About “Know Thyself”, a student interest self-assessment.

"Know Thyself" is a unique method of interpreting a student’s career interests, abilities, values, and needs. The student takes an assessment on the computer (30 minutes or so), and is presented with results in the form of a certificate. The information (a long-term career objective statement) presented on the certificate is a starting point for further exploration in the Transitions lesson software.

On the certificate, the student is informed of:

• the two career clusters where the greatest interest was shown;
• whether the interest was greatest for working with things, people, or ideas;
• the modes of work most preferred (hands-on, thinking, creating, communicating, etc.);
• the student’s values and needs that will need to be considered in selecting a career.

Upon completion of the assessment, a series of activities are available providing a more detailed exploration into:

• specialized careers,
• educational attainment necessary to achieve career goals,
• what the student’s personalized skills, abilities, values, and needs are for success on the job and in life.

The assessment begins with a career cluster interest survey. Career clusters are general career themes associated with thousands of jobs. For instance, a career cluster titled “General Business,” has several thousand jobs related to it, so we have grouped all of those careers into one theme or career cluster. There are a total of twenty identified career clusters for purposes of this assessment. In addition to calculating career cluster interest, the assessment assists to determine whether a student likes working in a particular career field because he/she is interested in working with the things (tools, hand held items, equipment), the people (communicating, social interaction), or the ideas (research, thinking, investigation, problem solving). For instance, say I choose fire science as a field of interest, do I like fire science because of the things (using fire equipment, driving a fire truck, putting fires out), do I like fire science because of the people (working with fellow fire fighters, saving peoples lives), or do I like fire science because of the ideas (investigating fires, developing and designing better equipment).

After completing the Career Cluster Interest survey, the student continues to part two titled “Skills and Abilities Assessment.” This second survey will focus on the five out of twenty career clusters that were identified as being of highest interest. The first section of the Skills and Abilities Assessment is a measurement of skills related to one of the five career clusters. The second section is a measurement of interest in further training in that skill/ability. The final assessment “Values and Needs” helps to identify the personal values (that the student believes in) and to identify needs as he/she work on the job.

Upon completion of the final assessment, a long term objective statement is generated. Once the student has generated the long term objective statement, a series of activities will help him/her explore and interpret what all of this information means for career and life.