CAPS Career Assessment and Planning Counselling

Aims: 

The most comprehensive and personal growth focused CAPS career counselling service including all of the CAPS modules. The various factors affecting the career/occupation decision are considered holistically and systematically. Students evaluate the career areas of interest identified in the TurQuest Inventory by focusing on themselves and their inner dynamics. They learn how the teenage brain functions and impacts beliefs, emotions, attitudes, thoughts, behaviors which, in turn, influence the career decision. They work on translating abstract concepts into concrete strategies and behaviours. They learn the associations between job satisfaction and planning, self-confidence with cooperation and responsibility, curiosity with asking questions, and consultation with communication. Students begin to understand that the answers to existential questions such as “Who am I? What do I plan to be? What do I expect from life?” are dependent on the chosen career area in which they will spend approximately 80,000 hours.

Outcomes: 

• They examine the internal and external factors influencing the career decision by learning to focus on the small details in a bigger picture. They distinguish between the factors they can control and hence require greater personal investment (developing skills, academic success etc.), those they cannot control and therefore need to accept (educational system, school policies, political and economic conditions etc.), and finally those they can partly control but need to manage (emotions, beliefs, relationships etc.). 
• They realise the importance of asking for help during the process of problem solving and decision making. 
• They understand which decision making styles (such as rational, avoidant and intuitive) apply to them and their importance to career planning processes. 
• They replace limiting beliefs such as “making mistakes is bad” or “I can’t succeed” with more constructive ones. 
• They take steps towards becoming more self aware.
• They take responsibility instead of making excuses and attributing responsibility to others, faith or luck. 
• They understand the different brain systems and their influence on attitudes, thoughts, and behaviours.
• They learn the skills to manage life effectively. 
• Students explore their unique definitions of success, happiness, life, and career values.
• They list the career areas, occupations, and university degrees in line with their interests provided in the TurQuest inventory.
• They discover which aptitudes are required in different occupations through the Aptitude Inventory, and identify the areas they need to improve on.
• They discover interests that they are not yet aware of and match them with careers/occupations.
• Through TurQuest, students learn that interest in a certain occupation is not sufficient: they also need to be interested in the areas that support this career on a day to day basis. For instance, a student’s interest in fashion design may be 100% but they may have a lower interest in supporting areas such as IT or retail/buying/selling. The can decrease the numerical overall match value for a career in fashion design to 50%. Being aware of this when planning their career is vital to  being prepared and preventing disappointment in the long run.
• Students gain knowledge about sectors, organisational structures (manager, expert, administrative staff etc.) and sectoral values.
• They explore their options from a multidisciplinary perspective and make short-medium-and long-term action plans.
• They clarify which areas require further research and seek advice from others.
• They learn about occupations which combine different career areas (e.g. biomedical engineering which combines medicine and engineering).
• They have instant access to the TurQuest report and the listed career areas via the app.

Application Process: 

• The total duration of consultation is 420 minutes, comprising of a maximum of 4 sessions planned in mutual agreement based on the needs of the students and parents.
• Students and parents may attend sessions individually or together. 
• The process is concluded by preparing an action plan.
• Additional follow-up sessions can be planned as part of Follow-Ups and Additional Services. 

To benefit from this service as a group: CAPS Career Assessment and Planning Workshop