Career Assessments, Awareness, and Exploration
Career assessments help students identify their school and post-school career interests and goals. Career Awareness and Exploration activities increase the knowledge of career options and help with future decision-making. (CDE WorkAbility Array of Services November 2022
The resources below are a collection of websites and digital/printable resources that allow students to identify their career interests and goals, explore matching careers, and expand their general awareness of the vast career options available.
Web-BASED/Digital
Time for Kids - Your Hot Job - Create a free account to complete a skills explorer (assessment) and explore a variety of careers.
California Career Zone - Create a free account to complete a variety of assessments/inventories and research careers
CareerOneStop - Assessments and short career videos organized into 16 clusters, or related types of work (some videos have Spanish transcription available)
US Dept of Labor - O*Net Interest Profiler - Digital resource with 60 activities to identify interests
Do to Learn Interest Quiz - This is a 44-question digital career inventory
Photo Career Quiz - A digital picture quiz of career interests.
VIDEO COLLECTIONS
Career Spotlight Videos - USA.Gov has 34 short videos, via YouTube, that interview people in a variety of careers
Job Shadow - Real interviews with people as they talk about the jobs they do and the careers they have
Nat Geo Kids: Best Job Ever - short videos describing unique jobs
Nat Geo Kids: You Wanna Be a What?! - Short videos of people working in their jobs and describing what it is like
Next Vista for Learning - Over 100 community-created short videos of businesses and careers that include interviews with workers
PBS Online Videos and Activities Grades 3 to 5 - Elementary resources and lessons to inspire students with videos, games, and activities aligned to state and national standards.
Printable
LIMITED READING/READING FREE
STC - Career Interest Inventory Pictorial Version - Paper-based RIASEC test using clipart-type images.
Pictorial Interest Inventory (uncredited) - Photographs representing eight career fields.
READING
Career Interest Explorer Assessment - A 2-page interest inventory based on the Holland Code of career clusters.
RIASEC Test - Career Pathway - Paper-based assessment with 42 statements about interests (Hawaii Public Schools).
School to World - Career Interest Survey - Paper-based interest assessment (Rochester City School District)
When I Grow Up ... - A 6-page interest inventory related to student activities.
OTHER LANGUAGES
School to World - Encuesta de Intereses Profesionales - Evaluación de intereses en papel (Distrito Escolar de la Ciudad de Rochester)
Miscellaneous
Jamming on the Job - Podcast in collaboration with PBS Kids with songs about interesting jobs around the country
Books Exploring Careers for Kids - A quick internet search will bring up a number of lists with books covering a wide range of age groups and careers. Here is one example from PBS Kids. Check with schools and local libraries as well as bookstores.
Career Exploration Coloring Book - PreK-3 - 17-page coloring book related to Kentucky’s 13 career clusters