The value of psychometrics for career guidance
Emerging as a new trend across Australian high schools over the past decade, psychometric testing has been praised for its ability to help students navigate pathways out of school and into a career. These tests are a complementary tool for career advice specialists to assist them in providing relevant and individualised careers advice to students. Developed in the early 20th century, psychometrics are applied measurements of the mind that offer comprehensive and reliable insights into personal strengths and weaknesses.
Because of this, psychometric tests are now widely used among graduate recruiters to accurately determine the work ethic and capabilities of potential employees. These tests are unique as they can’t be cheated due to their function as a measurement tool rather than as an assessment. For high school students, these tests can provide accurate and reliable personality and capability portraits paired with correlating career suggestions.
There are generally two streams of psychometric testing available to schools and individuals; the personality or character stream that attempts to map the individual’s temperament and the reasoning capability stream, highlighting the inherent strengths of the participant, whether it be numerical, verbal or situational. While feedback is generally comprehensive, the results alone should not define a student’s career choices.
Feel free to add in the comments the tests that you use to help your students find the right career path.
The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator
Testing category: Personality
Testing time: 20-30 minutes
This test comprises of a self-report questionnaire of 93 forced-choice questions. The questions come in the format of either word pairings or short statements and in each question, it is necessary to choose only one of the two possible answers. Each question presents options that are opposite preferences on the same binary. These answers are then taken and compiled to identify the preferences and clarity of preference in each binary, determining the participant’s level of preference on four levels to determine a concise personality type.
The Myers-Briggs model is based off the typological theory proposed by Carl Jung and the speculation that the four principles of psychological function (sensation, intuition, feeling and thinking) are dominant at varying degrees in different people. From this theory, the Myers-Briggs model formulates 16 personality types based off the binaries of extraversion/introversion, sensation/intuition, thinking/feeling and judging/perceiving.
Keirsey Temperament Sorter
Testing category: Personality
Testing time: 35 minutes
Like the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, the Keirsey Temperament Sorter is presented in an introspective questionnaire format to determine 16 deductive personality portraits. While the Myers-Briggs model focuses directly on how people think and feel, the Keirsey Temperament model is related to directly-observable behaviours. This can be useful when determining suitable work environment and work-related behaviours.
The four rings of analysis include:
• The inner ring (abstract vs concrete): distinguishes between the extent to which people are more observant or introspective as reflected in their behaviour
• The second ring: (cooperative vs pragmatic): distinguishes between the attention paid to internal and external opinions and the extent of personal conviction
• The third ring: (directive vs informative): distinguishes between informers and directors
• The fourth ring: (expressive vs attentive): distinguishes between how people interact with their environment through inner or outer action
Sokanu Interests, Personality and Preferences Inventory
Testing category: Personality and ability
Testing time: 35 minutes
The Sokanu inventory was developed by the United States Department of Labor and measures 186 traits across eight separate domains: personality, needs, skills preference, abilities, work context, organisation culture, personality codes (Holland Codes) and basic interests.
The dominant traits are then sorted and presented with feedback and career suggestions that encourage individuals to further research careers aligning with their capabilities and interests.
The Morrisby Profile
Testing category: Personality and ability
Testing time: 3.5 hours
The Morrisby Profile is one of the more comprehensive psychometric tests and comprises 12 separate assessments to measure mental function. Six of these tests are based on ability, four tests measure personality and the remaining two tests measure manual dexterity.
Using these tests to determine an individual’s inherent abilities, the Morrisby Profile helps determine ability performances and matches those abilities to aligned careers. The feedback provided by the Morrisby Profile presents the strengths and weaknesses of individuals in a 20-page report and provides an extensive careers list for students to further investigate.
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