Career Assessment: The person- environment fit approach

The person- environment fit approach to career assessment is one of the most popular methods used for career assessment today. 

How does it work?

The goal of this approach is to find the perfect fit between a client's self knowledge and his/her knowledge of the world of work. This knowledge is primarily obtained by doing psychological assessments. Normally a test battery would include the following tests: an aptitude or cognitive measure for example the Differential Aptitude test (DAT) or the General Scholastic Aptitude test (GSAT), an interest questionnaire for example the 19 Field Interest Inventory (19FII) or the Self-Directed Search Questionnaire (SDS), a personality questionnaire for example the 16 Factor Personality Questionnaire (16PF) or the Jung Personality Questionnaire (JPQ) and a values assessment for example the Values Scale (VS).

After an assessment is done and the results interpreted a fit can then be made. A client will be advised of certain career fields that suits his/her interests, personality, values and abilities. The client can now do further research on these fields, receive further counselling until he/she makes a decision on what career to follow.

It is a simple cost effective way of doing career assessments. Unfortunately its has become an outdated approach and its relevance has to be questioned in especially, South Africa.

Why?

Some of the assessments listed above have been in use since the 1970's or 1980's.Some have been updated and new norms were developed. A research article published in June 2020 in the African Journal of Psychological Assessment by Nabeelah Bemath (Behemath, N.(2020). Relevance of the person- environment approach to career assessment in South Africa- A review. African Journal of Psychological Assessment.) clearly indicates that the DAT, 16PF and SDS relevance in the South African context needs to be questioned. You are welcome to read the full research article here: https://ajopa.org/index.php/ajopa/article/view/22 (Please note: the site uses cookies)

To sum up, the article questions the reliability and validity of these tests in the South African context. It questions the western- based themes, language and socio- economic bias of the test and the inadequate norms developed for the South African population.

My Concerns

Most Psychological assessments used in South Africa were either developed in South Africa for South Africans during the Apartheid era or it is assessments developed in the USA or Europe that we have adapted for our own use. All of these tests can thus be culturally biased.

Many of our assessments are only available in English and Afrikaans, yet we have 11 official languages. As a Psychometrist, I also lack the necessary language skills.I am only fluent in English and Afrikaans. Even if I could obtain an assessment in for example IsiZulu, I will not be able to do the assessment, because I am not fluent in IsiZulu. The other problem with language is, that some languages has  not developed into academic languages which would make translation of tests difficult. Different dialects also makes this difficult. A child who does an assessment in his or her second or third language would inevitable perform poorer than a child who is proficient in the language of assessment. I have also personally found the Afrikaans language used in the 19 Field Interest Inventory is old fashioned and that modern day children struggle to understand some of the concepts.

Socio- economic concerns are that children of previously disadvantage households have not been exposed to the same skills and knowledge as their more affluent peers. On the other hand I have found that it is unfortunately only the more affluent families that can afford career assessment for their children.

What can be done?

Although this all seems very problematic, there is a few strategies practitioners can implement, until we maybe one day can lay our hands on ideal assessments for the South African context. 

The first thing practitioners should do is be aware of their assessments shortcomings. It seems like many practitioners do not keep up to date with research in their fields. It is important to take note of the shortcomings and problems, so that when the results are interpreted these things can be taken into account. 

Do an in- depth intake interview or questionnaire of your client before you decide on the test battery you are going to use. This will enable you to choose the assessments that would suit your client the best. Try and avoid or replace assessments that are overly biased.

Also take note of the language of instruction. As previously stated most children that come for career assessment are from affluent families. These children have been in private or old model C schools since pre- primary and have received education in either their mother tongue or second language. It is important to remember that aptitude tests measures academic ability. For example, if a child's mother tongue is Afrikaans but he/she received instruction since pre- school phase in English it is best to do the assessment in English as the child's grasp of English language concepts will be better. 

Always remember that test results should not be viewed in isolation. Make use of an integrated approach using quantitative and qualitative assessments. Also make use of interviews to clarify and obtain extra information.

The Psychology profession faces many challenges in South Africa. There is far to few practitioners and to much economic inequality. What we do need is more research and education on the integrated approach to career assessment. Until career guidance becomes more accessible, I feel there will not be a real need or urgency to address above mentioned problems.