An Investigation of the relevance of using a career interest instrument with transition year students in the decision-making process for future career exploration

As student’s progress through their post-primary education, they have several choices to make in terms of subject choice and the career direction they hope to take. These decisions that are made are very often closely related to a person’s interests. The overall aim of this research study was to investigate the relevance of using a Career Interest Instrument with Transition Year students, in the decision-making process for career exploration. An interpretivist paradigm was employed in this study. The data was gathered during a structured focus group with 8 participants from a cohort of students that had completed the online Careers Portal Interest-Profiler (CPIP). This was followed by 5 semi-structured one-to-one interviews, from the same cohort of focus group participants. The overarching themes that emerged were 1) The Importance and Value of Transition Year, 2) Personal and Career Interests, 3) The Value of Career Interest Profilers and 4) Career Exploration and Decision-Making. The overall findings demonstrated that participants found value in using the Career Interest Profiler in career exploration in advance of subject choice, but that it should be followed up with a one-to-one guidance interview (Everitt et al. 2018, Nyles 2011). This research study concludes by recommending the use of the Careers Portal Interest-Profiler (CPIP) with students with caution, and to ensure adequate time is given in one-to-one guidance sessions to discuss the topic of interests and the results of the CPIP.