Advanced Psychology Services Career Assessments
Helping adolescents and young adults choose an occupation based on their personality traits, interests, and cognitive profile.
WE OFFER CAREER ADVICE BASED ON PSYCHOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF PERSONALITY AND APTITUDE
Ideal ages: 16-25 years
WHAT IS INVOLVED?
Our centre uses the Multimodal career counselling system (MCCS). MCCS involves three 50-minute interactive work sessions with a psychologist, completion of several questionnaires at home, as well as the counselors work on analysis, scoring, and interpretation. The student and his/her parents are then invited for a feedback session where the results will be presented to them and options will be discussed.
WHY IS THIS
METHOD UNIQUE?
Unlike other career counseling services (e.g. school or employment counselling) which typically use one standard test, the MCCS offers a unique combination of three specialized psychological tests (personality, aptitude, and interests) in conjunction with client-oriented psychological exploration. This system measures students' relative strengths in several aptitude areas, indirectly explores their personal interests and preferences, and assesses personality traits related to satisfaction in different work environments. Based on a thorough analysis of these results, the vocational areas that satisfy these three factors are then selected. In addition, the method offers client-centered guidance based on the identified career options and the current stage of the student in his/her career development.
WHAT CAREER COUNSELLING CAN AND CANNOT DO
Because of the fluid nature of the assessed characteristics, occupational testing cannot provide an ultimate answer for one's life. Career development is not a matter of making a single choice at a given point in time. It is often a difficult process that is complicated by the adolescents limited self-understanding, meager knowledge of the world of work, and limited work experience. Occupational testing should stimulate and facilitate this process by exploring students personal characteristics and matching them with specific work areas. It can be used as a starting point in a career search which should be followed by a thorough exploration of the recommended occupations, projected job growth, training programs and requirements.
ASSESSMENT INSTRUMENTS
APTITUDE SURVEY
Aptitude batteries measure a unique pattern of skills and abilities possessed by an individual. An aptitude is a specified proficiency or the capacity to acquire a certain proficiency. This survey constructs a profile of personal aptitudes by combining individuals scores on six subtests: general ability, vocabulary, computation, spatial relations, perceptual aptitude, and manual dexterity. The test is timed and the results may depend on a persons ability to perform under the time pressure.
INTEREST INVENTORY
Often, asking people directly about their interests produces unreliable and unrealistic results. The purpose of interest inventories is to indirectly explore and differentiate individual interests and preferences. The inventory measures relative interest in instructional programs available to students attending or planning to attend a university or college. In this test, hundreds of paired activity descriptions provide a unique exercise in choice and decision-making. Each allows the simultaneous assessment of personal preference for activities associated with almost 50 different instructional programs. The programs include the vast majority of postsecondary education academic majors. The results of the test highlight the areas of the greatest attraction and identify additional career fields that can be considered by the individual.
PERSONALITY QUESTIONNAIRE
A person's professional fulfillment depends in high degree on the satisfaction with his/her work environment. The personality questionnaire identifies an individual's personality profile by assessing performance on 16 primary and 5 global personality factor scales. In addition to the overall pattern of a student's personality traits, it provides interpretations of predominant personality factors, and presents information about related interpersonal, vocational, and behavioral criteria. The interpretation of this measure facilitates students' self-understanding and highlights the necessity to consider one's personality while selecting an appropriate work environment.
ABOUT AP SERVICES
Established in 2006 by psychologist Dr. Tali Shenfield, our centre offers a full range of psychological assessments and therapy services for children, adults, and families. In the past 16 years, our caring and experienced staff of fully licensed psychologists and psychotherapists have helped over 5500 clients to improve their quality of life and overcome obstacles.
Our staff speaks English, Cantonese, Farsi, Hebrew, Mandarin, Portuguese, and Spanish
Our centre is located in south Richmond Hill, Ontario just north of Hwy 407, making it easily accessible from the GTA (Greater Toronto Area).