Navigating the complexities of career choices can be daunting for individuals of all ages. From students just beginning to consider their future paths to adults contemplating career changes, the need for comprehensive and reliable career guidance is universal. Enter the Discover Career Planning Program, a robust, computer-based system designed to illuminate career pathways for individuals from grade 5 through adulthood. Developed by ACT, inc., DISCOVER offers a multifaceted approach to career exploration, integrating assessments of interests, abilities, and values with extensive information on occupations, educational opportunities, and job search strategies.
At its core, DISCOVER is more than just a tool; it’s a personalized journey of self-discovery and career enlightenment. This online platform empowers users to explore a vast landscape of career options, ranging from civilian to military occupations, and delve into detailed information about college majors, schools, and financial aid resources. The program culminates in the creation of an online career portfolio, a dynamic record of career explorations and choices, complete with a customizable resume builder.
DISCOVER Career Planning Program
The Evolution of DISCOVER: A Legacy of Career Guidance
The roots of DISCOVER extend back to 1967, marking over half a century of innovation in career counseling. JoAnn Harris-Bowlsbey, a visionary in the field and then Director of Guidance at Willowbrook High School, pioneered a computerized career counseling program known as CVIS (Computerized Vocational Information System). This groundbreaking work laid the foundation for DISCOVER, which emerged as the next iteration of her vision. In 1982, the DISCOVER Foundation joined forces with ACT, solidifying its position as a leading force in career development.
Since its inception, DISCOVER has continuously evolved, adapting to technological advancements and the latest insights in career development theory. Each new version has incorporated enhanced features and components, always maintaining its core strength: research-backed assessments anchored to ACT’s World-of-Work Map and a wealth of high-quality information on diverse career-related topics. This continuous improvement ensures that DISCOVER remains a relevant and effective tool for career exploration across different stages of life and career trajectories. The program’s interconnected components are meticulously designed to facilitate a seamless career exploration experience for users ranging from middle school students to seasoned professionals.
Grounded in Theory: The World-of-Work Map
The World-of-Work Map by ACT serves as the central framework within DISCOVER, providing a structured and intuitive approach to understanding the occupational landscape. This map is built upon two key dimensions derived from extensive empirical research: the nature of work tasks (data vs. ideas) and the interpersonal focus of work (people vs. things). These dimensions create a four-quadrant map, with data, ideas, people, and things representing the cardinal directions, much like a traditional geographical map.
Furthermore, the World-of-Work Map integrates six career clusters, mirroring John L. Holland’s renowned theory of six vocational personality types. Within these clusters, 26 distinct career areas are strategically positioned on the map. Each career area encompasses occupations that share similar combinations of core work tasks. This ingenious mapping system allows users to easily connect their assessment results (interests, abilities, values) to relevant occupational options. By plotting both individual profiles and occupations on the same two-dimensional space, the World-of-Work Map provides a clear and comprehensive bridge from personal attributes to potential career paths.
Figure 1. World-of-Work Map Source: ACT, Inc.
Self-Assessment Tools: Unveiling Your Career Profile
DISCOVER empowers users to pinpoint their location on the World-of-Work Map through a suite of carefully designed assessments. These include the ACT Interest Inventory (UNIACT), the Inventory of Work-Relevant Abilities, and the Inventory of Work-Relevant Values. Each inventory is the product of rigorous research, and detailed psychometric information is readily available. The results from these assessments are translated into career areas on the World-of-Work Map, encouraging users to explore and identify areas that resonate with them.
It’s common for individuals to receive varied career area suggestions across the three inventories. This is a valuable feature of DISCOVER, highlighting the multifaceted nature of career decision-making. For instance, a user’s interests might align with one set of careers, while their abilities might point towards another. Occupations that strongly align with personal values may present yet another set of options. Career counselors can leverage these comparative insights to guide clients in understanding the interplay of interests, abilities, and values in the career choice process.
Beyond its proprietary inventories, DISCOVER also accommodates scores from other widely used assessments like EXPLORE, PLAN, and the ACT, as well as numerous tests and inventories from other publishers. By integrating achievement data with self-assessment results, DISCOVER provides a richer and more nuanced understanding of an individual’s career potential. Utilizing DISCOVER after completing such assessments significantly amplifies the value and applicability of the assessment information in the context of career exploration.
Information-Rich Components: Exploring Career Landscapes
A significant majority of DISCOVER users, over 85%, engage with the program’s inventories to locate themselves on the World-of-Work Map. Furthermore, approximately 80% actively explore the detailed occupational descriptions provided within the system. These descriptions are a treasure trove of information, encompassing essential details about each occupation, including required training, national and state salary data and employment outlook, and links to external websites for deeper research.
