Interests are the most natural starting point when exploring the world of work.

When we ask ourselves ‘what do I want to do?’our answers reveal what we see as being exciting, challenging and fun – in short, what we are interested in. Using John Holland’s vocational model, the Career Interests Inventory (CII) examines preferences from three perspectives, so giving a rich and stimulating source of information for exploration of potential career areas. The perspectives are:

• Interests
  A normative and ipsative assessment of interests, giving alternative benchmarks for interpretation.
  
  
• Competencies
  Self-report of key work-related skills and abilities.
  
  
• Work styles
  An assessment of preferred working styles.

The CII acts as a focus for career exploration. Respondents are encouraged to widen their personal exploration by looking at how their competencies and work styles relate to their interests, so setting an agenda for potential development.

CII reports encourage research into potential careers, containing links to careers libraries and a range of online resources for further information. Prompts also encourage critical reflection on the CII results, so supporting respondents through the first stage of their career decision-making.