Career Assessment for High School Students

Help students choose a major that will get them career ready with career assessments

As the cost of college continues to rise, it is important for incoming students to choose a major that aligns with their future career goals. One of the ways teachers can ensure that students are prepared for college is by taking advantage of career assessments. When given the chance to explore different career opportunities in the classroom, students can improve their career readiness skills.

What is a career assessment?

A career assessment is basically a career quiz for high school students. It helps them determine which jobs or majors match their preferences and goals. These tests are usually comprised of multiple-choice questions and they’re designed to ensure that a student’s personality, goals, opinions, and values are taken into consideration as they begin to carve a career path.

PowerSchool Naviance CCLR, for example, offers an assessment called Achieve Works Skills, which enables students to learn about skills they need to not only be successful in school but also in the workplace. This assessment identifies for students their top aptitudes and soft skills, how those can be built over time, and which employment and career opportunities best suit them. The Achieve Works Skills assessment centers on five key measurements:

• Conscientiousness
• Creativity
• Critical Thinking
• Leadership
• Social and Emotional

There are also many career exploration activities that can be used in the classroom to help students decide what they may be interested in doing in the future. But ultimately, a career assessment will be key to evaluating a student’s likes and dislikes. The goal of the test is to give the student a clearer picture of what job they want to pursue, and to help foster more career readiness.

6 Career Assessment Tests for High Schoolers

Student career planning in high school is extremely effective in helping students better prepare for their futures. Tools like Naviance make it easy to get students career ready, and also apply to colleges.

Here are six career assessments that high school teachers can start using in the classroom today:

• Gallup (by Naviance)
• Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) Career Aptitude Test
• Motivational Appraisal of Personal Potential (MAPP) Career Aptitude Test
• The Princeton Review Career Quiz
• Career Explorer Career Test
• Holland Code Career Aptitude Test

In addition to helping students identify their likes and dislikes, career assessments can better inform another important aspect of college and career readiness—creating a student career plan.