interests and aptitudes, provides a thorough report that is quite easy to interpret. The assessment takes about an hour and is user friendly. Results are available immediately. CareerScope will provide an analysis of the customers Interests profile first and then highlight the areas that had an above average score. This will follow with a list of jobs for each area. In addition to that, the report will provide the vocational requirements for these jobs. The last part of the report provides a Table with job recommendations using the customers interests and aptitudes and categorized by most preferred to less.
Yes, I also agree with using CareerScope for clients. It is an excellent resource, and extremely helpful for clients who are starting out not knowing anything about what they would like to be. CareerScope finds their interests, and gives example of what jobs might interest the client. All while doing it fast and efficient.
In designing my career assessment program for customers, I start with an informal assessment. The initial appointment is an assessment, an open exchange of information thru carefully thought-out questions. By actively listening to the customer and not just rambling thru a list of questions I am able to get an understanding of what areas my customer needs assistance with and then determine what formal assessments may be needed.
The CareerScope is a formal assessment I often use. Our customers can access the CareerScope from home. This immediately puts them at ease. I have found this assessment to be very helpful since it indicates occupations the customer would be well suited for and a general learning aptitude. I have used the results to justify why I couldn’t support a customer’s training request for CDL Training, when the results of the CareerScope clearly pointed him to the medical field. When the results were reviewed, he explained the medical field is what he was passionate about, he received a scholarship for a Medical Assisting Certification. This assessment can be instrumental in career change.
I agree, while conducting an assessment being an active listener is key and builds rapport with the customer. I never used CareerScope but it sounds like it is a great tool for customers to use. I like how it provides possible occupations based on their results. I will definitely explore this assessment. Thank you!
I agree with Clifton Strengths Assessment, the focus is on strengths not weaknesses. As part of onboarding staff were required to take this assessment. By knowing each others strengths we has a better understanding of each other and were able work in alignment with our strengths.
I think that there is certainly a variety of methods/assessments a career development professional can utilize as a tool to gauge their clients’ employment interests. Personally, I would administer two assessments–one formal and one informal because by doing both you can gain a complete understanding of an individual and their interests based on their strengths, weaknesses, likes, and dislikes. With that said, if I was to design a career assessment program for customers, I would utilize both formal and information assessment methods. I would begin by conducting an informal assessment because it would allow for me to get a feel for the clients’ personality and interests in a low-pressure environment. I think that by having a loosely structured interview would prove beneficial in being able to gauge who the client is in their normal state before proceeding to formal assessments to connect who they are or could be in the workforce. That being said, I think starting off with a conversational interview would help me achieve this–though I will still ask relevant questions, I would do so in a natural/conversational manner, so that the client feels no pressure thus provides detailed and honest responses. This will assist me in determining what the client needs assistance on and how to provide that assistance. I do believe that formal assessments in conjunction with informal assessments can provide me with narrative of who I am talking to, what they need, and what would best suit them. After this informal interview, I would administer the Clifton Strengths Assessment. After completing the assessment myself, I felt that it was very accurate in terms of my strengths–not only this, but it provided details on what having those strengths meant, how to build on them, etc. Knowing these 5 strengths can also assist me in drafting ideas and pitching potential job leads or even just industries/careers that the client may be successful in or have interest in.
My first focus in a career assessment program would be discovering what my client is interested in. To do this I would make my client use CareerScope, a website that asks the client questions in order to measure their interest in different types of careers. This way I am sure my clients will find a training that will lead them to a career they genuinely enjoy woking in. Once my clients completes this step, they will take the Workkey assessment, an assessment that measures their knowledge of math and reading. Some trainings require a certain level of math or reading skills so knowing where the clients lie in this makes it easier to find a training program that fits them. With these two programs combined, I would have enough information to figure out what my client is best suited for. Lastly, I would use Onet to give them more information about the steps needed to reach their desired career. Onet displays everything the client needs to know about a career. It shows the knowledge it requires, the credentials, education, abilities, work values, work styles, and even job openings. These three resources would be the perfect combination on ensuring my client finds the career path meant for them.
