The Career Key®
Solutions for Offices of Retention, Financial Aid & Admissions
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Download our free white papers/guides for professionals, like "Personality-College Major Match and Student Success" (new!)
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Interest-major congruence, or match, predicts student GPA and persistence.
How well does your school help students make a good match?
In a longitudinal study involving 80,000+ students at 87 colleges, greater interest-major congruence predicted higher GPA and rates of retention. Other studies show similar findings - when done with a valid measure of Holland's personality types.
Career Key can help your school strengthen its efforts to help students make a good match. Our services are practical, clear, high quality, and affordable.
Our respected career personality test, career information, and career and educational advice are based on the best practices and science of career development.
I invite you to consider,
- The Career Key personality test to promote students’ exploration and good decision-making. Students taking the Career Key career test assess their six Holland personality types, identify career opportunities that match, get full and accurate information about each one, and download a 4-page interpretive booklet – encouraging career exploration. Research shows that a good personality-career match is a predictor of career satisfaction and success.
Cost? $1 per test with our group discount plan.
Transparency is important: the Career Key manual is online so you can review its construction, validity, reliability, and other features. There is also a comprehensive e-book version of the manual. Counselors have used our website with confidence since 1997.
Simplicity, practicality, and validity are Career Key’s strengths. It takes about 15 minutes; results are immediate; and there are no complicated tables or abstract concepts to explain. No special credential or training is required to administer or interpret our test.
The results provide a gateway to services unique to Career Key -- see the following:
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Choosing a College Major or Training Program that fits a student's personality. A close personality-major match is vital. Research shows it is one of the predictors of academic success and satisfaction -- GPA and graduation. To learn more about this research and how to apply it in your institution, be sure to read our white paper Personality-College Major Match and Student Success A Guide for Professionals Helping Youth and Adults Who are in College or are College-Bound. Be sure to read about our new "College Major Match" service.
For students (and college-bound adults and youth), we recommend:
- The white paper -- Choosing a College Major Based on Your Personality What does the research say?
- Choose a College Major or Training Program
- Personality-College Major Match - Why It is Important
- The Holland College Major Environments
- Learn More about College Major Environments
- Select a College, Apply, Finance
- Liberal Arts, Humanities & General Studies Majors
- Match Up! Your Personality to College Majors e-book is the only resource that links the Holland personality types to all 1300+ college majors and training programs (more on our ground breaking research).
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“Match Up! encourages a learner-centered interaction between understanding one's key personality types and occupational and training information… [It] will be of great use to students and counselors who need to provide a list of options related to personality in a quick manner... It is a great resource that provides solid information necessary for making effective career decisions.” Read more. |
Self-Employment helps the student who is considering this option.
- Identifying and strengthening students’ job skills. As your adult students know, job skills are what count in the workplace. Period. The Foundation Skills: Job Skills All Workers Need article describes those that are essential.
In The Free Agent Outlook on Work students learn why marketable skills are the key to success. And, Identify Your Skills and Make Them Work for You gives students invaluable advice and practical steps they can take.
- Making good decisions. Our article Decision Making Process teaches students how to make good decisions. The ACIP method is practical and based on numerous research studies. Good decision-making is emphasized throughout our site. It is an essential life and work skill.
Our popular e-book, The 2010 What Job is Best for Me?, walks the student through these steps. It embodies the essential concepts of our website.
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Assessing “career decision status”. Colleges use the Career Decision Profile to evaluate career development programs, assess career decision needs, and to provide a self-help guide, directing students to sources of help based on their needs, and in career counseling. Students find the article Undecided a helpful guide in understanding their indecision and the steps they might take.
“As a counselling tool the CDP allows us to discuss very specifically where the student is in the process of career development and where they want to go next. Students appreciate the simplicity of the CDP and using it to formulate next steps…” Read more.
Felicity Morgan
Assistant Director, Career Development
University of Toronto Mississauga
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Learning about Holland’s Theory of Career Choice. This article is one of our most popular. Career development professionals and their clients praise its clarity and practical applications. And, literally hundreds of studies show that the theory has a solid scientific foundation. Our e-book, What Color are Your Feathers?, describes his theory and expands on how to apply it to career choice.
- Linking to our website. There is no site license or cost to visiting or linking to our home page or high quality career advice articles without framing. We show no advertising and do not accept reciprocal or paid text linking. Your voluntary links help us keep our website ad-free. Nearly 2,000 non-profits, libraries, and educational institutions link to us and we welcome yours.
Lawrence K. Jones, Ph.D., NCC President, Career Key.
