Reliable Vocational Guidance

Career Gate Test Κ.17 Ι.Plus accurately indicates:  the character, personality, self-image, decisiveness, consistency, methodical approach, leading capacity and, mainly, vocational aptitudes, preferences, talents and interests. The 41-page report provides detailed analyses and results-conclusions, which are provide to parents and the person who was tested.

However, almost all tests of vocational guidance do not measure – and that is why they cannot consider two truly important and decisive factors for Failure or Success: 

1.    POTENTIAL (e.g. IQ level) 

2. WEAKNESSES (e.g., Learning Difficulties, Attention Deficit Impulsivity and Hyperactivity Disorder (known as ADHD), Mental Retardation, Asperger’s Syndrome, Autism spectrum disorder, etc).  

Wanting something is not enough. Only the right combination of what I WANT and what I CAN leads to the Right Vocational Choice. For example, the vocational training test can find that being a philologist is suitable for someone, but we do not know if the person suffers from Dyslexia or Dysgraphia, which exclude such a profession. This information is provided by the reliable tests offered at our Centres.  

Vocational guidance tests help early and valid discovery of the right goals, aiming at helping you make the right vocational decisions, at the right age (end of junior secondary school, beginning of senior secondary school), but can also be taken at a later age. It helps you acquire a better self-image and see how this better fits the characteristics of various vocations and the labour market.

A vocational guidance test must be valid and reliable and standardised for the population it addresses. Career Gate Test Κ.17 Ι.Plus is a valid, contemporary, automated vocational guidance test, which maps the personality and accurately records the true aptitudes, preferences and vocations suitable for a person.

The Reliability of  Career Gate Test K.17 Ι.Plus is based on economic, psychometric and educational data and underpinned by long-term research of a scientific group on the economy of work and on vocational guidance, under the auspices of Theodoros Katsanevas, Ph.D. (L.S.E.), M.A. (Warwick), a Professor at the University of Piraeus and a visiting Professor at the University of Athens. The test is scientifically sound, brief and comprehensible, it is standardised and successfully tested on the right population and can contribute decisively to taking the most important decision in one’s life, i.e., what to study and what vocation to choose.   

Personality traits measured in the test are based on Holland’s six (6) psychological types, which are those most accepted internationally:

1. Realistic

2. Investigative

3. Social

4. Artistic

5. Enterprising

6. Conventional

Personality traits and vocational aptitudes are assessed and classified by the test into 33 vocations-professions (requiring tertiary education), based on the following criteria:

• Very positive prospects
• Positive prospects
• Limited prospects
• Vocation with broader career paths
• Vocation with satisfactory career paths
• Vocation with limited career paths

Career Gate Test Κ.17 Ι.Plus is a relatively quick test, taken on a computer within half an hour or so. Pupils answer with a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to simple questions about their interests and preferences, such as: ‘Would you like to teach children?’; ‘Would you like to learn how an electrical appliance works?’  Answers are automatically collected into a special software programme and compared against a data base.

The individual personalised report of Career Gate Test K.17 Ι.Plus includes a personal report for each pupil and contains coloured histograms and tables with detailed, concise and comprehensible texts. It draws specific conclusions and indicates suitable vocations. Combined with suitable counselling support and analysis by experienced counsellors at our Centres, the test can be a valuable guide contributing to the right career choices. When the counselling session is completed, the pupil is able to discover and aim at academic departments and professions that are suitable for his/her potential, aptitudes, interests and personality.

• It is possible for a persistent, capable, industrious and talented person to be successful even if they choose a saturated vocation that is of interest to them and suitable for their personality.  
• The opposite is true, too:  If a young person selects a future vocation, which, however does not suit him/her or is indifferent to them, with low prospects and interests, then their future career is uncertain.
• The higher one’s learning performance and will are, the wider the range of vocations they can choose from, even if they present limited prospects in the labour market.
• Individuals with high potential, performance and strong will can choose from a wider range of vocations suitable for them, even among those with negative prospects, such as family, economic/financial, educational data. 
• On the contrary, individuals with low potential and performance, without serious hopes of improving them and with a weak will, should turn to studies and vocations that are, firstly, suitable for them and, secondly, have good prospects in the labour market or there are other positive factors we have already mentioned that co-exist, e.g., a family business where the individual can work. 
• In conclusion, there are more than one vocations suitable for anyone. If for some reason it is not feasible to choose the one most preferred, we ought to move to the one ranking next. 

A pupil has to try and see herself/himself as they are going to be after 10 to 20 years and think what they want as well as what they can achieve in their lives. If they choose a certain study field, they also have to examine their career prospects in relation to it, as well as other factors, such as their potential, performance, will, family, financial/economic and educational data.