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.
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You are cool!
The assessment (formal) I would utilize with my customers is standardized. As a facilitator my customers are required to take a computerized career assessment ‘Match Your Work Interests” via MWE (Maryland Workforce Exchange). Completing this assessment allows the customer to be able to identify their interest and match them to careers. They are then score based on three or more of the following personality types: Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, and Conventional. In addition, once this score is generated, they are made known how to take their highest score and enter this information via O’Netonline to get a listing of occupations tailored to their personality as well.
Hi Caroletta, I’ve utilized this assessment as well and it is similar to the CareerOneStop Work Values Matcher. However, it narrows down the customer’s job interests and personality which are very relevant in searching for work as well. I feel that personalities and values go hand in hand. In my opinion, you really can’t separate the two. In fact, I also feel it plays a huge role in how the customer will perform on that job as well as influence their behavior and others at the workplace, Just my thoughts!
I like the idea of matching interest to the employment field. While it is great to make money, if you hate your job – it can be really difficult to keep motivated in a field long term if you are not a good match. Matching ones’ personality is also a quality factor in an assessment.
Great response caroletta.ryans I couldn’t agree more. This sounds like what we use at our center on CalJobs. We have each participant complete 3 assessments when they first enroll. These would be Match Your Skills, Match Your Work Values, and lastly Match Your Work Interests. Once completed we set up our next appointment and I review their results with them. I explain the importance/relevance of the assessments and we explore together how these help to identify careers based on their specific interest and values. This seems to be a great starting point to get each participant really thinking about what it is that they want to peruse. At times it confirms the direction that they feel was going to be a good fit for them and others, it is a beginning to exploring new options because what they thought may have been the best career choice may not be the best fit after they’ve done some research about the industry/job. What I think is the most important, it is teaching them how use these tools, do the research on industry/training and apply it to them specifically. They are empowering themselves to think for themselves and use Labor Market Information. We even go further and use ONET as you also mentioned, to search specific careers to see if their skills, interests align with the industry etc.
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.
The two assessments I would use to design a career assessment program for my customers would be Interest inventories and skills inventories. Both of these instruments are formal assessments. As a reemployment facilitator my job is to provide my customers with tools and resources to get them back into the workforce as quickly as possible. Besides providing this information, I believe it is important for customers to recognize their skills and interests. This will assist them in finding a career that is satisfying for them. It is the formal assessments that I have selected that will assist customers in determining the best career path for them to take.
As I examine the interest inventory assessment I recommend and go over O*Net Online in my workshops. By using this assessment customers are able to incorporate things they like doing and find jobs that match their interests. The skills inventory tool can also be used to identify skills that a customer does not know about, which in turn would help them in looking for and finding their ideal position. This assessment also identifies important factors like interviewing and having a good resume. It is essential for a customer to recognize these two items, by practicing interviewing and having a resume critique. Each of these services is available to my customers per their request.
Great, Idea Tracy, I also. agree with you. I think it is extremely important for a customer to know the skills they need to move to the opportunity they are seeking. Where you able to find good skills assessment, the ones, I found were the Indeed Skill Assessment. I find that Indeed does an amazing job having a various amount of assessments as simple as an assessment in Attention to Detailed and as complex as level in Language such as expertise in Spanish. I myself, have tried many of them and I enjoyed getting to know how proficient I am or expert I am in some of the skills assessment I was able to complete.
Caroletta.ryans, I agree with your selection of using a formal assessment. I think it is extremely important to get customers to recognize their skills. The use of determining their personality type is good because it is scored and the highest score is used in O*NetOnline. By doing this they are able to find positions that match their interests. It also allows them to find a career that is going to make them happy and complete.
I’ve used this assessment for almost a decade with my students and it seems to be accurate in what they’re interested in doing. It’s interesting to see their reaction to their personality traits matching with their career interests, and comparing it to jobs that they might’ve had in the past. It also helps them realize the kind of education they’ll need for these particular occupations and what steps they would need to take to pursue that career.