I really like your suggestion of CareerScope because it measured interests in the distinct types of careers. This can be a great assessment tool to add to the repertoire we currently use as it can be embedded in their action plan. I have not used ONET but based on what you shared it is helpful to share with clients/youth the skills, credentials, education, abilities, etc. required to enter the careers of their interest. These two resources are excellent since they seem to build on each other.
In my position, I rarely do any assessments but there are two assessments I would use in a career assessment program. To better measure their strengths and potential career pathways I would choose an informal and formal assessment. I would start with the informal assessment to be relaxed and help the client explore their strengths as it allows you to build trust with the client. Once we establish rapport, I would consider using The Clifton Strength Finders. I would start with the Clifton Strength finders so they can discover and grasp what their natural talents are and maximize them in their pathway. I did the Clifton Strengths finder, and I was fascinated by the
You have been asked to help design a career assessment program for your customers. What are one or two assessments [formal or informal] you would use with your customers? Make one original post and then respond to one classmate’s post. You will make a total of two posts.
If tasked with designing a career assessment program for customers, I would utilize informal assessments. I would do so in reflecting on the clients I serve. Many of the participants that I work with do not have work history or have very minimal work history. Many can obtain jobs, but do not keep them for very long, reporting “it was not for me”, “if I knew it was going to be like that I wouldn’t have applied”, among other comments of the same nature. When specific jobs are provided, there is often discourse on how that is not for them because of a friends experience or other account. Informal assessments could provide them with the space to delve in to their interests/strengths/personality without feeling as though they are testing for their next job or being told what they should do.
Helping them identify aspects of themselves with the Holland Party Game , True Colors or other informal assessments then having a conversation about how these aspects can assist in finding a job that goes with these traits may feel less daunting and more like a choice they are making based on their needs.
Post 1
I work with young adults ages 15-25. Most of the youth we serve are in high school and have never had a job. A few have had short-term (a few weeks) fast-food employment with very little success. The Informal Interview, administered by staff or mentor, allow us to help students become comfortable and understand how interested we are in them and their employment success. It also allows open questions that can follow interesting responses and gives us more insight into the best choices. The Holland Party Game could follow when meeting in a large group as a fun icebreaker providing students with more awareness of their personality and job possibilities.
Response to:
kbarrettsays:
February 21, 2023 at 5:04 pm
I have no experience with My Vocational Situation assessment. Would love to try it. I also like paper and pencil assessments, old school. That its available in other languages, not long and provides immediate results is a huge plus. If you were to give in a different language, how does the translation occur? Is it accurate? Would love to hear your feedback!
Post 2 – Response
If you need to gain experience with My Vocational Situation assessment, I suggest you find and offer an assessment that you have training and experience in so your clients get the best experience from you possible. Pay attention to what works best for your client. If you have clients that need other languages and you are unable to accommodate them, it’s best to ask your supervisor if someone else can provide the assessment. We always want the client to be as comfortable as possible for the best results.
Hello Jayne, I like the approach of a more conversational approach to an informal assessment. I think that this approach definitely leaves more open ended questions and opportunity for the client to talk more about themselves and feel a more personal approach. This is probably one of the best approaches for your young clients because it probably feels like its less intimidating for them.
Post 1
I work with young adults ages 15-25. Most of the youth we serve are in high school and have never had a job. A few have had short-term (a few weeks) fast-food employment with very little success. The Informal Interview, administered by staff or mentor, allow us to help students become comfortable and understand how interested we are in them and their employment success. It also allows open questions that can follow interesting responses and gives us more insight into the best choices. The Holland Party Game could follow when meeting in a large group as a fun icebreaker providing students with more awareness of their personality and job possibilities.
