COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF CAREER ASSESSMENT METHODS IN SOCIAL WORK PRACTICE

Increased attention to career diagnostics issues in social work practice is caused by labour market changes that include the popularization of non-standard labour forms, growing professional mobility of workers, and an increasing number of clients who require assistance with professional self-determination and individualised career counselling. The article presents a comparison of modern career diagnostics approaches implemented in social work practice and particularizations of their application depending on a social worker’s professional activities and category of clients served. The research employed comparison, systematisation, and generalisation of modern approaches to career diagnostics and allowed compare their strengths and weaknesses, application scope and highlighted difficulties social workers experience when implementing these approaches. Career diagnostics approaches vary greatly in their diagnostic potential and scope. Some are more useful when working with specific groups of clients: young people, unemployed persons, veterans, and persons relocated from conflict regions. However, one approach on its own is not enough to build an effective career counselling program. Employment interviews, skills testing, analysis of professional biography, and assessment of cross occupational skills should be used in various combinations to get as complete a picture of a client’s professional capabilities as possible. Each of these methods has its challenges as well. Standardised tests are not always adapted to different categories of clients. Approaches were not initially designed with some of these populations in mind so they require individualised interpretation and extra attention while administering. The fast changing labour market also requires constant updates of the instruments themselves. No method is intrinsically better than the others. The key is to choose one that matches the client’s needs, which is why flexibility and multi-method work is key.