I am a Student

• How can I use the profiles?
• How can I use the Reader's Guide?
• How can I use the Authentic Workplace materials?

Are you wondering:

• What skills are required in the job I want?
• Do I have the skills I'll need?
• What skills do I have?
• How would I ever use what I'm learning in school?

This part of the web site can help you!

You can use the Occupational Profiles to:

• Research specific occupations
• Identify occupations that suit your areas of strength
• Find out how skills you are learning are used in the world of work
• Get help in thinking about your skills
• and whether you have the skills you'll need.

• Search the profiles using "Occupation". You can search using a job title or a code from the National Occupational Classification.
• You can connect to other sources of information about the occupation using the Links to Other Sites at the end of each profile.
• Search using "Keyword". Enter a word related to your area of interest.
• Or, search using "Occupation" entering a word related to your area of interest.

(NOTE: Not all occupations are on the database. What occupations are profiled?)

Identify occupations that might suit your areas of strength

• Search using "Most Important Skills" to find occupations that require skills where you think you are strong, or occupations that don't require skills where you think you are not strong.

• Search using "Skills". You can find out, for example, who uses geometry, who interprets graphs or who has difficult writing assignments.

Get help in thinking about your skills

• Use the complexity scales.
  Say you are thinking about your problem solving skills.
  • Enter any profile
  • Go to the Problem Solving section
  • Click on "Complexity"

This will give you information about the complexity scale for Problem Solving. Start by looking at the examples that illustrate the levels of the scale. Have you done anything that looks like the examples for Level 1? Level 2? or higher? You may want to look at the formal definitions of the scale.

Do you want to see more examples of the Levels?

• Use Search by skills
• Click the box for Problem Solving. Then click Next.
• Click the box for the complexity level(s) you want to see. Then click Next.
• This gives you a list of all occupational profiles in the database that contain examples illustrating Problem Solving at the level of complexity you chose.
• You can see all these examples by clicking "View Examples" at the bottom of the screen.

Using the scales and examples, you can identify the strongest examples you can give from your experiences for each of these skills. This could help you in developing your resume or portfolio.

Now that you have thought about your skills, you can compare them to the skills required in various occupations that interest you.

• By comparing your skills to the skills in occupations that interest you, you can set your own skill development targets. Where do you need to strengthen your skills?

For more help in thinking about these skills, visit the ESPORT - Essential Skills Portfolio

Ideas for Using the Readers' Guide to Essential Skills Profiles

Ideas for Using the Authentic Workplace Materials

A collection of authentic materials (such as tables, charts, forms and regulations), used in some workplaces.

You may want to look at the materials used in jobs that interest you.

You might use this for a research project on skills.

View the User Guide to Authentic Workplace Materials