I love the idea of the score based on the different types of personality types, to identify their interests. Definitely is another way that scoring can be used, based on the individual and the individual needs . This would be something that I could use in my workplace! Great Job!
Caroletta, I use this assessment as well as an option for my RESEA participants. This tool helps them to gain some direction. They answer simple, basic questions and the results give the customer a better idea of the interest, their personality and some find the results to be a little surprising because the customer learn something about themselves they never knew or they never realized. This has been a great tool for those seeking a career path.
Hi Carletta, if you look at my post you will notice that I utilize the same formal assessment (Onet Profiler) that you do. The benefit to the client is that it is so precise because they are answering the questions based on them knowing themselves and it’s not intimidating to them. So, when they see the category that they fall under, it is not a shock to them. I always advised them to search under the category for which they have fallen for career opportunities because the goal is to be happy in whatever career you are in and paid well for it!
AGILE Work Profiler – DeBruce Foundation – Formal Assessment
Why do I like this?
1. FREE
2. Easy to Use
3. Limited Time Involved – 15-30 minutes
4. 24 Targeted work activities (60 questions) that include examples so customer is clear what types of work are being referred to.
5. Asks in a separate response how much you enjoy an activity, not just whether you are competent at the activity. This is important because a person may be competent at completing an activity but not necessarily happy about doing it.
Example:
How good are you at creating or maintaining information technology tools and materials?
(Example: writing software/apps, fixing or testing computer hardware) *
How much do you enjoy creating or maintaining information technology tools and materials?
(Example: writing software/apps, fixing or testing computer hardware) *
6. Ranks your agilities 1-10,provides short video that gives a definition and provides key words to use on your resume
7. Career Explorer Offerings
a. Agilities Job Decoder – pick an occupation and see how it compares to your top 3 agilities. Provides detailed work activities and alternate related job titles.
b. Agilities Occupation Explorer – provides specific descriptions, income and education info.
c. Agilities Opportunity Explorer – Market demand information.
d. Agilities Comparison – Compare 3 occupations, income and education side by side.
e. Education Explorer – Search for education programs
It is my opinion that this assessment tool offers better and more comprehensive career exploration activities than the assessment tool provided through ONET. I really enjoyed completing the assessment and have added it to my slide deck for RESEA presentations as an alternative assessment to ONET. I think it is a valuable tool to assist participants in thinking outside the box and recognizing their transferrable skills.
Two of your reasons for liking this assessment, I believe, are most important! Having a short enough assessment to keep the customer’s attention and answer truthfully, rather than click through the assessment to just complete it, is overlooked most often. In addition, I like that you pointed out that the responses require the customer to identify whether they enjoy the activity, not just their competence in the activity. I’m fully capable to fold my laundry, but I do not enjoy it! Customers should be assessed for skills and interests – can’t wait to look into this assessment more!
I couldn’t agree more about the doing it well v’s actually liking to do it! One of the questions on ONET asks if you would like to lay tile. I can lay tile and do it fairly well but I hate doing it! LOL
Having taken this workshop with you, I agree this is a great assessment as well and felt it hit the mark on myself as well as customers! It wasn’t overwhelming for the customers, easy to use and they are able to navigate the results and utilize the results to update their resumes. Great choice in assessment!
I absolutely loved using this tool as well! It’s easy to navigate and very thorough tool as well. I love that it ask whether you enjoy the tool not just if you are good at it. As we all know just cause we are good at something doesn’t mean this is something we want a job doing. So Awesome!
I think it is a great option too. I have found that some of the Holland assessments, like the one available through O*Net/My Next Move (onetonline.org) give results that are too narrow for clients to use. My biggest criticism about the Holland assessments is that based on interests it may limit occupations to just 2 or 3 industries, some of the options don’t match with the job availability in our local labor market and some options require more time and money invested in training than our clients can afford. It almost seems like we are sending clients on a wild goose chase. Still, I offer it for clients to explore on their own for a fun “personality assessment” to explore new career options they may not have considered before.
