Assessment of Interests and Aptitudes for Career Planning

Abstract

In order to ensure that the guidance process is effective, career guidance professionals must make decisions about what techniques and interventions to implement with clients in the limited time generally available. Given the variety of interventions in the professional's repertoire, a decision to implement any one of these must be based on a strong probability that the outcome will be constructive. This study reports on the relevance of using vocational interests and aptitude data in the guidance process. The immediate and longer-term aptness of the assessment results is examined through analysis of measured interests, aspirations, scholastic aptitudes and tertiary course entry of 335 female secondary students. Results indicated excellent concurrent and predictive validity for the interest data while also indicating the role played by aptitudes.