DISCOVER seamlessly connects occupations to relevant college majors and military occupations, each accompanied by comprehensive descriptions. Majors are further linked to institutions that offer them, with detailed profiles provided for each school, spanning from short-term certificate programs to advanced graduate and professional studies. The database includes virtually all accredited schools in the United States, with annual updates to ensure accuracy and currency.
In addition to occupational and educational data, DISCOVER covers a wide spectrum of career-related topics, such as financial aid options, effective job search strategies, and course planning tools. Links to external online resources provide users with access to even more specialized information on virtually any topic of interest. Users can also utilize DISCOVER to generate professional-quality resumes and develop personalized course plans. For participating schools that integrate their course catalogs and graduation requirements into DISCOVER, students can strategically select high school courses that align with their evolving career aspirations. Crucially, all user interactions and explored information within the program are meticulously tracked within a personal career portfolio. This portfolio serves as a dynamic summary of utilized features, decisions made, and preferred options, encouraging users to maintain an ongoing record of their career journey and adapt it as their goals and educational plans evolve.
Intuitive Navigation and Accessibility: User-Friendly Design
DISCOVER is designed for ease of use, ensuring that all its powerful components are accessible through an intuitive navigation system. As an internet-delivered program, DISCOVER offers unparalleled flexibility, allowing users to engage with it anytime, anywhere. This accessibility fosters opportunities for parental involvement and extends career guidance beyond traditional counseling settings. However, recognizing that online access is often unsupervised, DISCOVER is engineered to be user-friendly and navigable without direct assistance. The program incorporates various support features, including guided tours, frequently asked questions (FAQs), a comprehensive site map, and detailed instructions on every page. While professional guidance from career counselors is always encouraged to enhance the experience, user feedback consistently indicates that most individuals can effectively navigate the program and find the information they need independently.
Professional Support Resources: Empowering Counselors
Beyond its user-facing features, DISCOVER provides robust support for career development professionals. Comprehensive reports are available to enable staff to assess program usage and effectiveness, and to review individual career portfolios. Institutions licensing DISCOVER have the option to customize the program’s appearance and content to better serve their specific user populations. Furthermore, DISCOVER offers detailed manuals and guides, along with curriculum support materials tailored for middle schools, high schools, and colleges. These materials include lesson plans with accompanying worksheets and activities to enhance the integration of DISCOVER into classroom or group settings.
Tailoring to Target Populations: Grade 5 to Adult
DISCOVER effectively caters to a diverse user base, ranging from 5th graders to adults, through two key differentiation strategies. Firstly, certain features are selectively suppressed based on the user’s self-reported grade level, ensuring age-appropriateness. For instance, the inventories are not offered to users in grade 5 or below, as they are not suitable for elementary school children. Instead, younger users are encouraged to explore occupations through the World-of-Work Map, focusing on understanding the six career clusters and drilling down to specific career areas and occupations that pique their interest. This early exposure helps them begin to conceptualize their place on the map. Age-appropriate versions of the interest inventory are introduced from grade 6 onwards, while the abilities inventory, which involves self-estimation of abilities, is offered from grade 8 and up. Although self-estimation accuracy improves with age, engaging with these questions is beneficial for self-reflection throughout middle school and adulthood. The values inventory becomes available from grade 9 onwards, aligning with the increasing awareness of personal values during high school years.
The second differentiation strategy is user-driven choice. While some features, such as resume writing tools and apprenticeship information, are more relevant to mature users, they remain accessible to all age groups. DISCOVER empowers users to determine which features are most pertinent to their individual needs and stage of career exploration. A dedicated “Plan My Path” feature further assists users in navigating the program and selecting the most relevant tools and resources for their specific goals.
DISCOVER’s versatility has led to its widespread adoption across diverse settings throughout the United States, including schools, colleges, corporations, government agencies, military installations, libraries, prisons, and private counseling offices. Each year, approximately one million individuals utilize the program, attesting to its enduring value and impact in guiding career exploration and planning.
In conclusion, the DISCOVER Career Planning Program stands as a time-tested and continually refined resource for career guidance. Since its inception in 1967, it has empowered millions from grade 5 through adulthood to navigate their career journeys with confidence. By integrating research-based assessments, a unifying theoretical framework in the World-of-Work Map, comprehensive career information, and personalized career portfolios, DISCOVER provides a holistic and effective approach to career exploration. Furthermore, its robust support for career development professionals, coupled with its anytime, anywhere accessibility, solidifies its position as a leading career guidance system in the digital age.
References
- ACT. (1995). Technical manual: Revised Unisex Edition of the ACT Interest Inventory (UNIACT). Iowa City, IA: Author.
- ACT. (2000). Career Planning Survey technical manual. Iowa City, IA: Author.
- ACT. (2006). Research support for DISCOVER assessment components. Iowa City, IA: Author.
- Prediger, D. J., & Swaney, K. B. (2004). Work task dimensions underlying the world of work: Research results for diverse occupational databases. Journal of Career Assessment, 12, 440—159.