I would use both the CareerOneStop Work Values Matcher and the CareerOneStop Skills Matcher with my customers.
The CareerOneStop Work Values Matcher is an informal example of a card sort assessment. This assessment presents 20 statements to the test taker, and they must rank them according to their interests to discover what their dream job may be. After they have ranked them, they will find out what work values are more important to them. This is very helpful because the results of the assessment will allow them to make better choices about where they want to work and what types of people they’d rather work around in the workplace.
The CareerOneStop Skills Matcher shows the test taker 40 skills and prompts them to select their level of performance on each of them. After they have completed this, a listing of careers that match their selected level/rankings they submitted will be shown.
This is also a great way for them to narrow down what types of careers field they may want to explore based on their skill level.
In conclusion, I feel that both the formal and informal assessments really help those folks who are trying to obtain traction on a career path where they are a good fit and enjoy what they’ve chosen at the same time.
Two different assessments I would utilize for my customers are the Objective Assessment created and implemented within our state system, Maryland Workforce Exchange (MWE) and the MAPP Career Assessment. The MWE Objective Assessment asks customers questions regarding barriers (criminal charges, English Language Learner), specific needs (transportation, childcare), employment history, employment expectations (shift availability/preference, commute distance, salary expectations) and what the customer expects to gain from the program in which they are being enrolled. The MWE Objective Assessment encompasses all aspects of the customer’s employment requirements and clearly defines resources or action steps needed to reach their goals. To gauge a customer’s aptitudes and career interests, I would utilize the Motivational Appraisal Personal Potential (MAPP) Career Assessment. This is a free, online assessment tool for young adults or students that assists in matching their interests identified within the assessment profile to possible occupations. This is done by rating, out of three items, which the individual would prefer most and prefer least to accomplish – over the course of seventy-one scenarios. I believe both assessments are necessary to capture the entire individual. WIOA and local programming in Prince George’s County, Maryland provides more services than just employment, and by capturing both ends of the career assessment spectrum, we can serve the whole individual.
I am excited to learn more about the Motivational Appraisal Personal Potential (MAPP) Career Assessment! I like the idea of giving a choice of three activities and ranking them for preference. That is a different way to approach an interest assessment and I am going to try it with my young adult participants. This is great to see what everybody is using in our group, lots of ideas to investigate!
It seems as though Maryland has a number of assessments which are available to job seekers at various levels of education or employment. I am interested to learn more at the MAPP Career Assessment. Even being in another state, it’s a great practice to have alternative methods or resources to offer job seekers. Not every assessment is going to fit like a puzzle piece to each individual. I’ll definitely spend time researching the MAPP Assessment.
Thank you for providing the information regarding Motivational Appraisal Personal Potential (MAPP) Career Assessment. I had not tried it prior to your posting and was surprised by the outcome of my results. It gave me ideas on how to utilize my interests and transferrable skills. This is definitely a tool that I will recommend customers to complete.
I would utilize an informal assessment for my first one. Getting to know the customer using a strength-based approach. This would be accomplished by asking questions that focus on their strengths and what positives they bring the table. The 2nd assessment would be a technological based assessment like the Northstar. This would give me an idea of where the Customer stands in relation to technology, which is so important in today’s employment.
Hello Heidi, I totally agree that technology is very important in today’s employment. Having a technological based assessment to measure customers computer competencies is beneficial. As a facilitator this could be useful in determining areas they may need assistance. I am interested in learning more about the Northstar. This would be a great tool to add to my workshop.
