Service Levels

Career Decision Readiness

Everyone wants and needs to provide cost-effective, appropriate levels of service – to avoid over-serving or underserving discoverers. CKD is one tool that helps you evaluate a person’s readiness to make career decisions. Then, you can decide what level of service is best and what services to provide.

You can understand a person’s readiness to make a career decision from two points of view, those factors internal to the person, and those outside, or external.

Internal to the Individual

• Self-Clarity — The need for help in understanding their interests, abilities, and personality… and to relate them to career options,
• Need for more information — Knowledge about occupations, training programs, majors, or other career options,
• Difficulty in making decisions: may need help in learning how to make a good decision or there may be deeper issues requiring professional help,
• Importance of making a career decision; how motivated the person is,
• Self-efficacy beliefs — convictions about their ability to make a decision, to choose a particular career option, or to be able to do it, and
• Mental health issues.

External Factors

Family and friends

• Multiple responsibilities
• Inadequate work/life balance
• Significant others’ needs with a higher priority
• Significant others’ negative influences

Societal

• Lack of support, such as, quality career guidance services
• Discrimination and stereotyping
• Economy
• Lack of personal financial resources

 A “Just Right” Differentiated Service Level Model

Career Key uses three service levels adapted from a well-known model developed at Florida State University. (see CDP Manual).

1. Self-help services
2. Brief staff-assisted services
3. Individual case-managed services

Career Key helps advisors assign these service levels by estimating a level for each client based on their CKD scores, and the kind of help provided for each level.

How CKD scores are related to service levels

Career Key assigns certain CKD score patterns to the highest service level because they indicate the client has a higher level of need for advising and action to understand themselves. As we discussed in How CKD Helps, congruence between the discoverer and their work or academic environment is the key factor to long term success; some discoverers have more difficulty finding their congruent environment match than others.

For example, discovers with undifferentiated score patterns who have a broad mix of interests often have difficulty making decisions about what to study and next steps on career choices. Low scores on three or more types (“low flat”) may indicate the highest service level, while high scores on three or more types (“high flat”) may indicate the need for a brief staff assist.

All discoverers, even those assigned to self-help who seem high in self-clarity about their personality and interests, should engage in further self-reflection and exploration activities.

In estimating service levels, we prefer recommending more service than less, as the counselor or advisor is in the best position to follow up and determine what the discoverer needs.

CKD Scores Mapped to the Highest and Lowest Service Levels

You may find after following up directly with clients that they need a lower or higher service level.  Please contact us with your feedback on our estimates so we can continue to improve our approach.

Individual Case-Managed Service Delivery

If a client falls into the Individual, Case-Managed category, here is a step-by-step service model recommended by professional counselors. Also see our tips in Advise Discoverers.

7-Step Service Delivery Sequence

1. Initial interview
2. Preliminary Assessment
3. Define problem (gap between where they are and where they want to be) and analyze causes
4. Formulate goals
5. Develop individualized learning plan
6. Execute individualized learning plan
7. Summative view and generalization

Referrals to Other Professionals

As someone using the CKD in an administrative capacity, it’s important to know when you should ask for help. You want to provide competent advice to your discoverers.  Although you do not need a special credential or degree to administer the CKD, you should be prepared for advising situations where a certified professional counselor is required.

The individual, case managed service-level estimate can be one indicator that a higher or specialized level of expertise, training and credentials may be required to competently evaluate and advise a client. When implementing the CKD in your program, make sure to discuss how your organization will handle these situations.

Related:

About Career Key Discovery > How CKD Helps

Support > Manage CKD Discoverers

Support > Manage CKD Discoverers – Send Relevant Follow up

About Career Decision Profile > Service Levels covered in CDP Manual