FAQs for Parents
College is costly enough as it is. Why should parents invest in career planning?
Research shows that just 1-in-4 of this year’s college freshmen will have a degree in 4 years. (educationdata.org, 2021). This sobering statistic is largely attributable to switching majors, transferring schools, and career uncertainty. Investing in professional career planning and helping students find direction faster than trial-and-error can lead to huge tuition savings for parents in the long run. Even one additional year at a private college at an average of $38,000, and the loss of a first job’s salary at $50,000 represents an additional financial liability of $88,000. Professional career planning costs far less. It’s like an insurance policy to help protect your investment in college.
Continue reading →What is Career Vision?
Career Vision℠ is a non-profit career planning organization that helps individuals reach their full potential by gaining the self-knowledge necessary to make satisfying career and educational choices. As part of our mission, Career Vision also offers free “Career Literacy” presentations for groups of parents who want to guide their high school and college age children regarding college major and career decisions. They are the only organization of this kind in the nation.
Continue reading →When should parents talk to their children about career planning?
There is no magic age for discussing career planning with children, but smart parents start early in the game. Parent should encourage middle-school aged children to learn more about their interests and expose them to a range of different jobs and work environments. Helping children to identify their strengths and encouraging them to ask questions is a great first step in introducing career awareness. At the high school level, a career consultant can help identify a teen’s unique talents and recommend career options and work environments that allow that individual to do their best. Career assessments give juniors and seniors information that can be helpful in choosing types of colleges and academic majors.
Continue reading →My student gets help at their high school. What can you do differently?
We actively support the work of school counselors. Unfortunately most have heavy caseloads; the typical counselor is responsible for almost 500 students in a given year. Our sole purpose is to attend to your child and your child alone. In addition to aptitude-based career planning, we also feature customized career portfolios and personalized career consulting to the student and family. We encourage students to share their results and career exploration recommendations with a school counselor, especially when exploring colleges.
Continue reading →How do I know if Career Vision’s program is appropriate for my child?
If your child is in the small percentage of high school or college students who know exactly what they want to do and have demonstrated that they have a realistic understanding of the career and what it will take to be successful—you may not need us. However, families that use our service gain direction and an increased level of confidence for both the parent and the student.
For individuals with significant disabilities, our program is not the best choice. While we are able to provide great insight in many cases—we evaluate situations on a case by case basis. Additionally, our program is not recommended for individuals who are not conversant in English.
Continue reading →Who will I talk to about my results? What are their qualifications?
Our career consultants all have a minimum of a master’s degree and are certified to interpret our assessments. Your consultant will meet with you before your Career Consulting Session to tailor your results to your situation.
Continue reading →My son took career-planning tests at school. Why should he go through your program?
Good question. Our career planning model is designed to incorporate the best assessments and the individual attention necessary to help you understand how to integrate and use the assessment results to make good career decisions.
Typically high school and college counselors do the best they can with their many, varied responsibilities. The time they can commit to each student is limited to course selection, college applications and other issues. For career guidance they typically use self-report assessment instruments that focus on interests and personal preferences. They often provide students with reports and provide a group summary about what the results mean. Their perspective on abilities comes from student grades and performance on standardized academic tests and your child’s personal estimation of their talents. Self-estimates of abilities are shown to be less accurate than objective measures, such as the Ball Aptitude Battery®.
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