It appears that I have similar preferences to a few others that have posted, meaning that I would also use a standardized assessment (formal). This is what we use at our center on CalJobs. I have each participant complete 3 assessments when they first enroll. These are Match Your Skills, Match Your Work Values, and lastly Match Your Work Interests. This may be because I am comfortable with them and explaining them to participants. But, I do believe that these standardized assessments gather the information needed to help determine/ or guide participants to the next step. Once completed, we set up our next appointment and I review their results with them explaining in detail the process. I explain the importance/relevance of the assessments and we explore together how these help to identify careers based on their specific interest and values. We follow through and discuss results which empowers them to make decisions about possible occupations and jobs. We continue to explore further by discussing some Labor Market Information and possibly enrolling them to attend the Labor Market Workshop. This seems to be a great starting point to get each participant really thinking about what it is that they want to peruse. Overall, I believe informal or formal an assessment can be a very helpful tool when administered correctly and with a purpose. As the saying goes, “there is more than one way to skin a cat.” But, I think the most important thing is that their is a purpose behind it. That is is not just administered to check off a box. Whoever is administering the assessment themselves really understands the assessment and the value of it so that it can be relayed to the participant. Lastly, the participant leaves having gained the knowledge, or ideas to get them thinking about their future career.
While there are many online “formal” career assessments, when working one-on-one, and because of the many factors, backgrounds, maybe even cultural barriers or physiological needs, (lets face it, all types of people come through our door) so I tend to like the good old fashioned one-on-one case management assessment, combined with helping skills and asking open ended questions, gaining the trust and hopefully finding their interests and career desires as well. It’s not fancy, it’s not techy, just simple. I do believe both form and informal can work, I think it depends on the customer, the situation and what environment you are in group vs. one-on-one. Either way the end goal is to assist in helping them explore their potential.
Sandra, I agree that this informal one-on-one way of interviewing the customer is very effective and definitely helps with building trust, relationship, and rapport with the customer. It also makes the customer feel less nervous than the formal tests and allows the customer to be authentic with their career interest and desires within the process.
Great thinking!
Sandra, I agree with you with with your idea of an informal one-on-one. I Love the idea! I strongly see that every person has their own personal factors and backgrounds and barriers. I see this as it being effective as you can give the one-on-one assessment. This will give the client a more of a personal coaching. Great to build that relationship and as well as that rapport 🙂 great idea.
Hi Sandra. I agree with you in that using the informal 1-1 case management assessment can be a great tool to learn and assess a client. There are times the clients we work with can feel overwhelmed with too many assessments or there could be other barriers that do not provide a true assessment. As you mentioned when possible using both informal and formal assessments can work.
I have loved and am an advocate for using the informal interest assessments given through Career One Stop and My Next Move that are based on Hollands Theory. A lot of times I work with people that are confused about what they want to do, they just know that they do not want to go back to doing what they used to do. I find that having clients do an informal interest assessment first gives them an idea on where to start researching possible future careers. I have found that clients who know where their interest lie and pursue a career in those categories find themselves much happier at work. I’ve done this myself after several years of working in one career and finding myself unhappy and stuck looking for a new road to travel. The interest assessments helped me to clarify a new path and mission.
I strongly agree Anvenette, that informal assessments play such a key role in supporting clients who are unsure of what they want to pursue. Being able to see results on a screen that can either surprise someone, or maybe validates what someone was already thinking, is a breath of fresh air and makes them feel like they have a “partner” in their decision. And of course, that happiness or internal motivation like you mention can be more easily found when it is in a career area that interests and challenges them.
A formal assessment that would be used with my customer would be the work interest inventory (Found in Maryland Workforce Exchange) to help determine the customer’s career interest. This may help me to understand or measure the customer’s true interest in the program and help to determine if the customer would be successful in the career by way of their coding (Holland’s code), if so, then more than likely the customer can be successful in the program.
Another formal assessment that I would give to the customer would be a TABE or ProveIT assessment. Both tests can be taken online and would help with measuring the customer’s skills gap.
For TABE it will be a timed assessment that will help with understanding the customer’s reading and comprehension level.
For the ProveIT assessment is also timed (times vary) and would help both the client and I in understanding the customer’s knowledge AND skills gap within the industry they are interested in.
Both tests are great effective tools to support the customer with Career Planning.
