Vocational interests of youth in Ecuador. Inventory of the Occupational Preferences of Youth

Abstract

This methodologically sound psychometric tool has been handed to Ecuadorian psychologists and teachers as a guide in the career counselling field. The tool will have a significant impact on the democratization of youth, assisting them to make well-targeted choices when planning their education and career. The authors’ study may be viewed as pioneering work, due to its consideration of the significant cultural and geographic regional differentiation among graduates from the Pacific coast, the Andes, the Amazon rainforest and the Galapagos Islands. Reaching to the classics of literature on the subject (primarily Holland, Super, Prediger and Strong), the authors have performed a momentous work, which is the construction of a psychometric tool that will be helpful in diagnosing career interests in the entire population of Ecuadorian youth. Worth additional acknowledgement are the high reliability indicators of the career interests questionnaire conducted on a representative and large study group, as well as the defined psychometric accuracy of the scale. This publication makes a civilizational quantum leap in the education of Ecuadorian youth, guaranteeing them a career choice that corresponds to their interests and ambitions. This pioneering publication on the Polish and world markets confirms the fact that Polish psychologists have the capability to „export” the psychometric school of thought to the Latin American region, with all of the scientific, social and humanitarian consequences involved.