DANTES March 2022
INFORMATION BULLETIN
Helping Service Members Unlock the Power of Their Own Potential through Kuder Journey By: Mareba Mack, Program Manager, DANTES
In this issue: College and Career Planning (Kuder Journey) / Kuder Journey Fact Sheet / Hot News /
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College and Career Planning (Kuder Journey) Service members are often told to “work as though they’ll stay in forever; prepare as if they’ll separate tomorrow.” A considerable part of that preparation is getting them set up to pursue meaningful skills, trades, certificates, and degrees that align them for current and post-military success. Kuder Journey helps make career transitions manageable and improves accountability with evidenced-based solutions. Service members are led through a series of assessments to help gain insight into
their interests, skills, and work values. Counselors should introduce service members to the Kuder career planning tool, known as best-inclass for its validity and reliability. The benefits of this system are not just limited to academic success but also aid in bolstering service members’ military careers. Kuder is free and accessible and can be relied upon as a Counselor’s “go-to” tool for getting and keeping service members on the right path toward career success. Kuder stays updated with the latest O*Net information on wages/salaries, employment trends, job outlook, and labor market information. The database was recently updated to include many new occupations, including medical/science, engineering, and finance.
Kuder Journey gets people on the path to know what steps to take, the goals to achieve, and how to get a job reflecting their skills, values, and interests, making career years happy years. Anne Kreutzer, WorkOne West Central Kokomo, IndianaProducts Team Leader,
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What’s New With Kuder Journey Using Reliable Assessments to Guide Career Exploration So, what is the Kuder Career Planning System (KCPS)? Dr. JoAnn Harris-Bowlsbey has worked extensively with state departments of education and labor in the conceptualization and implementation of education and career planning websites that serve as a virtual center for students and adults to shed light on the Mechanisms behind the KCPs, including the assessments at their core and how they serve as a springboard for reliable occupation exploration. The first step in education and career planning should be for the service member to learn about themselves. Career development and choice theories consistently inform us that the first step in education and career planning should be to learn about yourself – specifically about interests, skills, and work values. Research indicates that school retention, stability of choice of college major, and job satisfaction are significantly enhanced when individuals can align their interests, skills, and values with occupations, programs of study, and jobs. Reliable career assessments support self-understanding as well as education and career choices. The Kuder Career Planning System offers three valid and reliable career assessments that students and adults can take to learn more about themselves and make valuable linkages between that self-information and education and career choices.
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Aligning interests and skills with occupations and programs of study. It is essential to align the rubric for self-understanding (of interests and skills) with the rubric for organizing occupations and programs of study (majors) • so that students can easily bridge that gap. In general, secondary schools in the United States use an organizational system for occupations and programs of study called the National Career Clusters® Framework. However, many U.S. colleges and universities make use of the Holland classification system, developed and researched by the eminent career choice theorist, Dr. John Holland. The KCPS uses both methods to: •
Provide a concise picture of the users’ interests and skills confidence derived from the Kuder Career Interests Assessment® (KCIA) and the Kuder Skills Confidence Assessment® (KSCA), respectively.
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Present a list of occupations that users should explore in greater depth after taking these assessments.
The linkage between these two systems is accessible and valid because the O*NET occupational database provided by the U.S. Department of Labor records a “Holland code” for each of its nearly 1,000 occupations. Measuring the interests and skills confidence of individuals using the Holland method. The theory and classification system proposed by Holland is based on decades of research in a variety of cultures. There are four basic tenets to this theory, as follows: •
Occupations, work environments, courses and majors, even leisure activities can be described as a combination of six types: Realistic (R), Investigative (I), Artistic (A), Social (S), Enterprising (E), and Conventional (C).
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Similarly, individuals’ personality traits and interests can be described by a profile of the same six types.
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Individuals of a given type are attracted to occupations, environments, and coursework of
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the same or similar type. For that reason, an individual’s Holland code is used to identify occupations and programs of study for in-depth exploration. To the extent that individuals of a given type engage in an occupation, environment, or area of study of the same or similar type, they will find satisfaction and are more likely to remain stable in their choices. Kuder researchers and others have verified this claim.
Converting interests and skills into a list of suggested occupations using The National Career • Clusters Framework
cational level(s) selected by the user. Allow users to save selected pathways, occupations, and programs of study to their Favorites list.
