Vocational Assessments

Interviews and assessments are conducted by our experienced psychologists and rehabilitation counsellors, who value building rapport with clients to support them through challenging transitional periods.

Our specialists will also recommend re-training when deemed necessary to achieve an agreed goal. All our recommendations are realistic and supported by labour market research and we provide clear reports, tailored to the individual, covering all relevant issues ranging from legal to career recommendations.

What our Vocational Assessments Involve

A Vocational Assessment is used to assess an individual’s capacity in relation to vocational preparation and return to work decision making. In doing so, the assessment process examines a range of factors including medical factors, psychological profile, social tendencies, employment and educational background, attitudes, values, interests, abilities and skills as well as cultural & economic data.

A comprehensive report is completed, which summarises all assessment outcomes, the recommended vocational options, return to work considerations, any retraining needs and may also include a labour market analysis.

Analysis of Employment history, transferrable skills & qualifications

The individual’s vocational history is analysed through collaborative discussion and often includes a review of relevant documentation such as a Resumes, training certificates, transcripts, and licenses.

The purpose is to obtain a comprehensive understanding of the individuals work experience, abilities, and transferable skills. Consideration is given to various relevant factors such as employment tenure, types of roles and industries worked in, life related experiences, hobbies and interests as well as level of educational attainment and training participation. This information is then used to inform vocational and employment planning and decisions.

Labour Market Research

Labour market research is used to support vocational option selection and decision making. It involves providing a detailed description of the vocational option including typical duties, qualification or training needs, physical and cognitive demands and job prospects.  Labour Market research includes; review of job data, identifying and interpreting market trends, surveying the market through employer contacts to determine role suitability for the individual and salary potential.  

Job Matching Using Future Pathways™

Our Vocational Assessments utilise FuturePathways™ - an innovative, digitally supported vocational and career matching assessment platform. The interactive platform is used to guide individuals requiring vocational, redeployment or outplacement support - accurately matching them to suitable careers.

FuturePathways enables a comprehensive understanding of the individual’s skills, work style tendencies, aptitudes and capabilities to ensure an achievable, sustainable employment outcome.

Together the capabilities of the platform, with the expertise and coaching experience of our consultants, deliver accurate insights into a client’s future potential. This approach supports individuals to find meaningful employment that matches their values, interests, skill-set and motivational drivers. We ensure our vocational recommendations reflect any injury or disability considerations for individuals.

What is FuturePathways™?

Driven by advanced global occupational data, evidence-based psychometric assessments, validated occupational interest profiles and personality assessments combined with client biodata information, the platform delivers accurate insights into an individual’s current and future potential to find meaningful employment that fits their values, interests, skill-set, motivational drivers and is also reflective of any medical, functional, psychological or disability considerations.

The combination of assessments provides robust, reliable and valid job match compatibility scores ranking all occupations for each individual participant. This can be filtered by:

• Skill level (no training/preparation for entry, some preparation and extensive).
• Medical restrictions or disability considerations include functional, psychological or cognitive limitations.
• Industry type.
• One/some/all of the psychometric testing results.
• One/some/all aspects of career theme results.

Results are reviewed by our trained consultants in the context of labour market trends and are also easily interpretable by the client to help guild discussions for identifying the most appropriate job matches. Additionally, the filtering options enable current and future capacities to be modelled to further explore suitable vocations such as when an individual is upskilled, or their physical or psychological capacity improves.

Achieving the Best Possible Match
Our assessments have been developed to ensure our vocational job option recommendations provide the best possible match for our clients while empowering them to be active participants in their vocational goal setting and planning.

FuturePathways assessments provide a valid job match compatibility score that ranks all occupations, from the world’s largest vocational database, for each participant.

Vocational Counselling 

The Vocational Assessment process inherently involves the vocational assessor understanding an individual’s level of return to work ‘readiness’ and providing associated recommendations.

Where relevant, Vocational Counselling may be provided at any stage before, during or after a Vocational Assessment to assist with establishment and alignment to the most realistic vocational and employment goals.

Job Preparation and Job Seeking 

Recommendations in regards to the level of job preparation, job-seeking education and employment support an individual may require is also provided. Following a Vocational Assessment, oftentimes job-seeking services are provided to help prepare the individual to independently search for new employment, to assist with job applications, re-training, monitoring and securing new employment as well as providing vocational counselling where required.  

Vocational Assessment Reports

Our Vocational Assessment Reports are comprehensive, evidence-based and inclusive. Psychometric assessment results are presented in a variety of formats offering various levels of analysis and interpretation. Raw results are interpretable by our technically trained rehabilitation consultants, whilst our feedback reports offer a more simplistic summary of results that can be easily understood by our clients. The various filtering options also enable current and future capacities and skills to be modelled within reports to provide a further exploration into suitable job matches.

We provide a fully comprehensible and well-considered final report for our external clients which combines the FuturePathways psychometric and psychosocial results, the vocational interview information and labour market analysis of the career pathways deemed most suitable. All standard vocational assessment information remains included in the final report as this continues to form an important part of the vocational interview, our engagement with other stakeholders throughout the assessment completion, and our reporting process.

By incorporating the FuturePathways tool into our Vocational Assessment process we have enhanced the quality of our reporting but also positively influenced how we engage with vocational clients to ultimately improve outcomes.

FAQs

What is a vocational assessment?

A Vocational Assessment is a comprehensive evaluation of an individuals’ work profile and potential with consideration to their physical, psychological and cognitive capabilities.

It involves analysis of transferable skills, employment history, training and education, interests, work styles and personality.

The aim of a Vocational Assessment is to identify suitable, meaningful and sustainable employment and/ or training options.

Who conducts a vocational assessment?

A Vocational Assessment is conducted by a suitability qualified Psychologist or Vocational Rehabilitation Counsellor.

Vocational Assessors are required to maintain up to date knowledge, skills and accreditation with relevant professional bodies.

How long does a vocational assessment take?

A Vocational Assessment typically takes 1-2 hours. As part of the Vocational Assessment Process, individuals are asked to complete a range of psychometric assessments and questionnaires.

What can I expect from a vocational evaluation?

As part of the Vocational Assessment Process, individuals are asked to complete a range of psychometric assessments and questionnaires to help in understanding their vocational interests, aptitude, personality, general health and wellbeing.

Individuals will engage in a one-to-one vocational interview where details regarding their employment history, transferable skills and where relevant, their medical history and work capacity are gathered. Individuals who partake in a Vocational Assessment are often encouraged to provide other supporting documentation or information that can assist in the Vocational Assessment process such as a Resume, Copies of Qualifications/ Licenses and/ or medical certificates or reports.

The Vocational Assessor will discuss the outcomes and key findings of the Vocational Assessment with the individual. Through exploration of the labour market, and where relevant collaboratively working with the individual's the treatment/ medical team, suitable vocational options are identified, and a detailed Vocational Assessment report is completed.