One of the assessments I would like to incorporate as career coach to my customers is a skills assessment. After a customer completes the O’net/ CalJobs Career Assessments, many are left wondering if they have the skills to go into a new career path. Utilizing skills assessment can help the customer build a profile of the skills they have such as scheduling, customer services and language. After completing the skills assessment a score is provided, familiar, proficient, highly proficient and expert making this type of assessment a formal assessment, The customer and career coach get to evaluate their skills and help utilize the skills to build an effective resume. Along with evaluating their skills assessment, it can help the customer gain skills if the customer is seeking a new opportunity.
A great informal assessment, I would like to utilize is a Financial Assessment, I believe is important for any customer to know their expenses, debt and income in perspective. It helps create a good time frame for how long the customer has to attain his/her next job or if choosing to go to school, what expense might go up and required support might the customer need to attain help to better meet his/her career goal. A financial assessment can be utilized to really set a perspective of a wage the customer needs to have his/her basic needs met.
I really like the idea of utilizing a financial assessment with customers. I can see how this would be very useful to understand the client’s financial picture to both assist with helping them develop an employment and training plan but also to project supportive service needs.
I agree with you to have customer complete a Skills Assessments after they complete for example a Personality Assessment. I think once the Skills Assessment is incorporated, the clients will be able to determine if they have the skills needed to begin new projects or to go into the specific career they have in mind. In addition, it will help the client identify the skills they need to develop their career.
I was taught to utilize the O*Net interest assessment and TABE for every client I enrolled; however, I learned over time that these assessments are not appropriate for every client. If I were to design a career assessment program, I would include an interest assessment, an ability test, and a work value inventory and only use the assessment(s) that apply to each client.
I would include the O*Net interest assessment and only utilize it for clients who are looking for a career change or who have not yet found a career pathway and who do not know what direction to take. I do find this assessment useful for helping clients figure out the general career paths they have an interest in pursuing and I like the additional career exploration tools that can be used to help the client drill down even more such as the information on whether an occupation is projected to be in demand over time and how much money a person can expect to make in that occupation. In Arizona, there is an ability test like Work Keys that I would include in the skills assessment program. It’s another assessment that is free and it assesses abilities that are directly connected to the world of work such as reading for information and applied math. It also has a soft skills assessment that can help guide a client to appropriate soft skills workshops. The assessment includes a crosswalk that shows which scores on the hard skill assessments a client needs to attain to be successful in each occupation. This is very useful in determining whether a client is prepared to enter their chosen training program or even succeed in an on-the-job training. Recently I have come to appreciate the importance of value inventories in guiding a client to occupations that they will not only succeed in but enjoy. I feel these take interest assessments to the next level and would include the Life Values Inventory in a career assessment program.
I would like to use and incorporate a Skills Inventory Assessment with customers as it will help the clients identify some skills they may not be aware of. By doing this, the customers will be able to develop new skills to go into their new career or begin new projects.
In addition, I would add a Personality Assessment; such as Traitify which provides a powerful profile on individual’s work-related behavior. It measures Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Emotional stability. With the Personality Assessment being completed by clients, the clients will be able to understand and select their preference in a work setting, identify if they will be able to perform their job duties, if they will be a good team member and a positive addition to the company culture.
It is my belief that an interest/inventories assessment is first needed to gauge the job seeker’s overall understanding of their own personality type. As a job seeker, I could initially feel that I am strong in being creative or even in taking a realistic approach to group projects; when in reality, I might closely align with more social or enterprising personality types. Discovering my personality type is beneficial in recognizing how I might get along with others. Following an informal assessment, it is important to gauge one’s skills and abilities. Drawing from other’s experiences, the two formal assessments that are most commonly used in my region are TABE and CASAS. Prove It is also used, but usually as either a supplement to the first two mentioned, or as may be requested by a particular employer.
