The Structure of Vocational Interests in Finland: A Study of the Fit of Holland’s RIASEC Model Based on a Representative Nationwide Sample of Career Counselling Clients

This is the first study to examine the fit of Holland’s (1997) RIASEC model of vocational interests within the Finnish cultural context. We conducted secondary analyses of vocational interest data collected over a 20-year period by the Finnish Public Employment Services (PES). The data were extracted from the PES client registry and comprise a nationally representative sample of 20,108 career counselling clients (aged 10–62 years; 62% women), who had completed a RIASEC-based, interest inventory Kiinnostukset [Interests] as part of career counselling offered by psychologists in the Finnish PES. Results from the Randomization Test of Hypothesized Order Relations (RTHOR), Multidimensional Scaling (MDS) and Cosine Function Models (CFM) showed that Finnish vocational interests conform satisfactorily to Holland’s RIASEC circumplex structure in terms of ordinal relationships. Overall, the degree of fit (RTHOR Correspondence Index = .67) was comparable to levels obtained from U.S.-based samples. Differences in model fit by gender or by level of education were not statistically significant. Furthermore, MDS analyses replicated the expected RIASEC circular ordering, although both MDS and CFM results suggest an approximate rather than perfect circumplex fit. Overall, our findings offer support for the continued use of Holland’s RIASEC model in Finnish career counselling and guidance practice.