I am a Worker Interested in Enhancing or Changing my Job

• 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 for the jobs I want?
• What skills do I have?

This part of the web site can help you!

You can use the Occupational Profiles to:

• Research specific occupations
• Identify occupations that might suit your areas of strength
• Get help in thinking about your skills
• Compare your skills to the skills you'll need

Research specific occupations

• 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.

(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.

Get help in thinking about your skills

• Use the complexity scales to help you identify the best examples you can give from your own experiences to illustrate your abilities in each of these skill areas. Say you are thinking about your problem solving abilities.
  • 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 any 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 determine whether you need to strengthen any of your skills.

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

Ideas for Using the Readers' Guide to Essential Skills Profiles

You can use the complexity scales and the illustrative examples for each level to help you think about your skills. This can help you describe your skills for your resume or portfolio.

If this interests you, also see the Ideas for Using the Occupational Profiles and the ESPORT - Essential Skills Portfolio.

Ideas for Using the Authentic Workplace Materials

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

View the User Guide to Authentic Workplace Materials