Career Assessment Instruments for Grades 9-12 •  SC-CGM Home • Career Preparation Home •  EEDA and Personal Pathways Resources for Educators

Upon arriving in the ninth grade, students should have three years of career development recorded on the IGP that began in grade six. In the ninth grade, the focus of the career guidance program shifts from exploration to preparation. The counselor begins to actively engage the student in understanding of the career decision-making process. Many career theorists suggest that all relevant information be included in the career decision-making process to encourage greater participation and consideration of a wider variety of career options (Zunker, 1998). The high school career preparation stage continues to require intensive self-awareness exploration with the additional elements of career preparation.

At the high school level, career assessments to facilitate the career decision-making process are available that are cost-effective, increasingly sophisticated, and linked to course selection. The high school counselor should work with the middle schools to build upon the career guidance provided in grades six through eight. A well-kept career planner, or IGP, that accompanies the student to high school from middle school helps ensure that the counselor uses middle school career exploration to facilitate career preparation. Successful career guidance programs report that their middle and high school counselors carefully plan their career guidance delivery system to facilitate the career decision making process of a period of time that minimizes student stress while enhancing student focus

The Counselors Guide to Career Assessment Instruments (Fourth Edition), published by the National Career Development Association, is an essential staple in the guidance counselor’s personal development library. This valuable resource provides a thorough evaluation and research on hundreds of career assessments used in career planning. A variety of career assessment instruments for grades 9-12 are available to measure aptitudes, career values, and interests.

Numerous South Carolina high schools rely on quality, cost-effective assessments available to the state’s high school students. Many assessments are inexpensive or can be delivered at no cost to the district. Caution should always be used to screen all instruments for reliability and validity. One popular assessment currently being used in the tenth grade is ACT’s PLAN. Opted by many districts as the state-provided standardized assessment, this instrument contains the useful World-of-Work Map that aligns student assessment with 26 careers and the Holland RIASEC types.

Another free assessment, the military’s ASVAB, provides the student, parent, and counselor with valuable feedback on the student’s interests, career skills, and math skills. A valid indicator to gauge the student’s level in technical skills is WORK KEYS. This can be administered in conjunction with local business partners, career centers, or technical colleges. Many employers use WORK KEYS as a hiring assessment, and because ACT produces the instrument, the results correlate through KEY TRAIN to the ACT PLAN assessment.

Some schools elect to go beyond the three basic self-awareness assessments (interests, career values, and skills) to provide the student with assessment results surrounding personality or personal type. Success with these types of assessments depends on the counselor’s ability to administer and interpret the instrument and a corresponding match between the student’s learning style and the assessment instrument. Two popular personality assessments are the Personality Mosaic and the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, which requires usage by a certified counselor.

Parental understanding of what career assessments are and how they are used in career guidance can assist counselors to create a valuable alliance to further each student’s career development. Because parents wrestle with myths that surround career assessment, counselors should explore ways to dismantle these myths. Helping parents understand that career assessments have no "right" or "wrong" answer and that they will not be used to "track" a student can ease parental concern. The guidance counselor who clarifies misunderstanding that career guidance is based on just one test that will "tell the student what career he/she should choose" can effectively reinforce the role of the parent in early career awareness and planning.

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