Response to:
kbarrettsays:
February 21, 2023 at 5:04 pm
I have no experience with My Vocational Situation assessment. Would love to try it. I also like paper and pencil assessments, old school. That its available in other languages, not long and provides immediate results is a huge plus. If you were to give in a different language, how does the translation occur? Is it accurate? Would love to hear your feedback!
Post 2 Response
If you need to gain experience with My Vocational Situation assessment, I suggest you find and offer an assessment that you have training and experience in so your clients get the best experience from you possible. Pay attention to what works best for your client. If you have clients that need other languages and you are unable to accommodate them, it’s best to ask your supervisor if someone else can provide the assessment. We always want the client to be as comfortable as possible for the best results.
I am new to this role but have received suggestions on the type of career exploration assessments we can utilize when working with youth.
The recommended assessments are a combination of informal and formal assessments, it is a total of three. The first one that I would use is the informal assessment called Career Cluster Interest Survey. This assessment is completed by the youth in their own time before our first meeting. It consists of checking off boxes that best describe them and it includes questions about activities they like to do, personal qualities, and school subjects they like. Moreover, the second assessment would be a combination of informal/formal assessments (according to my opinion) called VIA Character Strengths Profile – Youth Report. This will populate a strengths profile with definitions that will help them contextualize their best qualities. The last assessment, which I believe is more formal, is called the YouScience Career Assessment. This is a more in-depth assessment that builds on the previous one and includes exercises to help determine natural aptitudes/abilities. After completing all these assessments, we will then dive into developing an education/training plan.
If asked to help design a career assessment, I would start by assigning an informal assessment like Colors or Strength Finders. Starting with these types of assessments that provide results based on your personality with an explanation of what your personality likes or dislikes engages the client to participate. Colors or Strengths Finders could also be a great ice breaker in a group setting as participants can be curious to know whose results are like theirs. It is also a great way to transition into a more intense formal assessment where you are graded on what you know. Formal assessments such as CASAS or WRAT score on your knowledge and are generally not appealing and results are often kept confidential by the participants which are why I would assign them last.
If tasked to come up with an informal assessment I would make a questionnaire for clients that asked them questions about their personality and ideal working conditions. I would make this an open ended question type of questionnaire so clients can elaborate their answers and provide more information about themselves. My formal questionnaire would be something similar to Career Scope and would focus on likes and dislikes when it comes to occupational interests. I would make this a two part questionnaire because I think it is also important to assess a client’s educational scores to make sure they are up to the scores required for the occupation. For the second part I would use an assessment like Work Keys that measures their math and reading levels as well as their ability to understand workplace documents. I think these assessments are important because they let us know if a client is able to read the documents that they might be presented with at the workplace.
A career assessment program for customers, if I were the one designing it, would start with an informal assessment that provides limited structure and instead generates conversation, allowing the career services provider to apply their listening and attending skills to help a client assess their current situation and identify some strengths and goals to start them on a path to seek successful employment. I think walking a client through the Life Career Rainbow would be useful in this capacity. I’d follow that up with the more formal O*NET as it is well-known, widely accessible, and provides results that are easily understood by the client and the career services provider helping the client make some career choices.
If asked to design a career assessment program for my customers, I would prefer to incorporate informal assessments. While formal assessments can provide specific and numerical data that can be compared to similar populations that we serve, I believe informal assessments are more appealing to the clients that we serve at this time who have minimal work experience and lack confidence of their personal strengths. An informal assessment that I personally enjoy, is the forced choice True Colors assessment, which is designed to uncover key social information about yourself and others. True Colors is made of Four Personality Groups (Gold, Blue, Orange, and Green. True Colors is a tool to help identity an individual’s own personality traits and helps individuals understand how different personality types best interact with each other so that collaboration and effective communication can be achieved in a career setting. After completing the assessment customers are provided with a list of career types that are recommended and good fits for their personality types. This informal assessment can seem fun to most costumers and helps costumers feel less intimidated compared to formal assessments where they are tested on their knowledge.