The scaffolding illusion: why career tests aren't the structures students need

Who designs the scaffolding? I often admire the complexity of large building projects, and being en education designer it's the scaffolding stage that intrigues me most.

Scaffolding wraps the structure until it's strong enough to hold itself up. 

Scaffolding holds the team and tools as they build from the ground up, add the finishings, make it complete. 

Building the future

In education, 'scaffolding' describes ways we support students to build new understanding and develop skills.

Vital, temporary frameworks that can hold everything together while students' own skills are built and become strong enough to work well on their own.

The ultimate test: can the learning be applied by the students when we're not there?

When it comes to career development in schools there's a tool we keep using that just doesn't hold up like it seems it should. 

Career preference testing.

There are lots of varieties of career tests, and they usually offer neat and tidy, clear-cut answers. 

They're convenient. They seem to offer support and certainty.

Tests cost enough, they're fairly time-efficient and the reports can look good, so it would be great if they were a robust tool for building career decision making skills.

But unfortunately, career tests are like fancy scaffolding -- they get you to the top (up to a decision point) but they don't hold up when the scaffolding is removed.

A test doesn't build anything on the inside. Career tests (focus on answers) are not a substitute for career education (focus on complex exploration and probing questions).

Tests provides suggestions for a student's future that look like certainty, but these answers come from outside, not inside, in the human dimension where we all create identity and work out where and how to apply our individuality in the world. 

Here are three big reasons (and there are more) why career preference testing fails students by not scaffolding them to build, test and refine their own ideas for the future: 

1. Career tests are built on shaky foundations 

What are the assumptions under typical testing methods?

One big assumption is consistency: that if you are an extrovert in one situation, you will be an extrovert in all situations. Humans are more complex than that.

Another assumption is that people of the same 'type' are suited to the same occupation. Sure, this was probably okay when career tests were invented (first used in schools in 1953 btw and those were not dissimilar to what's used today!) Back then, career pathways were more distinct, separate tracks, but think about how one-dimensional our teams and solutions would be if we followed that logic today. 

Other assumptions are buried more deeply, taking root in the post-war industrial complex origins of career testing, in which gender, social, cultural, and educational expectations were different to today. If you'd like to see a 'solid' test quake, dig deep into bias in career tests.

Is that really the best way to serve all our students? 

2. Career tests aren't meeting the client's expectations or their needs 

For those who work in schools: how often are students thrilled by their career preference test results? 

Are they delighted with the outcome? 

"They repeated a lot of stuff that I think of as very boring, like accountant, engineer. There's more the traditional jobs, yeah just the basics that everyone knows."

Career tests have a prevailing tendency to disappoint the person they're supposed to be for, the client - the young person: 

"If you spent a day doing tests, you'd like to have some insights that you didn't give to them. And find out about something you don't know about. ... I feel like I want to hear something that I've never heard before that's like properly interesting. " - Yr 10  / 15 y.o.

But even more insidiously, tests promote passivity.

Shaped by an education system that rewards getting the right answer, students expect a test to lead them to the right or the best answer.

If the test suggests a career that runs counter to a tentatively emerging idea they have that might turn into an occupation ... well, how many of them have the confidence to say, 'No, that's not right. I know myself better'?

Some students will; but a lot of them certainly don't.

Ultimately the test shows their willingness to find an answer, but is it a robust answer?

3. Efficient does not mean valuable

The idea that a test is 'a great way to start a conversation' really doesn't hold up. 

"Well, you need to book a slot and it'll be like five, 10 minutes.

Which I was quite shocked by because I feel like, your career means a bit more than just a little 5 minutes."

We know from subject change requests in Year 11 and the frankly disastrous completion rates of their post-school decisions that this lightweight, externally supported test-tell approach doesn't hold up for almost half of our students.

They know thinking and talking about the future is important. Doing a quick test serves to say 'We did something', or  'they have a plan' - but was it valuable and robust? Was it their plan that they built? What's better?

Solid foundations before the bits on top

There's another way.

You wouldn't build a building from the finials downwards (those bobbly bits on top of old buildings) -- so rather than letting a test do that, let's go back to the educational meaning of the word 'scaffold'. 

Support the person. 

... So they can develop the skills. 

Encourage, model, explain how to develop critical thinking. 

Help them try ideas for themselves, adjust and rethink, make changes and adapt their ideas. 

These are the ways educators already know how to build strong foundations.

If you were scaffolding a student to learn an essential skill, would you just give them the answer? 

Career Education provides the opportunity for any person (student or adult) to explore the diverse world of work and learn to think critically about what makes a good fit for unique you.

To know this changes over time.

To learn what it means to make your own luck and be ready to act for yourself.

None of this is easy, so it starts with small steps that build as confidence and capability grow. Scaffolding that, when removed, shows a solid structure rather than a hollow core. 

The value of teachers

All teachers have enormous positive influence over student career aspirations.

They influence and guide students in how to develop aspirations, create optimism and willingness to take action towards the future (which often means action right now).

This fun, short course from BECOME covers how, and when, to guide students' emerging career aspirations (and when to step back). It's for all teachers, and we invite you to join us or book in your team.     >> Find out more or register to start now