CAREER PLAN

Received 08/27/12 Revised 11/01/12

Accepted 11/02/12 DOl: 10.1002/J.2161 -0045.2013.00047.x

Computer-Assisted Career Guidance Systems: A Part of NCDA History

JoAnn Harris-Bowlsbey

The first computer-assisted career planning systems were developed in the late 1960s and were based soundly on the best of career development and decision-making theory. Over the years, this tradition has continued as the technology that delivers these systems' content has improved dramatically and as they have been universally accepted as effective tools for career guidance practice. Although their widespread use in the United States is currently affected by financial conditions, the potential for using these systems in developing countries as a part of their implementation of career guidance services is promising.

Keywords: computer-assisted career guidance systems, computer-assisted systems, web-delivered systems

In this árdele, I review the progress of the development and use of com- puter-assisted systems in the field of career guidance from the beginning ofthat development through the present and into the foreseeable future. As the Nadonal Career Development Associadon (NCDA) celebrates its 100th anniversary, the advent of computer-assisted career guidance systems approaches its 50th anniversary. So, the development and use of these tools in our profession is a significant part of the history of NCDA. It is also a large piece of my personal history because I was there at the genesis, and I am sdll here as a developer of such systems. I am fortunate to have been able to play a role in the wridng of this history.

I have also been fortunate in my personal and professional life to have had Donald Super as a mentor. One of the things that he frequendy said was "There is nothing as pracdcal as a good theory." If we accept Super's premise that there is nothing so pracdcal as a good theory, then it follows that there have to be tools in our profession that implement theory. Both now and in the early years of development of computer-assisted career guidance systems, they have been and are powerful tools for that purpose.

My own first system was the Computerized Vocadonal Informadon System (CVIS), whose development began in 1966. That system sought to implement theory by using Anne Roe's (1956) occupadonal classificadon system, which consisted of a 6 x 8 matrix. In the verdcal direcdon, there were six levels of educadon: Professional and Managerial I, Professional and Managerial II, Semiprofessional, Skilled, Semiskilled, and Unskilled. In the horizontal direcdon, there were eight fields of work endeavor: Service, Business Contact, Organizadon, Technology, Outdoor, Science,

JoAnn Harris-Bowlsbey, Kuder, Inc., Adel, Iowa. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to JoAnn Harris-Bowlsbey, Kuder, Inc., 1610 Green Mill Road, Einksburg, MD 21048 (e-mail: [email protected]).

© 2013 by the National Career Development Association. All rights reserved.

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General Cultural, and Arts and Entertainment. Therefore, in the CVIS system, hundreds of occupadons were placed in these cells based on the amount of education required for entry and the Roe field to which each had been assigned. Students at Willowbrook High School in Villa Park, Illinois, where the system was first operadonal, took the Kuder Preference Record as a means of idendfying the Roe field(s) of their interest and self-selected a level of educadonal attainment. With these two pieces of data, students were provided with a list of occupadons for their exploradon.

Simultaneously, other eminent theorists were building systems around their theories. At Harvard, David Tiedeman was building an elegant system that was based on his decision-making paradigm (Tiedeman & O'Hara, 1963). That paradigm described decision making as a sequence of steps organized under the phases of andcipadon (exploradon, crys- tallizadon, choice, and clarificadon) and accommodadon (induction, reformadon, and integradon). The Informadon System for Vocadonal Decision Making was designed to shepherd users through those steps and, in the process, to make them aware of their own epigénesis. Ti- edeman defined epigénesis as the "making of successive differendadons within a previously undifferendated psychological structure" (see Super, 1970, p. 28). Besides tackling the monumental task of making a com- puter develop insight in its users, Tiedeman's team also attempted the addidon of natural language capability and use of visual assets 30 years before these features became technically feasible. At Educational Testing Service, Martin Katz (1963) developed a

system sdll in existence today, called the System for Interacdve Guid- ance Informadon (SIGI), which was built around his theory that the leading influence on career choice should be an individual's values. Through significant research, Katz and his team defined the existence of 10 primary values, such as high income, creativity, early entry, variety, and helping others. Another part of the theory was that the udlity of an occupadon could be quandfied by muldplying the importance of a value (as expressed by a system user) by the probability of compledng the educadon needed to enter it. That probability was esdmated from a user's scores on achievement tests. Implementadon of this formula required that the occupadons in the system be rated on each of the 10 values with regard to their potendal to assist users to attain each value. So, SIGI is a third example of the implementadon of career theory via a computer-assisted system.

