College & University Career Testing for Gr. 11 & 12 Students
and Adults
ADOLESCENTS
FALLACY: Guidance Counsellors will help your child choose a career.
As a former Head of Guidance with the Toronto Board of Education and high school guidance counsellor for three different School Boards in Ontario for over 10 years prior to that, I can tell you from first-hand experience -- Guidance counsellors do NOT have the time to thoroughly work one-on-one with your child to help them decide upon a career area nor choose the university or college programme best suited to their needs.
Sadly, the overwhelming majority of graduates heading off to University do not know what they want to be when they graduate. Many have chosen programmes with little or no thought as to why they are choosing them -- some go because their friends are in the same programme, some go because they assume that once they get to University or College they will figure out then what they want to be. They won't get any help choosing a career at University either.
Boards of Education realized this -- and introduced several things to try and help students choose careers. One of these initiatives was the grade 9 province-wide "Take Your Child To Work" (otherwise known as Job Shadowing) where the student goes with a parent and follows them around all day at work. A HUGE make-work project for counsellors as many parents have jobs where their child cannot follow them around all day. Although the kids mostly enjoy this day (mainly because it's a day off from school) it does very little, if anything, in helping them choose a career area for when they graduate. The reality is -- very few children follow in their parent's chosen career path.
"Career Guidance" courses, often mandatory, were also created to compensate for this problem. The problem with this, however, is that each child is unique -- so a classroom approach to choosing a suitable career cannot possibly work successfully. These career classes also spend a lot of time on writing resumes, going for interviews, searching for jobs, practicing communication skills, etc. Good things to know -- but what about their career ? College ? University ?
Testing -- that is good tests (not free ones on the internet) -- cost money. Money that the Boards of Education, with their continual budget cuts -- do not have. Schools cannot afford to do a battery of interest inventory tests. You are lucky if your son / daughter gets one test given. Often, teachers will find a free career inventory on-line -- and use that with the class. Well, you get what you pay for. To base a student's entire career choice (and resultant tens of thousands of dollars in tuition, accommodation and other expenses) on the results of ONE test, I think, is negligent and irresponsible.
Here is a direct quotation from the Ontario Curriculum Guide for Career Development:
"The guidance and career education courses offered in Grades 11 and 12 address some of the fundamental issues and topics introduced in Grades 9 and 10, but explore these issues in greater depth and complexity. All guidance and career education courses encourage both community-based learning and career exploration through a variety of community involvement activities, job shadowing, work experience and internships or mentorships. In addition, guidance and career education courses are particularly well suited for inclusion in programs designed to provide pathways to apprenticeship or workplace destinations, including the Ontario youth Apprenticeship Program (OYAP) and in programs leading to a diploma with a Specialist High-Skills Major."
Note that there is nothing mentioned about interest inventory testing, or working one-on-one with these students.
WHY? Guidance counsellors do not have the time to work one-on-one with these students -- approximately 60 - 75% of the guidance counsellor's job revolves around paperwork -- NOT counselling (which is the reason I left the profession). Regular teachers, not counsellors, often teach the Career Guidance Course -- they are not trained in counselling and therefore, are ill equipped to do vocational couselling.
Isn't the whole reason they are in school is to prepare for a career?
Career testing is a specialized area but requires working 1 on 1 -- schools use a shotgun approach.
.
For the small percentage of students who know what they want to be -- this is adequate. For the rest of the students, who do not know what they want to be or what they want to study at college or university, let alone which college or university they want to go to -- this approach is DISASTEROUS.
The result of students heading off to college or university into the "wrong" programme are: the student becomes bored and discouraged and does not do well. They then either drop out mid-year (usually after first term exam results are posted) or fail out of their programme. Some finish the year, but don't go back for the next year. Some do go back, but switch their major -- because the first year was a waste of time -- it's not what they are interested in. Hopefully they get it right the 2nd year -- but if they don't, few try a 3rd time.
The Net Result?
- Wasted tuition for one year
- Wasted expenses for accomodation & meals if student lives away from home
- Wasted purchases of expensive text books and other school supplies
- Psychologically, student's self-esteem is battered.
- Students often come to the conclusion that university or college "isn't for them" when that isn't at all the case -- had they been in the programme they were suited to with a career goal in mind, they would have been interested and motivated in the programme. Now they are a drop-out.
- Student is back to square one with no clear goals as to what they want to be.
- Many just drop out and get a menial job, never to try university or college again.
This is all Preventable!
In 5 or 6 sessions, I will work with the grade 11 or 12 student and determine a career area (we narrow it down to 2 or 3 specific careers) by doing the following:
1. Meeting with you, the parent(s) and your child for an initial consultation.
2. Meeting with your child individually to get to know him/her a bit better, analysing his/her transcripts, discussing what they have done in the past including any jobs or volunteering and what they liked and disliked about them, and other questions that relate to their career goals.
3. Interest Inventory Testing. I will administer 3 or 4 different interest inventories to determine your child's strengths and weaknesses and interests (many of them hidden interests). These may be administered in a small group setting.
4. I analyse and consolidate the results of all these tests and put together a profile based on these results, the transcripts and interviews with the child.
5. I work with the child in interpreting these results then coming up with a list of possible career choices based on the student's test results, their interest, and their educational goals -- i.e. do they want to go to college OR university or ?.
6. After exploring these options, narrow the career down to 2 or 3 choices, and determine which universities / colleges offer the training for these careers and decide upon which institutions to apply to.
During this process, your child will be given some "homework" to do and it is imperative that this be completed by the next session so that we can progress to the next stage. Usually students are highly motivated, as they start to see the correlation between their likes, their strengths and possible career areas. They are curious and excited as to what kinds of careers they are suited to. Very rarely, we have a student who is not motivated and does not do their homework. In this case, you may incur extra charges as I will have to spend extra time with the student to get them over the "hump." so to speak.
Your child will receive a consolidated report containing the test results, my assessment and several career goals identified as a result of this as well as a list of the institutions where the child can pursue these goals.
These are held in our downtown Toronto Harbourfront Psychotherapy office and are offered at night or on weekends (never during school time). We start off with a pizza or refreshments when doing the group work as I know the way to a teenager's heart is through their stomach! And to get them here on time, we serve the food 15 minutes before the official "start" time.
ADULTS
I offer a similar service to adults who have been downsized, laid-off, find themselves out of work due to company relocation or bankruptcy, or for those who simply want a career change. After working at your job for "x" amount of years, never really happy, and wondering if you should be working at some other career -- don't despair -- it is not too late to change. Maybe you have been successful in a career for a while now, but are bored or burnt out. This is also normal -- people can be suited for and be successful at many different careers. It's time for a change!
I will work with you on identifying a new career, including giving you several professional-level interest inventory tests. The ones I give to adults are different than the ones I use for students since adults bring a lot of "life experience" to the table. The professional level assessments take into account many actual tasks you likely have been exposed to in your life and/or career.
Adult career assessment & testing are done on an individual basis.
We welcome the opportunity to explore your new career with you ! .
Harbourfront Psychotherapy • Beaches Psychotherapy • Toronto
