Strong Interest Inventory and the DISCOVER Program - Essay Example

Students can go into virtual halls where they find a variety of information from assessments they can take to planning their education and work. DISCOVER can be used in conjunction with the SII to find more information on the careers from that assessment.

One of the strengths of the SII is that it provides a lot of information that the student can take for further research. Also, it is completed easily, and it is based on the Holland codes which allow the individual to access other assessments that also use the codes. The strengths of the DISCOVER program are that it is computer-based, interactive, and engaging for the student.

The reason it is important to be aware of the issues involved with assessments in special populations is that we cannot make generalizations that match everyone. This is why it is important to know how the tests were normed and the client's demographic profile.

Assignment 3
At 17 years old, John will have more time to choose a career, but it is a good time for him to explore careers. Although he worries about this now, I would also explain to him that he does not have to choose a solid career at this point because he has his whole life ahead of him.

The two ethical considerations that Mrs. Catwick would have to take into consideration would first be to make sure that the test was appropriate for John's age group. She is giving form R, which she hopefully reviewed or read the booklet to see whether this was appropriate for high school students. Another consideration, according to Engels and Harris (2006) is to make sure to inform John that the SDS is not a test in the way that he is used to taking. The reason for pointing this out is because there is "the high likelihood that clients will regard assessment results as some objective and valid set of the results" (Engels and Harris, p. 98). In other words, clients may think that a "test" would give them exact results, but in career counseling, this is not true. The assessments used in career counseling are one place to start in researching a career. This is an important ethical consideration because, without this definition, clients could become angry if the results said something different than they wanted. With a clear definition, the client can resolve this issue.

I would use the SDS in the same way that Mrs. Catwick did. The first step would be centered on gaining information from the results of the test. I would want to identify several careers for John to explore, that would include at least 20 careers. Mrs. Catwick only used five in the case study. I would use 20 because I would want him to have a very long list to research. I would explain to him that some of the careers would be interesting to him while others would hold no interest at all. The point of having the list would be to also find careers he may not have heard of before so he has a wide range of career ideas.

Step 3 would be for John to start research on the careers. The Holland Codebook and the Dictionary of Occupational Titles (DOT) are good places to start, but they do not yield much information. Both give more of a listing of careers rather than much information, although the DOT provides a paragraph or two. A better resource is the O*Net which is available online. This resources giver a more thorough profile of each job that includes a description of what the job is, the education that is needed, whether it is a "hot" job, and a listing of salary possibilities. The O*Net provides this information on a national and state level (O*Net, 2010).

Once John had researched careers, he would have narrowed down his list of 20 to maybe 5 or less. At this point, step 4 would be to help him find career interviews in his town. As an example, he may be able to interview a television station meteorologist. I would help him create a list of questions that could be answered in a 20-minute interview. The interviews should also narrow down his list.

Step 5 would be to research colleges that either had a degree program in the specific career or had a major that would begin to prepare him for the career. I would have him talk to advisors at those colleges who could tell him about the educational requirements for the degree. If there is a local college with the major, I would suggest a campus visit with his parents. I would also suggest that he and his parents go to a college out of state so he could compare what he would receive.

The assessment strategy I would use has been described here. I believe it would be useful because John would have my input throughout the process. Read More