As a fairly new Case Manager I have only been using a skills assessment through cal jobs as well as ONET. Skills assessment through cal jobs; better known as objective assessment lets me see the client in a different perspective and as well as evaluate their barriers. I believe this has allowed me to get to know the clients better and help them with their individualized needs. However the skill assessment I would like to incorporate with clients would be a Desire of interest/ Motivational assessment through CareerFitter, which will help identify careers or jobs that might appeal to the client’s needs. Sometimes what I see in clients, is they lack motivation and or desire. Some come to us and would like us to just place them and pick something for them as if we are a job placement agency without realizing that this is their life and they need to find themselves first. This assessment will help organize the clients thoughts and desires. It will also identify any weaknesses and additionally will show you insight into their work personality to better generate an idea of the career/job they would better fit in.
In my experience working with English Language Learner populations as well as individuals who recently have moved to the U.S., is that many common assessments are not appropriate based on vocabulary and cultural experience. Keeping this population in mind, I would use a card sort assessment that emphasizes the use of plain language and pictures to assist in understanding. Facilitated either in small groups on one-on-one, this activity not only helps a participant learn more about what their own values are, but it also is a great way for a practitioner to learn about a client. You can stop at any point and have a larger discussion to try and understand why they sorted a card the way they did. Although formal assessments can be important, and are sometimes required for specific funding streams, informal assessments can be more effective in creating understanding for both the individual and practitioner on next steps based on results.
As a workforce career coach I would have an assessment that would ask questions about the training goals of the participant. One of the questions that would be apart of the assessment would be “What would it is your training goal?’ Meaning what are you looking for towards your future. One of the assessments that we offer is an objective assessment which helps to receive more information about the individual and also what are some of the goals you want to complete before taking the next step. Some may need help trying to figure out the next step in their lives. My goal is to ensure that the individual will have the appropriate resources to get to where they want to be. Some have a training goal to complete school, some may want to find a better job, some just want to get their foot in the door to get back into working again. Since the pandemic, a lot of people have been discouraged about their goals, and some need guidance to get accustomed to working.
Like many of us who work for the Maryland Department of Labor, I too use the Maryland Workforce Exchange website and I have the customer complete a Job Skills Assessment and I will also show them the Personal Skills Assessment tool. Both tools are free, they ask simple, basic and easy to comprehend questions and the produce results for the client. I also try to get to know my customer, I ask them what their interest area, what careers have they had in the past, what job did they like the most and why, what job did they like the least and why. If they are seeking a career change, I ask what they are interested in, do they have an experience in the work they area seeking or will they need training, what about this field interest them. I try to encourage the customer to think and if they need experience or training, I may make a referral to a partner program or offer some guidance to get the training needed. I want my customers to be successful in their career journey.
I like assesment tolls that are at no additional cost to the customer. Looking for a new career for most people is unplanned and stressful. A recommendation to take on more cost could be viewed as rather uncaring.
Andrea, I like to utilize these assessments with my customers at our AJC as well. Customers definitely appreciate the fact that they are free, simple to use and easily accessible through the Maryland Workforce Exchange.
Thank you for that insight Crystal! I also use the interest profiler in career one stop and own it. I like this as well, because as you said it is free and that it is easy to access. I also use in conjunction with this in the labor market information. And I do see that you mentioned also the bright outlook, so that they can see what careers are in more demand. I feel as you do that this is a very good way to see what a day in the life of that job would be without actually being there.
I have heard of many skills assessments online but I haven’t personally utilized them myself with clients. I do like the idea of it because it can help an individual identify their soft and technical skills and what kind of jobs they can relate them too. However, it may not work for everyone depending on their background, barriers, if their tech-savvy, etc. I like a 1 on 1 because its more personal and it helps build the relationship because the clients feel more comfortable. You can ask a lot of different questions to help them find their strengths as well as determining their career goal.
An assessment tool that I utilize to assist customers is the O*Net Interest Profiler. Based on Holland’s RIASEC, this tool covers cognitive, interpersonal, and physical skill requirements. It enhances the self knowledge and career awareness of those who are thinking of changing careers, understanding how their skills can be transferrable and utilized in other career paths, and solidifying career choices. I think the information is easy to read and comprehend. I appreciate that users can click on a career field and review labor market information.
