As Jennifer begins her high school years, we are all beginning to ask the question, what next? Jennifer has some ideas, but has struggled to put those ideas into tangible work opportunities. Even more important to us is that Jennifer has a job that fits her talents and desires.
As part of the TOS Crew I received a free month's subscription to ACT Discover to review.
DISCOVER can help you choose a career, find training, or learn how to find a job.
This is an inventories based assessment tool. The inventories help you think about yourself, and which occupations would fit you best your interests, abilities, and values. As you grow older, you become more certain of your interests, abilities, and values.
DISCOVER offers inventories to people based on your grade level.
Inventories available:
People in grade 6 and above use an Interest inventory.
People in grade 8 and above use an Abilities Inventory.
People in grade 9 and above use an Values Inventory.
If you have not yet selected an occupation, this is a great place to start.
DISCOVER has three types of inventories:
Interests asks what you like to do
Abilities asks you to rate your ability levels
Values asks which work-relevant values are important to you.
Each inventory may be taken online or you may enter scores from inventories you have taken on paper.
Take all three inventories to get the best sense of which careers might fit you best. Each inventory focuses on a different part of your profile.
Based on your inventory results, DISCOVER suggests Career Areas on the World-of-Work Map.
World-of-Work Map
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The World-of-Work Map below shows the locations of all 26 career areas (groups of occupations). Career areas differ in how much they involve working with Data, Ideas, People, and Things.
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In Our Home:
I had Jennifer take all three inventories; interests, abilities and values. She then received a detailed report of what would be the best careers that she was suitable for. Very detailed descriptions were given for each career including skills necessary, length of education and starting salary. She then read through the list of occupations and marked her favorites. This really narrowed the field but also sparked great discussions and areas for future career exploration. It was a great discovery process for Jennifer(9th grade). She continually says that she doesn't really know what she wants to do post-high school. We prayerfully will take these results and use them to help guide her in her decisions.
They have a great tutorial and site menu to ease navigating the site. Also present are help screens to futher provide education on the information. I appreciated that the website is clear, not cluttered with unnecessary information. I believe this to be a valuable tool for the homeschooled high schooler who does not have a clear idea of what they want to do post-high school. It honed in on my daughter's strengths and presented clear career fields.
Cost:
Price: $19.95 for a three-month license, $24.95 for a six-month license.
To view the site for purchase click here.
Also ACT provides a FREE curriculum guide and other resources to help enhance the career planning process. Click here for that resource.
To view other TOS Crew members review of this and other great products click the logo.
