A major new initiative in the State of Kansas has recently come to fruition, the Kansas Career Pipeline. The Pipeline allows Kansas residents of all ages to explore, plan, and find education and training and career success.

The Kuder Career Search with Person Match is one of the assessments available on this site. The Kuder is a highly respected, well researched instrument. It may be used to guide career exploration, make plans for college majors, and make tentative occupational plans.

Given the flux in employment possibilities, the Kuder does not seek to designate specific occupational recommendations, but rather it reports directly on the inventory-taker's similarity with groups of employed people in six well-known career clusters:

• Outdoor/Mechanical;
• Science/Technical;
• Arts/Communication;
• Social/Personal Services;
• Sales/Management; and
• Business Operations.

It also offers the job titles and first-person job descriptions of the people from the two clusters whose preference patterns are most similar to those of the inventory-taker. It is intended to help people appreciate their multi-potentiality – that their pattern of interests may be satisfied in several possible occupations or careers.

All interested students and parents are encouraged to take advantage of the resources the Pipeline provides, including the aforementioned Kuder Career Search and also the Kuder Skills Assessment and Super’s Work Values Inventory. When researching appropriate career options one is best served by considering not only personal likes and dislikes (Kuder Career Search), but also preferences for skills and work values (Kuder Skills Assessment). For example, one’s interests may point toward a career working with horses as a veterinarian, but the skills involved need also match and include strengths in the sciences and mathematics.

Further, considering one’s work values is also important, especially as it relates to job satisfaction. Simply put, a career that does not match one’s values will lead to conflict. Super’s Work Values Inventory assist in examining one’s preferences related to the following:

• Creativity;
• Independence;
• Income;
• Achievement;
• Work Environment;
• Mental Challenge;
• Supervision;
• Lifestyle;
• Prestige;
• Variety;
• Co-Workers; and
• Security

To log on to the Kansas Career Pipeline, go to kansascareerpipeline.org. Once at the Web site, students and parents need to register as new users. See your counselor to get the appropriate code numbers for your school.