Donald G. Zytowski, Ph.D.
NCASI Research Consultant

Psychologists have grown fond in recent years of uncovering the basic components of some concept and then naming them, like the “Big Five” (personality types) or the “Big Six” (interests). A recent article by a pair of our best vocational psychology theorists, Steven Brown and Robert Lent, discusses what they called the “Big Three” assessments (not “tests”) essential for informed vocational planning: interests, skills and work values. They are, we are pleased to note, the three assessments used in the Kuder Career Planning System.

But I think it is more useful to think of their Big Three as a three-legged stool on which effective career planning stands. Like a stool, all three need to work together to identify stable and satisfying career goals. One, say skills, alone is not enough: people may develop skills – for instance, driving – out of necessity. They do it, but don’t wish to support a career choice with it. Or interests may link to careers that involve attractive tasks like art or the outdoors, but which do not satisfy what is wanted in a job, such as security or a good income. Let’s talk more about these three legs.

Interests: Of the many human attributes that have been studied, interests have been among the most “measurable” and relatively stable of human attributes. And they have shown the best, although not perfect, relationship to eventual career choice. Many people say they most want a job that engages their interests. As well, some people do not trust their “felt interests,” and prefer the results of a standardized, normalized inventory of their interests to inform their career plans.

The Kuder Career Planning System assessment that represents the interest leg of the stool, Kuder Career Search, has two key features: instead of asking whether you are interested in this or that occupation or school subject, it compares your preferences for an assortment of activities (“run and finish a marathon”) with those of people in several career fields or occupational clusters. And, while it gives percentile figures, the real information is the rank order: who has interests most similar to yours? Is it, for instance, people employed in helping occupations, in transportation industry occupations, or what? This is powerful information.

Additionally, the Kuder Career Search has an added feature that no other interest assessment has – it gives short “job sketches” of the individuals whose interests most closely resemble yours, called Person Match. From this, you learn what these people who are like you actually do for a living.

Skills: A stool with only one leg doesn’t help very much. The second leg of the stool is generally thought of as “aptitudes or abilities,” a person’s inherent capacity to learn an occupational skill set faster and better than others. Aptitude tests were originally developed to aid employee selection. In this application they are very helpful when there is a large number of applicants and only a few vacancies to fill. But when it is turned around, when one person is trying to select an occupation from a large number of possibilities, differential aptitude tests don’t work very well. Research has shown that aptitudes have very weak relationships with what occupations people actually enter, and practically none at all with success.

In recent years, the assessment of developed skills has replaced the idea of searching for (sometimes hidden) abilities. The Kuder system has adopted this perspective with the Kuder Skill Assessments. They are age-appropriately phrased—that is, the middle and high school version includes tasks that this age group likely has encountered -- for instance, “run for class president.” The college and adult version (to be released, fall of 2006) is phrased in terms of tasks available to master in college or beyond such as “run for city council.” Research has shown that skills measured in high school or college correlate with people’s eventual occupations. Skills are necessary for success in an occupation, although success is not exclusively dependent on skills. And skill levels need not be regarded as fixed. Some take longer than others, but most skills can be learned.

Work Values: Still, you had better not try to stand on a stool that has only two legs. You need another. Brown and Lent say it is “work values.” What are these? Values, in general, are those things that people believe are good, true, or beautiful. Ask anyone what he or she likes about their career or job, and you will likely hear some feature like “the variety in what I do,” or “good people to work with.” Those preferences for aspects of jobs and occupations are work values. Research has revealed that they predict job satisfaction better than interests or skills do, and to some extent, job performance.

Many work values have been identified. The Kuder system uses a set of twelve, originally named by Dr. Donald Super, who is generally acknowledged to be the premier career development theorist. Another leading theorist names only six work values, all of which share variance with Super’s.

Occupations have been linked to interests and skills, so you can find occupations that need your particular set. Work values are more loosely associated with careers. Some are associated rather strongly with occupational clusters – the opportunity for “creativity,” for instance, linking to selected occupations in art, music, and writing. Other values may be associated with specific jobs in many interest-skill clusters, like “good supervision.” The best source of linkages from work values to a list of selected occupations at five skill levels is the Work Importance Locator O*NET Occupations Master List.

Now that we have the Big Three legs attached to the career exploration stool of the Kuder Career Planning System, we can stand on it and see possibilities in the future with greater confidence, facilitating choices and plans to attain career goals that promise satisfaction and success.

Don't Miss the Online Presentation
Watch for information regarding an online presentation from Dr. Zytowski on this subject this fall.

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Debra Thompson, Registrar, and Jim Voska, Employment Development Coordinator
Metropolitan Community College District

The Metropolitan Community College – Business & Technology campus introduced the Missouri College and Career Planning System, powered by Kuder, to track student measurable effects in technical programs, such as best fit, retention, grades, continued enrollment, and job placement. As a Leadership Academy project with the support of faculty and academic advisors, the initiative and proposal to utilize the Kuder system was to identify and support the need for use of a career planning tool early to avoid misdirected career development, course enrollment, and retention challenges for students interested in a specific occupational program.

The MCC-Business & Technology campus is one of five campuses within the Metropolitan Community College district that offers over 35 occupational programs (degree, certificate, credit, and non-credit) that lead to a rewarding career in a technical field, often in less than two years – sometimes in as little as 16 weeks. With an extensive menu of training, consulting, career options, and a 56,500 square foot multi-purpose exhibit hall, the BTC has become the largest training resource in the Midwest.

