The COPSystem Comprehensive Career Guide is an essential booklet to use when interpreting the results of the COPSystem assessments. This article highlights interpretive guidelines based on the COPSystem computerized printout; additionally, these interpretive guidelines are equally valid for the Self-Scoring Profile. See Figure 5 for a sample printout. The COPSystem Summary presents individual profiles for the COPS Interest Inventory, CAPS ability battery and COPES values survey and includes a summary combining the three assessment results.
Section I of the printout reports COPS (interests) results and lists the individual’s top three interest career groups. The entire COPS interest profile is shown below this list of the top three career groups. A percentile number is printed at the end of the row of x’s, which represents how the examinee’s level of interest in each cluster compares with others who have taken the COPS. If the interest score is around 50, about half or 50 percent had a lower level of interest in that particular cluster. The higher the score, the greater the interest is as compared to others. Typically, a score of 70 percent or higher indicates a very high degree of interest in a cluster.
Section II summarizes CAPS (abilities) and two profiles are provided. The first is the CAPS Career Profile which relates abilities to the 14 COPSystem Career Clusters. The second is the CAPS Ability Profile which relates abilities to others at a particular educational level.
In the first profile, the CAPS Career Profile, a score is marked with a plus if it is in the white portion or at the upper edge of the lightest shaded portion of each career group. When interpreting the profile, concentrate on the distance of the scores from the dark shaded area. The further the score is from the dark shaded area, the higher the degree of probable success is in that Career Cluster. In the CAPS Ability Profile, scores are represented by a line of x’s rather than a single point. The line of x’s represents a confidence interval and the actual score is the dash in the middle which is a stanine score. Stanine scores are percentile equivalent scores that indicate how the examinee did as compared to others at the same educational level who took the CAPS.
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Stanines range from 1-9 with scores from 1 to 3 signifying below average, 4 to 6 average and 7 to 9 above average. If a score is at stanine 5 which is near the 50th percentile, about half or 50 percent of others who took the CAPS scored below. The higher the score, the greater the ability level.
Section III is the COPES (work values). In the COPES profile, scores are represented by a line of x’s. Scores falling to the left of the center show strength in values described on the left and scores to the right of center show strength in those values given on the right. Values scores farthest from the center on the left or right represent the most extreme values scores which are then related to the Career Clusters. The relationship of the COPES values to COPS Clusters is listed in the COPES Manual. The COPSystem Comprehensive Career Guide includes a description of the COPES values.
As cited previously, the Comprehensive Career Guide is a crucial element in interpreting COPSystem results. At the bottom of the printout is a consolidated summary of interests, abilities, and values. The highest interest, abilities, and values scores are marked with a plus to indicate the most important scores. Career Clusters to be considered for initial exploration, with the help of the Comprehensive Career Guide, are those with three pluses indicating high interest, ability, and value scores. The next step might be to consider those areas where interest and values are high as it is possible to get additional training in the ability areas. A further step might be to reconsider the COPS profile and look at the fourth or fifth highest cluster of interest.
A summary of results allows the examinee to take this information and begin the exploration process. The Comprehensive Career Guide defines each Career Cluster, lists multiple sample occupations and related courses of study, skills and abilities needed in these jobs, and suggested activities to get experience. The Guide contains occupations cross-referenced to the Occupational Outlook Handbook (OOH), O*NET™, COPSystem Career Briefs Kit, Cluster Booklets Kit, and other resources. There are in addition, valuable worksheets that promote completion of the career exploration process. Our customer service staff is always available to assist with more in-depth interpretation. |
