Career development interventions 5th by spence niles and bowlsbey chapter 05

Assessment and the Career Planning Process • Step 1 - may use an instrument to measure career maturity, career beliefs or decision- making style • Step 2 - may use inventories to measure

Career Development Interventions

5th Edition Spence G Niles and JoAnn E Harris-Bowlsbey

Chapter 5 Assessment and Career Planning

• Assessment is the use of any formal or

informal technique to collect data about a client.

• It is a tool of the trait-and-factor approach, which had its beginning with the three-step career choice process introduced by Frank Parsons.

Guidelines for Use of

Trait-and-Factor Approach in 21st Century

• Test data

 are only one piece of a much larger puzzle.

 should be used less for prediction and more for identifying new options.

• The client should be more involved in making the

decision about whether to use assessment and for what purposes.

• The changing demographics of the United States

necessitate the need for even more preparation

when selecting and using assessments in counseling

Assessment and the Career

Planning Process

• Step 1 - may use an instrument to measure career maturity, career beliefs or decision- making style

• Step 2 - may use inventories to measure

interests, abilities, skills, work values, or personality type

Assessment and the Career

Planning Process

• Step 3 - Score report from inventories given in Step 2 will suggest occupations.

• Step 4 - Assessment not likely to be used.

• Step 5 - Inventories of work-related values may

be used to reduce number of options.

Assessment and the Career

Planning Process

• Step 6 - Tests that predict success in college

or measure achievement in specific subject matter may be used.

• Step 7 - Instruments that measure work

skills or personality type may be used.

Purposes of Assessment

• Counselors can learn more about the needs

of students or clients.

• Counselors can learn more about the

characteristics of clients (interests,

abilities, skills, values), and clients can

learn more about themselves.

• Counselors can measure the progress of an individual or a group in matters related to career planning.

Counselor Responsibilities

• Follow ethical guidelines provided by

professional associations

• Possess knowledge

 basic principles of assessment

 details of specific instruments to be used

 how to prepare clients/students

 how to administer properly

 how to interpret properly

 follow through with clients appropriately after the assessment

Clients’ Rights in Assessments

• Old model of the trait-and-factor approach (often called the “test-‘em and tell-‘em” approach) should

be replaced with a view of assessment that:

• a) respects assessment is just one of the tools

available to assist clients,

• b) should be administered with the person’s full

understanding of its purpose,

• c) prepares the client, administers the instrument corrects,

• d) treats the results in the confidential manner, and

• e) interprets the results in a knowledgeable way

• No standard way to interpret results

• Low cost or free materials

Types of Informal Assessment

be highly similar to those of first administration)

• Test-retest reliability (defined as the correlation

between two measurements obtained in the same

manner)

Common Interest Inventories

• Career Assessment Inventory (CAI)

• Career Occupational Preference Survey

(COPS)

• Career Quest

• Harrington-O’Shea Career Decision-Making System (CDMS)

Common Interest Inventories

continued

• Interest Determination, Exploration, and

Assessment System (IDEAS)

• Interest Explorer

• Jackson Vocational Interest Survey (JVIS)

• Kuder Career Search with Person Match

• O*Net Interest Profiler

Common Interest Inventories

continued

• Self-Directed Search (SDS)

• Strong Interest Inventory (SII)

• Unisex Edition of the ACT Interest Inventory (UNIACT)

• Vocational Interest Inventory

Common Instruments to Measure

Skills and Abilities

• Campbell Interest and Skill Survey (CISS)

• Career Planning Survey

• O*Net Ability Profiler

Other Inventories

• Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) -

measures personality type

• O*Net Work Importance Profiler - measures the importance of six work values

• Super’s Work Values Inventory - measures the importance of 12 work values

Steps of the Assessment Process

• Prepare students/clients for assessment

• Administer instrument(s) properly

• Interpret instrument(s) properly

• Follow through to assist students/clients to use results for action planning

Ways to Administer and Interpret

Assessment

• Print form - manual or optical scoring;

counselor interpretation

• Computer (standalone or networked) -

administration and scoring; counselor or

computer interpretation

• Internet - administration, scoring, and

interpretation

Advantages of Internet Delivery

• Can be taken from anywhere 24/7

• Immediate scoring and feedback

• Standard interpretation, though customized

• Capability to share report with others

electronically

No-Fee Assessment Websites

• University of Waterloo Career Services -

www.cdm.uwaterloo.ca/steps.asp

• CareerKey - www.ncsu.edu/careerkey

• University of Missouri Career Center -

http://career.missouri.edu (Select Career Interests Game)

• Motivational Assessment of Personal

Potential - www.assessment.com

For-Fee Assessment Websites

www.self-directed-Assessment Results

computer from which the assessment was taken

examinee cannot compare personal scores with those of others

of a selected norm group

percentile) of a distribution of scores

fall

Steps in Selection of Instruments

• Determine purpose of assessment.

• Consider characteristics of those to be

assessed.

• Determine if norm group for instrument

includes characteristics of persons to be

tested.

• Investigate the reliability and validity of the instrument.

Steps in Selection of Instruments

• Read critical reviews and talk to other

professionals.

• Acquire a sample copy, take it, and read

publisher’s materials.

• Administer instrument to a few individuals

and practice interpretation.

• Determine cost and options for

administration and scoring