First Validation Study of a New Career Management Skills Self-Assessment Scale
Diego Boerchi
Career management skills (CMS), or guidance skills, are critical to successful career navigation, contributing to personal fulfilment and professional success. This study proposes the development of a new CMS self-assessment scale that is efficient and in line with the model from the European LE.A.DE.R. Project, which presents, grouped into five areas, thirty CMSs that have been transformed here into as many items in the pre-test questionnaire. The new scale contains fifteen items, three for each of the following subscales: Self-Awareness, Relationships, Opportunities, Conciliation, and Context. The results respect the original model by the number of factors, but these have been renamed and partly redefined to fit the selected items better. The scale was developed through a series of confirmatory factor analyses, eliminating less congruent items one at a time. The final model demonstrated a good level of both structural validity and internal reliability. The five factors positively correlated with self-perceived employability, while no significant gender differences emerged. The scale provides a valid and efficient tool for future research on the impact of CMS on educational and occupational choices and job satisfaction. It can also help guidance professionals support their clients in improving guidance skills and understanding why some past career choices have not produced the desired results.
Keywords
Career management skills (CMS), Career competencies, Self-awareness, Work-life balance, Self-perceived employability, Job satisfaction.