The second assessment tool I typically use to assist customers is the Traitify assessment. It is a personality assessment that is quick and easy to take and consists of the use of pictures, a user is shown a picture and is able to select me or not me. At the end of the assessment, users are able to see how their personality is broken down by percentage in categories such as mentor, analyzer, planner, visionary, inventor, naturalist, and action taker. Career suggestions are ranked and you are able to review labor market information and job search.
The assessment tool I use and have as a go to option is the O net interest profiler. It is based on Hollands RIASEC. How a person thinks, there ability to interact with other folks and their physical traits and abilities are inserted into the profile tool.
I also at times use the MWE job skill assessment.. It is free and gives feedback. The feed back is unbiased and concrete.
The Career Assessment Design model that I would implement for adult customers would utilize formal and informal assessments. The formal assessments would capture skills, interest inventory, and values. Each of these are important when coaching a client in a career pathway. Upon completion of the 3 formal assessments there will be an informal 1-1 meeting with the client to discuss the assessment results and discuss career planning. As much information as a formal assessment will give a 1-1 informal interview can provide very important details about the client. It is important to ask open ended questions and allow the client time to answer questions. This may require more than one 1-1 session with the client.
Although mentioned before, I prefer using the Agile Work Profiler https://agilities.org/tools-resources/agile-work-profiler/ . It can take as little as 10 minutes to complete the assessment which measures both interests and abilities. In our center we are often working with individuals who are forced to use our services to continue to receive unemployment benefits. They are required to spend 4 to 8 hours with us throughout the unemployment process depending on the program they are assigned to. We convince many that our free services are of great value toward becoming reemployed within work they would like to perform. For those that we can convince to engage, the shorter assessments seem that provide a plethora of useful information seem to be the best. This Agile Work Profiler was introduced to us through Suja Joseph, Director of Reemployment Programs and a workshop called Draw Your Future With Agilities. ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVcndYrHx-k ) Each of the agilities are used skills and interests needed while performing all occupations and each can be further developed to help the client become better able to handle the transition to a new position or place of work. It is broad enough that we can focus our efforts on positions available in our labor market but specific enough to find areas to develop to become more successful in obtaining the desired employment. Sometime in the hopefully near future we plan to design a workshop based on this.
I have shared and utilized the formal approach with my clients via My Next Move that leads them to The O*NET Interest Profiler when they are unsure of what they want to do because they are just embarking upon a new career path and/or transitioning from one career to another. As you well know, this helps clients discover the type of work activities and occupations that they would like and find exciting.
By reading chapter 4, I see The RIASEC code is the basis for much of what Holland talks about in his theory.
Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, and Conventional.
Based on the clients higher score and their personality trait, the client is now able to match their career search to who they are internally meeting their passion.
The assessment I use is the O*net Assessment called My Next Move. This assessment helps clients that are unsure what area they want go into for a job or school. This tool is for job seekers and students learn more about there career options. Users can find careers through keyword search; by browsing industries that employ different types of workers; or through the O*NET Interest Profiler, a tool that offers personalized career suggestions based on a person’s interests and level of work experience. While O*NET offers a wide range of search options and career reports, My Next Move is a streamlined application with key O*NET information for job seekers. The guided approach helps career explorers find the information they need without being overwhelmed.
Right on Kristina! I forgot about the O*Net Resource Center. Did you know there’s a Spanish-Language version too? I’ve noticed the students really enjoying the resource center as they explore training options. If you work with employers then so far I’ve received positive feedback when there is a need to build accurate job descriptions and/or identify important elements of a job. Last week, an employer shared they are using O*NET as a tool for choosing training materials.
