Overview

Purpose: To assess vocational interests of those with restricted cognitive ability options.

For: Those with limited literacy or who are likely to consider occupations not requiring much formal education.

Length: Untimed (usually 10 to 20 minutes).

Format: Pen and paper.

Materials: Manual, occupations finder, questionnaire booklet, client profile sheet.

Although similar in general structure to the OSI-1, the OSI-2 differs by being more simply worded, shorter to complete and score and focusing on occupational options requiring limited or no educational qualifications. In completing the questionnaire test takers are asked to rate four work related categories: work activity interests, work skills, job preferences and personal abilities.

The OSI-2 is especially suitable for those whose literacy is poor, those who are from non-English speaking backgrounds, those who have limited education and those who are of limited general ability. The OSI-2 has also been found to be useful when assessment time is limited and when a test taker's concentration level is restricted. Some users have reported that the OSI-2 is particularly useful with Year 9 and 10 students.

Eight broad interest categories are assessed across these four work related categories:

1. Technological
2. Nature
3. Scientific
4. Culture
5. Entertainment
6. Helping
7. Persuasive
8. Organising

Obtained scores are used to generate an OSI Code which is then related to equivalent occupations with similar codes. In this way a variety of occupational options can be listed for the test taker to consider.

Initial research data suggest that both the reliability and the validity of the OSI-2 are likely to be very good for vocational interest measurement purposes. The OSI-2 Occupations Finder has occupational content drawn from ASCO, various other occupational databases and a wide sampling of Australian newspaper job advertisements.

The materials provided cover the theoretical basis of the questionnaire, technical data, illustrative case studies, a comprehensive listing of occupations and detailed descriptions of the dimensions measured for interpretation purposes.