Another example is the Education and Career Exploradon System (ECES), developed by the IBM Corporadon under the consultancy of Donald Super. The ECES, following Super's (1963) emphasis on the importance of self-concept, asked students in the exploradon stage to describe their self-concepts, and then the system led them through broad exploradon of occupadonal and educadonal alternadves. Pictures showing work tasks of occupadons were displayed on microfiche for the purpose of providing students with a more realisdc view of each occupadon's daily tasks and setdng.

Finally, in the sequence of theory-based systems, came the muldple versions of DISCOVER. In all versions of DISCOVER, the theory of John Holland (1973) has been predominant, though expressed in two

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different ways. In the original versions, Holland's Self-Directed Search (SDS; Holland, 1994) was provided online, and its results were used to identify occupations and postsecondary majors for exploration. After merger with ACT, Inc., in later versions of DISCOVER, the UNIACT Interest Inventory (ACT, Inc., 2013) replaced the SDS, and ACT, Inc.'s (2001) World-of-Work Map replaced the Holland hexagon. Nonethe- less, over the 38 years of DISCOVER's existence, Holland's theory has been the solid foundation on which assessments and occupational exploration have been built. Although DISCOVER in its present form has been discontinued, the Kuder Career Planning System (Kuder, Inc., 2012) has adopted the Holland theory as the basis for its assessment, career exploration, and suggested occupations and postsecondary majors. Thus, especially the theories that ahgn themselves with the trait-and- factor approach have been used as a basis for practice over the almost half a century that computer-assisted career guidance has been a reality.

The next phase of computer-assisted systems was the era of the Career Information Delivery Systems (CIDS). Led by the development of Bruce McKinlay's (1974) Oregon Career Information System, many states adopted CIDS as the basis for their own or created similar systems. These systems and their operation were governed by the State Occupa- tional Information Coordinating Committees and were partially fiinded by the National Occupational Information Coordinating Committee. These systems were not theory based, nor did they provide assessment or a sequential career guidance treatment. Rather, they focused on the provision of high-quality occupational and educational databases and effective search strategies.

Since those early systems, there have many new developments. Eirst, the dehvery platform itself has evolved dramatically as it moved from giant, slow, expensive mainframes to minicomputers to smaller and smaller desktop and laptop computers and, most recently, to smart phones. The channel for delivery has moved from local, expensive, slow phone lines to relatively inexpensive, worldwide, broadband and wireless Internet connections. The audience has moved from selected young people in schools at set hours to anyone 24/7 worldwide who has or can find access to the World Wide W êb. The capability to add graphics, color, video, and images so coveted by Tiedeman and Super in their early systems is now abundant. The capability to link out to a world of resources outside the system itself is fially reahzed. Based on databases developed and maintained by government agencies such as the O*NET Resource Center (www.onetcenter.org) and the National Center for Educational Statistics (www.nces.ed.gov), the quahty of infor- mation provided through current systems is very high. Current systems offer lifelong electronic portfolios in which users can place assessment results, career plans and goals, résumés, cover letters, and many other items related to educational and career accomplishment.

In this almost half a century of use of computer-assisted career guidance systems, there has been considerable research about their effectiveness. Sampson, Rudd, and Reardon (1998) provided evidence that use of such systems yields results, directiy related to the amount of use time, in areas such as increased knowledge about the world of work, increased knowledge about self, and increased certainty about educational and

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career choices. In some quasi-longitudinal studies, there is evidence that students who create career goals through the use of computer-assisted systems are more hkely to remain in high school, more likely to proceed to some form of postsecondary educadon, and while there, more likely to remain in a major that direcdy relates to their idendfied interests as measured by a formal assessment. There is also evidence that these gains can be enhanced by more dme on the system and by the support of career development facilitators or counselors in any form (i.e., one on one, through group support, or via e-mail or telephone).

So, what might be the fiiture of web-delivered career guidance systems? First, it appears that the delivery of career guidance service through the web is here to stay, commonly accepted by the profession as a primary tool for the delivery of assessment, informadon, and career planning support. The quesdon arises, however, as to whether systems developed by private sources can survive as government agencies increasingly acid services through their websites that are free of charge. With the challenges in the U.S. economy, states, school districts, and workforce development networks continue to be forced to reduce their budgets; unfortunately, expenditures for career guidance are among the first to be removed. With this situadon, the market in the United States is likely to turn to highly customized systems—those built to meet very specific needs for specific organizadons.