At the beginning of the fall 2005 semester, 17 students enrolled in the Heating, Ventilation, and Air-Conditioning Job Ready program and completed the Kuder system’s assessments for career interests, skills, and work values. The HVAC Job Ready program is a 15-week intensive training certificate program that prepares students for entry level employment in the field of heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning. Students earn a certificate of completion and graduate with 23 credits of college coursework. Throughout the semester, the students are monitored for success by comparing Compass placement test scores, attendance/completion of required coursework, grades, and continued enrollment to the initial Kuder survey results.

The following characteristics were identified with review of the data provided by the Kuder system:

• 83% of students ranked Industrial Engineering in one of their top two clusters for career interest.
• 78% of students ranked Industrial Engineering in one of their top two clusters for skills.
• The students ranked achievement, lifestyle, security, and supervision respectively, as the most important work values.
• 76% of the students completed successfully all courses in which they enrolled.
• 44% of the students enrolled in the spring 2006 semester.

One student ranked Industrial Engineering as a 3rd and 4th choice for career interest and skills assessment, respectively. The top work value was supervision. The student’s reported term grade point average was 2.0 with an incomplete grade status for one course. This student did not continue to enroll for the spring 2006 semester. Another student ranked Industrial Engineering as a 3rd choice for career interest, skills assessment, and designated income as the top work value. The reported term grade point average was 2.2 with two course withdrawals and one failing grade for another. This student did not continue to enroll for the spring 2006 semester.

As an outcome of the project, the next step is to share and promote the data results with the institution and support additional investigative initiatives through the district sub-committee on student development assessment. Eventually the institutional design is to incorporate this career planning tool early as an ongoing and integrated part of career development to support enrollment options for students at the Metropolitan Community College.

Using the Missouri College and Career Planning System confirmed the value of knowing career interests and skills to anticipate success of the student and manage educational choices with the appropriate support services and enrollment. The institutional impact is a higher retention of students in occupational programs, a “better fit” of students within programs, continued enrollment, cost effectiveness for the student, increased interaction with support personnel, higher number of program completers, and a greater potential for long-term employment in a chosen and planned career of interest.

We Want to Hear From You

Submit your comments, article ideas, and best practices by e-mail to news@ncasi.com. Selected best practices submissions are awarded $50!

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New Online Trainings
New Live Webcast sessions on Develop Your Future, 2nd Edition, are now available. These new sessions are available through June 2006. Each online session will last approximately one hour.

Online training sessions on both the Kuder Career Portfolio and Kuder Administrative Database Management System will continue through June 2006. New sessions will begin in August 2006.

To register for one of the sessions, please visit our new event calendar by clicking on Training-News-Events from www.kuder.com or any state- or college-specific portal page.

NCASI Unveils Training, News, & Events Area
NCASI’s corporate web site (www.ncasi.com) now features a new Training, News, and Events area. This area provides information about upcoming Live Webcast Trainings, In-person Trainings, Conferences and Conventions, and News Releases. The Live Webcast Trainings include the ability to register for the training by clicking on a corresponding link.

Access the Training, News, and Events area through the NCASI web site at www.ncasi.com or visit www.kuder.com or any state- or college specific portal page and click on Training-News-Events. We encourage you to visit this new area regularly or add this site to your RSS news reader because information is being added and updated frequently.

We Want to Hear From You

Submit your comments, article ideas, and best practices by e-mail to news@ncasi.com. Selected best practices submissions are awarded $50!

HURRY!! One Month Left to Win an iPod!
We have had a great response to the iPod drawings with over 9,800 individuals registering to win an iPod since September! We will draw our final winner for this academic year on June 1st.

Congratulations to our recent iPod Nano Winners:

• February: J.N. at Coffee County Middle School in Manchester, TN
• March: R.H. at Fort Dorchester High School in Ladson, SC and N.S. at Northmont High School in Englewood, OH
• April: C.S. at Latexo High School in Latexo, TX
  

Look for Us at These Upcoming Conferences

May

• May 16-19: National Association for Career Technical Education Information Conference, Palm Springs, CA
• May 28-31: National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development International Conference, Austin, TX

June

• June 12-17: Career Clusters Institute, Phoenix, AZ
• June 18-21: South Carolina Adult Education Summer Conference, Myrtle Beach, SC
• June 18-23: South Carolina Association of School Administrators Summer Leadership Institute, Myrtle Beach, SC
• June 20-21: Arkansas School Counselors Association Conference, North Little Rock, AR
• June 24-27: American School Counselor Association Conference, Chicago, IL
• June 25-26: South Carolina Education & Business Summit, Greenville, SC
• June 27: Indiana ACTE Conference, Indianapolis, IN

July

• July 6-9: National Career Development Association Global Conference, Chicago, IL
• July 12-15: High Schools That Work Summer Staff Development Conference, Orlando, FL
• July 17-18: Alabama ACTE Conference, Mobile, AL
• July 17-21: DoD Worldwide Education Symposium, Orlando, FL
• July 18: Tennessee CTE Conference, Murfreesboro, TN
• July 19-20: Texas Career Education Conference, Corpus Christi, TX
• July 24-27: Missouri ACTE Conference, Springfield, MO
• July 26-28: Arkansas Career Orientation Teacher Conference, Hot Springs, AR
• July 27: Ohio ACTE Conference, Cincinnati, OH
  

These conferences are also listed with additional information on our Conferences and Conventions Calendar in the new Training, News, and Events area.

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