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Skills are established procedures that lay the foundation to work with knowledge and is learned through experience and training. The Skills taxonomy we use is from O*NET(Mumford et. al., 1999) . Skills areas as they are gained by experience we limit the assessment of these for college students and professionals.

Knowledge are organized set of principles and are gained through education and experience. Our assessments refer to O*NET taxonomy  (Costanza et. al., 1999) of knowledge areas. In common parlance these could also be understood as preferred subject areas or courses which intrigue and are interesting to study for an individual.

Work values taxonomy used by us is based on the Theory of Work Adjustment (TWA) developed at the University of Minnesota (Dawis 2005) and as included in O*NET. This theory postulates that job satisfaction is directly related to the degree to which a person's values and corresponding needs are satisfied by his or her work environment. The TWA identifies six primary work values each with a corresponding set of sub need areas.

Work Styles are personality characteristics of an individual that can affect how well someone performs a job and is one of the latest and exciting areas in the vast and expanding body of Persoanlity Research. The taxonomy of work style is assessed based on the O*NET framework  (Borman et.

Interests Indicate preferences for work environments. We use the O*NET taxonomy that uses the six interest category of Holland (1997) model of personality types and work environments, though does not follow its theoretical career recommendation model. The six interest categories, used to describe the work environment of occupations and also for individual preferences for such occupations are Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, and Conventional ( RIASEC in short based on the first letters of the different types ).

Abilities are enduring attributes of the individual that influence performance. Our assessments use elements from the O*NET taxonomy that has comprehensively described these ability areas required across occupations based on Fleishman’s extensive body of research (Fleishman, Quaintance and Broedling,1984). . The overall abilities are divided as related to Cognitive Abilities (related to brain) and related to Psychomotor & Physical abilities.

The Occupational Information Network or O*NET program is USA’s primary source of occupational information. The O*NET system uses a common language and terminology to describe occupational requirements, superseding in early 2000’s the older Dictionary of Occupational Titles (DOT) which was established in 1930's.

Psychometric tests have been in use for several decades for facilitating career decisions for individuals, undecided with their career choices. Traditionally these tests have been done using paper – pencil, however computer aided career guidance has also become popular .

In this post we further detail the features which Tucareers provides which can facilitate career exploration and decision making.

Career assessments for school, graduate/post graduate students and working professionals

Given the importance, Career and Education related Decision Making or vocational guidance has been a subject of research for more than a century and has since established a comprehensive system of theories and interventions. The research has progressed particularly significantly in USA and Frank Parson an engineer by education, but also a lawyer, teacher and social reformer is considered as the father of the vocational guidance.