Vocational Technical Specialist, Jaclyn Pace explains how the FuturePathways® program provided a vocational and career matching assessment tool to support a client’s needs for re-establishing his career goals and aspirations.
Back in November 2020, a client had sustained a severe laceration injury to his left hand whilst working in the labouring industry. He felt unsupported by his employer in his attempts to return to work and following confirmation from his Doctor he was not able to work within heavy manual labour again. This client was referred for a Vocational Assessment using FuturePathways.
The client wished to return to work, however he had limited vocational experience only holding a few part time/casual positions in Retail, Hospitality and Labouring. He also had recently finished High School and completed his High School Certificate.
In addition to these challenges, he presented with complex biopsychosocial risk factors. These included: depression and psychological factors, and he was under pressure to financially support both his mother and himself.
FuturePathways® is a platform that delivers accurate insights into an individual’s current and future potential to find meaningful employment that fits their values, interests, skillset, motivational drivers; and is also reflective of any medical, functional, psychological or disability considerations.
The combination of assessments provides robust, reliable and valid job match compatibility scores ranking across all occupations for each individual participant.
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He expressed confidence in his physical fitness and function, despite the left-hand injury and was continuing to perform the majority of his daily living activities independently, without significant difficulty.
Upon review of the outcomes of the FuturePathways Assessments, it was assessed that the client’s career interests and strengths fell within the categories of:
A creative individual who enjoys artistic expression and working with abstract ideas
An individual who enjoys helping and working with others
A “Doer”, who enjoys practical activities and working with their hands
His personality profile revealed he was accommodating, outgoing, compassionate, cooperative, conventional, intuitive and flexible.
Upon completion of the psychometric assessments and reviewing the job matching spreadsheet, the client expressed a keen desire to learn more about the roles he had been matched with and the assessor’s recommendations.
He moved from having no idea of his career goals to being supported in identifying a number of achievable, realistic and well-aligned career paths through analysis of his job match spreadsheet.
One of his highest-ranking matched jobs was to work as a Bartender & Cocktail Maker. The client would be able to utilise his creativity, love for socialisation and working with others as well as his strengths in performing practical, hands-on tasks.
Other short term job options were: Hospitality Worker, Retail Sales Assistant, Disability Support Worker, Café Worker, and Warehouse Assistant.
Following confirmation with the client’s treating Hand Therapist, it was confirmed all the identified vocational pathways would be suitable based on the clients recommended 5 - 10 kilogram lifting limit for the injured left hand.
Subsequent to the Vocational Assessment, a medical case conference was held with the Treating Doctor where the client achieved an upgrade to his medical certification for work and his vocational options were endorsed to be medically appropriate and safe. At this time he was also referred to the RAWI program through OccHealth by Altius to provide additional, holistic support in addressing biopsychosocial risks, promoting wellbeing and facilitating his ongoing recovery.
Since the Vocational Assessment, the client has commenced active job-seeking activities and has made good progress both physically and psychologically through engagement in the RAWI program. He has completed re-training to support his entry into his preferred field of Hospitality and remains highly motivated to continue his recovery at work.
Overall, his motivation to return to work has improved. He is feeling more confident and his depression levels have significantly reduced as he now has a clear career pathway and goals to aspire to.
He is expected to commence work with a local bar and restaurant (after successfully attaining his RSA/RCG certificate) and is hopeful the new work opportunity will provide him with the chance to learn new skills such as bartending and cocktail making.