We selected the O*NET Interest Profiler as a starting point for AJCC customers who are unsure, ready for a career change, and/or wanting to entertain alternative career options. O*Net online is an interactive application for exploring and searching occupations with career exploration tools to enhance their self-awareness. The online test will help the design team as a tool to guide, coach, and engage in conversations related the users interests, skills and abilities when exploring their career choices. The results are easy to interpret and users can take their search a step further to review labor market information.
Wow Elizabeth, I totally forgot about the review of the labor market information. But I agree with you when say O*net online is an interactive application for exploring and searching occupations with career exploration.
I would like to use the Interest Assessment from the careeronestop sight while working with customers. I would chose this one because it a free, online assessment that is easily accessible, can be done quickly without adding pressure to the job seeker. I like this one because the questions can be answered without a great deal of thought and the results are immediate. Once the results are generated, job seekers can then explore the suggested job opportunities. The main page lists the job types as well as if they have a bright outlook. Once someone selects an occupation from the list, they will be able to take a deeper dive into the career. Salaries, education, experience, required certifications and licenses are highlighted for the assessment taker to review and decide if they need additional training or certifications. Careeronestop even summarizes what a typical day in that position would like, the skills, knowledge and abilities needed to perform a given job. After completing this assessment, I feel job seekers have a great starting point to explore related careers and start planning their career path.
I would use a formal assessment that is a standardized questionnaire which is a simple, yes or no, like or dislike, to discover and gauge the individual’s interests. This assessment would be done on a computer that our staff would facilitate. After completing the assessment, the individual would review their results and start to research occupations relative to their interests. Upon their research, they would get information regarding their highest skillset, their most relative occupations based on their interests and personality, and ways they can improve their soft/hard skills. A link will be provided with further resources and trainings to help with soft skills and additional certifications.
At Paxen/ Eckerd Connects we serve individuals and clients who are classified as a “Dislocated Worker”. In order to be classified as a dislocated worker, the individual will have to be displaced from a job for six months or longer. In order to prove this we use information provided by the participant to pull a wag inquiry. They can be displaced from the workforce because of the pandemic, divorce, job closure, permanent job closures, military, homelessness, or permanent business closure. In order for this to be proven, the client must provide documentation such as legal documents or divorce paper work, news paper article or separation notice from previous employer, DD214 document for veterans in the military who have been honorably discharged, separation notice as well as lease agreements for those who could not afford rent, such as an eviction letter, or letter from landlord for homelessness, and for permanent business owner closure a news paper article will be the documentation needed. When the client provide one of the documents they can be a candidate in our program, and our job is to put them back into the workforce. Our program pays for the participant to work in a non profit organization for up to one year to get back on their feet. Since the pandemic, a lot of people were unable to get back into the workforce and found it hard to keep a steady income. A lot of participants lost their jobs because of the temporary closings businesses, restaurants, and organizations had to face due to the world being shut down. We not only pay them, but we also provide supportive services to those who have children or those who need to travel to a job site outside of their city. The region that our program cover is the southern part of Georgia, and we only cover those areas.Our offices are in Valdosta, GA but we place individuals in any part of the southern areas of Georgia. With the pandemic going on, there were a lot of people who could easily provide information and we have enrolled a lot of individuals in our program.
In looking at the different types of assessments for individuals that I like, is the O*Net interest profile are the best. After the client has answered the questions truthfully on the interest profiler, it gives them specific jobs that they can view to see if they would like to do that job. Often times, the jobs are very closely related to what the person likes and also to what they are good at due to the fact that it asks them what skills and abilities that they have already. After the client chooses something, or in the process of choosing, they can go into the Labor market data information and look at everything that pertains to that job, including the background of the type of personality. The person needs for the job, and the type of environment that they will be in, and what type of education and computer software needed to know for the job. And this way everything is upfront and available to see. This way there is no gas making as to whether that job would be good for them. The labor market information also tells the person how much they should be making and what they should ask for in an interview situation. This interest profiler in conjunction with the labor market data also tells the person whether the job is in demand and growing. This is done by the bright outlook that is signified for certain jobs.