Next let’s look at the method of organizing occupations and programs of study developed by Advance Based on the user’s rating of these values, the ocCTE. In this approach, the universe of occupations cupational database is scanned to present the 50 is divided into 16 clusters that represent different best-matching occupations for further exploration industries and occupational groups. and consideration. Data to support the linkage of Each cluster is broken down into subdivisions, values and occupations is derived primarily from called career pathways, representing a specialty the U.S. Department of Labor O*NET database. within the cluster and whose occupations have similar knowledge and skills requirements. There One of the most important displays in the KCPS is are 79 career pathways, two to seven of which are the one in which all occupations that have been subcategories of each of the 16 clusters. identified by the results of the interest assessment Based on the premise that career guidance systems (KCIA), the skills confidence assessment (KSCA), should assist individuals in relating self-informa- and the work values inventory (SWVI-r) are merged tion to occupations and educational options, the into one list. logic in Kuder systems follows this sequence: The assessment(s) that suggested a specific occu• Find the user’s Holland profile and subtype de- pation title are check-marked. Occupations sugrived from how a user answers the items on the gested by all three assessments are listed first, then assessments. those suggested by two of the three assessments, • Because a Holland profile has been assigned and finally those suggested only by one assessto each of the O*NET career pathways based ment.
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on the profiles of the occupations contained in Users should begin their detailed exploration by each, identify and display in rank order the titles learning as much as possible about those that are of the five career pathways with most similar to identified by two or three of the assessments. that of the user. For more information go to: https://www.onetonAllow users to look at the descriptions of these line.org/ five pathways and the occupations and programs of study that can be entered at the edu-
O*NETs’ new database offers the latest information on wages and salaries, employment trends, and other job outlook and labor market information. Kuder has integrated the new database in Kuder Navigator® and Kuder Journey® to connect our users with the latest information on wages and salaries, employment trends, and other job outlook and labor market information.
Here are the new O*NET database highlights: Among the newly added occupations in the updated O*NET database are Data Scientist, Disc Jockey, Lighting Technician, Security Manager, Blockchain Engineer, and Financial Risk Specialists. Highlights of the new database include: • • • •
62 added occupation areas. 4 new and emerging occupations in the area of cyber security. 75 occupations with updated titles. 280 occupations with new and refreshed descriptions.
Check out O*NETs’ new database here: Kuder.com
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COLLEGE & CAREER PLANNING PROGRAM OVERVIEW:
SERVICE MEMBER BENEFITS:
The Department of Defense (DoD) Voluntary Education (VolEd) Program, through the Defense Activity for NonTraditional Education Support (DANTES) provides customized college and career counseling services specifically designed for military students. Kuder Journey is a comprehensive online resource that helps service members plan for the future. College and career planning requires learning about oneself first to ensure a member chooses the right career path for their future. Kuder Journey’s education and career counseling program is designed to help military students learn, access, and plan, based on personal interests, skills and work values.
Access free, self-paced, college and career counseling assistance Offers career and education pathways customized for individual users Aligns career options to educational requirements Helps build job search skills for transition Assists with building custom resumes and cover letters Provides lifetime access to e-Portfolio and individual assessments
PROGRAM ELIGIBILITY: Kuder Journey is available to all actively serving members in all branches of service, including the National Guard, Reserve components and Coast Guard. Kuder Journey account activation during active duty service provides lifetime access to the program as a transitioning veteran.
COUNSELOR RESOURCES:
Counseling@navy.mil clientengagement@kuder.com www.MyVolEd.com/Kuder
Kuder Journey AdministratorTraining & Tutorials: https://adms.kuder.com/ADMS-login/?portal=KUDER Kuder Support Links: https://www.kuder.com/landing-page/holland-theory-overview-and-application-/ Getting Kuder Journey Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oi7Ybozdj1k
7 Helping Service Members Achieve Their Education Goals
HOT NEWS Click below to check out the video My Career Advancement Account (MyCAA) eligible spouses are now able to take College Level Examination Program (CLEP) and Prometric DSST exams.
The MyCAA Scholarship is a workforce development program that provides up to $4,000 of tuition assistance to eligible military spouses. The scholarship assists military spouses in the pursuit or maintenance of a license, certification or associate degree necessary to gain employment in an occupation or career field. For more information please visit https://mycaa.militaryonesource.mil/mycaa/.
Click on the picture below to download the full Fact Sheet!
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For more info contact us: DANTES_Outreach@navy.mil Jeff Allen, Director Michelle Alexander, Editor Reproduction in whole or in part is permitted for any purpose of the United States Government, except that copyrighted materials cannot be reproduced without written permission from the copyright owner. The appearance of external hyperlinks does not constitute endorsement by DANTES of the linked websites, or the information, products, or services contained therein.
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