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What is my understanding of vocational evaluation
and career assesment?
In this module we’re going to take a look at some of the key
points about vocational evaluation and career assessment, beginning
with identifying the three levels
of this service.
Level I is what we refer to as screening or needs assessment.
Level II is an exploratory assessment.
And Level III is a comprehensive vocational evaluation.
These 3 levels of assessment were defined
very early in the
vocational evaluation and work adjustment association
final project report in 1975
and have continued to be the hallmarks
of definitions in our field. Level I
again, is a needs assessment often used to make quick decisions
where minimal assessment tools and resources are required
If that doesn’t provide enough information we move
on to the next part of the pyramid, which is Level II
and provide an exploratory diagnostic and prognostic
exploration. Again, if that does not provide the information
we need, we go onto the third level, which is a
comprehensive career assessment and vocational evaluation.
In depth, long-term, or on-going, which uses
work, real or simulated.
Level I, a needs assessment,
is an approach that is used for some individuals
in situations. Often an individual assesment
tool or instrument or method can be used to answer
very specific referral questions.
In Level II
another exploratory assessment, for some the assessment needs can only be
determined by gathering information or questions that arise
from a Level I. This intermediate process involves
more detailed reviews of background information, in - depth vocational
interviewing and counseling, and/or additional use of
psychometrics or career exploration. It may also include
a transferable skills analysis, job matching
labor market investigation, or community mapping.
If more information is needed or questions emerge, Level
III should be initiated.
Again, in an exploratory assessment, the process
is designed to provide information on
the next step in long-range planning for that individual.
And it includes what’s needed for investigating education,
in jobs and job clusters, taking into consideration the individuals
interests, needs, abilities, and functional capabilities.
Level III is what we refer to as a comprehensive career
assessment or vocational evaluation and
as mentioned, this process systematically uses real or
simulated work as the focal point for assessment and career exploration.
One purpose is to assist individuals in career
vocational development. The profiler, or vocational
evaluator, synthesizes that data from all team
members, including, if necessary, medical,
pyschological, economic, cultural, social
and vocational information.
The definition for a Level III vocational
evaluation was defined by Dowd
in 1993 in the VEWAA Glossary of Terminology.
We've offered this glossary in your
resources on the Blackboard course, we encourage you to take a look
at that, but as stated a comprehensive process
that systematically uses work, either real or simulated,
as the focal point for assessment and vocational exploration,
the purpose of which is to assist individuals with vocational development.
Vocational evaluation incorporates medical, psychological,
social, vocational, educational,
cultural, and economic data into the process
to attain the goals of vocational evaluation.
A Level III comprehensive process often
may occur, again, when more information is
needed and in this process, after a person
is assigned to the vocational evaluator, a development of an
individualized vocational evaluation plan often
is the first process to guide the entire
evaluation. How long does a person participate in the process?
The person participates
in the program as long as necessary to accomplish specific
goals. What are the outcomes of the comprehensive vocational evaluation?
Recommendations for current and/or future planning
for skill development, accommodations, or elimination of
vocational barriers.
The techniques that we use in this process may be,
in whole or part, inclusive of this list
such as an orientation, an interview, the use of
psychometrics, the assessment of vocational interests, aptitude,
learning styles. Primarily, one of the
distinguishing parts of this process is the use
of work samples, situational assessment, and,
again, the use of work, real or simulated.
These tools give us an invaluable opportunity to observe
behavior and to give an individual hands on career exploration
A focused assessment in this process allows us to determine
the feasibility of a specific chosen career area
as a career goal and it can include
real or simulated work.
If we utilize a technique such as
a situational assessment, we’re evaluating work related
behaviors in a controlled or simulated setting. We may be using
real work, again, to add face validity.
And the capability to systematically vary demands
in this type of evaluation helps us to look more closely
at work related behaviors.
We also may utilize a technique known as
community based assessment and which is an
assessment approach of an individual’s interests, needs, and abilities
in a job work-site setting, located in the community.
Community based assessments are an umbrella term
depicting a category of methods, which may include: situational assessment,
on-the-job evaluations, job try-outs
and supported employment assessment.
≈
This visual, taken from the Vocational Evaluation and Career Assessment Professionals
VECAP website gives you an idea
of the process that we work through
when we’re trying to look at an opportunity
for an individual and look at their vocational
skills and aptitudes,
interests, and looking both at the individual,
the environment and then that congruence that
lies between those two. So you can see here the different
techniques that may be a part of those three
processes. So an individual part of the assessment
we’re looking at the background information and interviews and
some of the standardized tests. In the environment
we may be using observation and interviews to look at the individuals’
capacity in the actual environment, and then the congruence
between the two and what we need to use to
dig a little deeper, to ask questions or to provide
opportunities to make that a successful match.
One of those examples would be utilizing assistive technology.
And you’ll hear more about that in the course as we move forward.
Here is a visual
that gives you an idea of what an individualized vocation
evaluation plan might take into account, beginning with
the left side of this diagram, the first
again, plan, is to, the overarching
plan is to the individual planning and so we identify
the individual and think about the selection
that connects to the referral questions
and kind of line up a plan that we think will match
what direction we need to move forward in.
We then have a chance to begin with an interview with that individual, which is crucial
in identifying that individual's
expressed interests, their actual
expressed desire for being a part of the process and any
other parts of information that we can
not glean from a packet of referral information.
Then we have the opportunity, through the entire assessment process,
to observe behavior, which is so key
to the entire vocational evaluation. We observe
behavior through all of the pieces and adjustments
that happen during the evaluation process from
the work task to the psychometric testing, through the
orientation, in the use of work samples and
any adjustments that we may provide to make those
successful experiences, whether those be through the universal
design that we think through early in the task
through the use of assistive technologies.
It also includes the use of the job tryout situational
assessments and community-based experiences
all, again, opportunities to observe behavior.
And very critical when you are taking
notes and making those observations.
All important in the report process that we’ll follow through in this course.
And that evaluation plan
continues as the individual goes
forth into their career training opportunity,
into their next steps for their career,
or post-secondary opportunities. So the evaluation process,
in its richest sense, goes forward into
the follow-up ,implementation, vocational planning,
conferences, and report phase and all are
iterative process that tag back and forth between one another.
Vocational evaluation has been identifed
to encompass for major underlying values.
This was defined in the Ahlers text
that we’ve, we’re using in this course again
from the IRI Institute,
which defined vocational evaluation. And those four values
are empowerment, cultural considerations and responsiveness,
universal design and universal design for assessment
and learning, and the application of assistive technology,
and finally, individualization, where we
customize assessment for customized transition
and post-secondary planning.
In closing, take a moment to
explore the link to think video interview describing the importance
of a vocational evaluation process.
In addition, there are several readings in this week’s
module that you should look to to anchor your understanding
and prior knowledge in the field.