Interest Requires Knowledge: Initial Development of a Measure of Career Knowledge

Authors

• Sarah Ferguson, Rowan UniversityFollow
• Marjorie Blicharz, Rowan UniversityFollow
• Kara Ieva, Rowan UniversityFollow
• Christopher J. Winkler, Rowan UniversityFollow
• Theresa Cann, Rowan UniversityFollow

Keywords

measurement development, career knowledge, STEM technician/technologist, factor analysis

Disciplines

Educational Assessment, Evaluation, and Research | Educational Psychology | Science and Mathematics Education | Vocational Education

Abstract

This paper details a measurement development study conducted in multiple phases to establish the reliability and validity of scores from a measure of career knowledge that can be specified to career fields. The initial development study focused on surveying and mapping careers in the engineering technician cluster, in alignment with a larger intervention study on career exploration of STEM technician and technologist careers. A short seven-item measure of perceived career knowledge was developed and piloted to address the need for empirical data on students' career knowledge, an outcome of interest to practitioners and researchers in career development. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were used to evaluate the function of this new measure iteratively, and the results presented here support it as a short tool for use in career development research and practice.

Recommended Citation

Ferguson, S., Blicharz, M., Ieva, K., Winkler, C. J., & Cann, T. (2026). Interest Requires Knowledge: Initial Development of a Measure of Career Knowledge. Journal of Research in Technical Careers, 10 (1). https://doi.org/10.9741/2578-2118.1175