There may be an increasing international market, however, for web- delivered career planning systems in cotintries that are just now awakening to the need for career guidance. These developing countries do not have a cadre of trained professional counselors, and they have leapfrogged to the Informadon Age with the capabiUty to receive services either through computers or through smart phones. Systems developed for these countries are likely to be highly customized, including assessments that have been modified for their cultures and databases that have been developed specifically for this purpose. The excitement about this trend is that, via the World Wide Web, it is now possible to deliver high-quality career guidance services to many countries whose cidzens have never had such assistance. Such systems could be delivered on a platform that can provide basic training for paraprofessionals as well as services to students/adults in muldple languages, customized core databases, and culture-specific assessments. Because ofthe large amount of money that is being invested in developing nadons by the World Bank, the U.S. Agency for Internadonal Development, and other organizadons, the development of such a universal system might really be possible. The power of such an integrated system to assist young people and adults to learn about themselves and the world of work, choose occupadons, plan for educadon, and enter the workforce might move nadons forward in their economic development at a faster pace than would otherwise be possible.

Current technology also makes it feasible to supplement computer- assisted systems with support by trained career development paraprofes- sionals through use of software such as Skype or GoToMeedng. Such support could be provided by a reladvely small cadre of individuals, alleviadng the problem that, on the whole, developing countries do not have professional counselors or graduate programs to train them.

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The rapid growth of web connectivity via smart phones is a technological development that makes the delivery of career guidance systems feasible in developing countries where people do not have access to computers. Developers of computer-assisted systems are being challenged to deliver their usual content in "byte-size" pieces that are feasible to receive on the screen of a smart phone. Doubtiess, the next generation of systems will have Uved up to this challenge.

In summary, computer-assisted career guidance systems have been developed over a 45-year period and are now accepted as an important tool for the delivery of career planning services. Initially developed to operationalize career choice theories, they later became atheoretical as CIDS were estabUshed and supported by state and federal funding. In the past 15 years, agency-sponsored websites, such as those developed by the U.S. Department of Labor, have progressively added guidance functions (such as the administration of an interest inventory) to their sites. These, when combined with the several significant data sources, are creating free services that make them rivals to for-profit sites. This fact combined with the financial problems being experienced by states and school districts means that it may become increasingly difficult for for-profit organizations to maintain their customer base. However, there is an increasing international market in developing countries because they have recentiy entered the Information Age and are receiving significant funding as they do so. This situation offers an amazing opportunity for the distribution of worldwide career guidance systems that may be delivered by computer, smart phone, and/or other technologies that are in the pipeline.

References ACT, Inc. (2001). The world-of-work map. Iowa Cit)', IA: Author. ACT, Inc. (2013). ACT Interest Inventory (UNIACT). Iowa City, IA: Author. Holland, J. L. (1973). Making vocational choices: A theory of careers. Upper Saddle River,

NJ: Prentice Hall. Holland, J. L. (1994). The Self-Directed Search. Lutz, FL: Psychological Assessment

Resources. Katz, M. (1963). Decisions and values: A rationale for secondary school guidance. New

York, NY: College Entrance Examination Board. Kuder, Inc. (2012). The Kuder Career Planning System. Adel, IA: Author. McKinlay, B. (1974). Developing a career information system: Part II. The Manpower

Information Clearinghouse final report. Springfield, VA; National Technical Informa- tion Service.

Roe, A. (1956). The psychology of occupations. New York, NY: Wiley. Sampson, J. P., Jr., Rudd, E., & Reardon, R. (1998). Computer-assisted career guidance:

Research and evaluation bibliography. Tallahassee: Florida State University, Center for Study of Technology in Counseling and Career Development.

Super, D. E. (1963). Self-concept theory. New York, NY: College Entrance Examination Board. Super, D. E. (Ed.). (1970). Computer-assisted counseling.Tsic\vYork,VÍY: Teachers' College. Tiedeman, D. V., & O'Hara, R. P. (1963). Career development: Choice and adjtistment.

New York, NY: College Entrance Examination Board.

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