The Vocational Assessment Process

The Vocational Assessment Process
Formal and Informal Assessment


The Vocational Assessment Process

The development of community-based assessments for individuals with disabilities, environmental assessments, and
curriculum-based vocational assessments are each indicators of the movement toward reality-based and personalized
vocational experiences. Standardized assessments remain effective methods in the vocational process, but usually are used
in combination with the above.

Vocational assessment is a process that can take place at different times during your student’s education and career
development. It is an ongoing process that should begin during the middle or junior high school years and may continue
throughout high school and, if needed, perhaps re-occur during transitional periods in adult life.

Throughout the education process students are involved in career awareness and vocational exploration activities. In the
early years of school, children study community workers such as firefighters, police, and transportation providers. A
student's performance with schoolwork can provide sources of important information about potential careers.
Extracurricular activities, such as sports, music, art, scouts, and other social and community-based organizations add to this
information and offer opportunities for the student to try out a variety of activities and roles.

These experiences can be used in informal vocational assessment, in the sense that students are developing career
awareness and motivation, as well as ideas of what they like and do not like. They may also develop a fair idea of what
types of jobs they would be good at and what would be difficult for them, ideas they can generally articulate, if asked.

Informal and Formal Assessment

Your student may have the opportunity for informal and formal vocational assessment. Vocational assessment can be
described as occurring on a continuum of appraisal procedures, which have different purposes and outcomes depending
upon the individual's needs and career development stage. Informal assessment is more available in schools than formal
appraisal approaches.

Informal assessment differs from formal assessment in terms of the objectives, setting, personnel conducting the assessment
and the materials used in the process. Informal assessment includes the gathering of information from any number of
sources other than through formal testing procedures and is conducted in classrooms or unstructured settings. Methods,
such as interviewing a student or family member, making observations, conducting record reviews, and using teacher-made
tests results, criterion-referenced tests, are examples of informal methods along the assessment spectrum.

Usually, informal assessments are conducted for the purpose of assisting students in classroom work and to identify possible
learning difficulties. Informal assessment is an important complement to formal assessment and is essential in determining
whether a referral for formal assessment is appropriate.

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Formal assessment is a structured procedure conducted for a specific purpose and involves the use of norm-referenced,
commercially developed, and standardized instruments. The purpose of formal assessment in vocational appraisal is to
determine a student's interests, aptitudes, learning preferences, work skills, and other vocationally relevant
information. Many vocational assessment instruments have been commercially developed and administered to a
representative group of individuals in order to establish normative standards of performance.

Vocationally oriented assessment tools include interest inventories, aptitude and dexterity tests, work sample systems,
and other appraisal instruments. Informal assessment information is frequently incorporated with formal assessment
results in preparing comprehensive reports or vocational profiles.

Comprehensive vocational assessment or vocational evaluation - the collection of information via observations, interest
inventories, aptitude tests, etc. should occur along a continuum, with different kinds of information being collected
about the student at different points in time. The use of results will vary, depending upon the student's year in school.
During these years, vocational assessment can also help parents and teachers identify and plan for transition needs.
Parents should take advantage of planning sessions to learn more about the different resources available and to work
with the school system to utilize all of the vocational assessment information collected on their child. This includes
teacher impressions of work habits, socialization skills, and other anecdotal information about student behavior and
performance. Such information can be useful during special education planning and placement decisions.

Situational Assessments: A situational assessment would be something created, like a work setting or social situation
for practice or assessment of an individual’s skill level.

The RI Regional Transition Centers can provide formal & informal vocational assessments in conjunction with your
local school districts, as well as the Office of Rehabilitation Services.

For more information, refer to the publication in your handouts: “Vocational Assessment and It’s Role In Transition”
developed by the RI Regional Transition Centers and the Rhode Island –Transition, Independence, Employment grant
(RITIE)

Available in electronic format through the Paul V. Sherlock Center on Disabilities www.sherlockcenter.org or call for
availability of copies.

Also may be available through one of the RI Regional Transition Centers for additional copies.

This document is available at www.ripin.org/vocationalassessmentprocess.pdf

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