Vocational Testing

Leaving a rehabilitation center can be a momentous occasion for an individual. Regardless of the reason for enrollment, an individual leaves a treatment program with newly acquired coping and management skills for mental health and/or substance abuse recovery. One aspect included in many treatment plans is vocational guidance. Someone leaving rehab may be without a job or career objectives. Vocational guidance helps with that; it provides an individual with a sense of direction, and it helps to assess one’s strengths and weaknesses.

As a part of our treatment programs, FRN offers vocational counseling to our clients. Our counselors are licensed professionals who are compassionate and understanding of your struggles before, during and after treatment. You can call us at any time to learn more about our treatment options, as well as our individualized evaluations.

What Do Vocational Assessments Evaluate?

According to the International Labour Organization, vocational assessments determine a person’s interests, aptitudes, vocational skills, needs, and career potential. These tests help counselors, psychologists, educators and employers to more appropriately treat and vocationally place an individual. Some tests are more specific than others and tailored to particular needs like mechanical or technical ability. But, on the whole, vocational assessments evaluate the following:

• Personal and employment history and education
• Psychosocial strengths and deficits
• Personal and living skills
• Literacy
• Knowledge of the working world
• Personal and vocational abilities
• General work behaviors and ethics
• Technical, physical and mechanical skills
• Job readiness
• Special needs

Examples of Vocational Assessments:

• Functional Capacity Evaluation (FCE). The Iowa Orthopedic Journal identifies Functional Capacity Evaluations as assessments designed to determine physical ability to perform vocational tasks. This may be useful for jobs that require heavy lifting or manipulation of physical objects. The postal service and other delivery jobs, for example, have requirements for lifting heavy boxes of mail or packages. This evaluation is often beneficial in developing treatment programs, or it can help determine a person’s physical progress before, during and after rehabilitation.

• Transferable skills analysis. Evaluations like this identify a person’s present work-related skills, but do not necessarily determine a person’s career potential in a certain field. A transferable skills evaluation can prove useful to people interested in changing careers. Work-related experience can show to an employer that an individual has a strong work ethic and is experienced in particular skills but often many people do not feel comfortable switching jobs with no “relevant” job experience in a new field. A test like this may help in identifying those skills that correlate to other careers.

• Vocational assessments. These evaluations come in both standard and full-length versions. A standard assessment takes up to three hours and involves both objective evaluation and discussions. They help to determine a person’s strengths, weaknesses, interests or hobbies, and expectations of work, and they include goals and recommendations. A full vocation assessment, on the other hand, is slightly longer (about four to five hours) and more detailed. It includes all of the above evaluations but additionally reviews employment history, personal and work-related achievements, and transferrable skills. These assessments also can involve cognitive aptitude and personality testing.

The professionals at FRN are experienced in vocational testing and in helping to integrate our clients back into the working world. Leaving treatment, re-acclimating to daily life, and finding a new job can be daunting. Let us help you determine which treatment program and continuing recovery plan best suits your needs. Call today.