Transition Competencies Checklist

Overview

The Transition Competencies Checklist is designed as a self-evaluation tool for secondary students with visual disabilities. The checklist identifies students’ strengths and weaknesses in skill areas critical to the transition from school to work and adult life.

Students can use the checklist results to communicate with their parents or caregivers, in addition to the education and rehabilitation personnel with whom they are involved, concerning their needs (academic, vocational, social, personal). They can also use the checklist to set goals and document their progress toward achieving objectives and goals.

Ideally, students will first complete the checklist early in their freshman year in high school and continue to revisit it throughout their final years in school. The checklist is intended as an annual evaluation tool, but can be used more frequently to monitor progress toward goal achievement.

Under each competency, a number of indicators are listed and students are asked to identify with a yes or no response whether or not the indicator applies to them. A significant other or a team of concerned individuals (parents, teachers, counselors, employers, and so forth) can complete the checklist, in the event that a student is unable to self-evaluate. If the checklist is completed by someone other than the student, the reporter’s name and contact information should be included on the checklist cover sheet.

The ten competencies identified on the Transition Competencies Checklist are described below.

An understanding of work based on real life experiences. This competency focuses on the need for children to learn about work through personal experiences at home (chores), community activities (helping out at civic or organizational functions), and school (active involvement in classroom or school projects).
Application of leisure and socialization skills. This competency addresses the need for students to develop and engage in interpersonal relationships. Also, considered are students’ needs to engage in healthy, enjoyable activities during their free time.
Application of problem solving skills. This competency focuses on the need for students to learn how to recognize that they have difficulties or problems and take logical steps to resolve them. Under this competency students are also asked to indicate to whom they will go for help, if they are unable to independently resolve a problem.
Application of self-advocacy skills. This competency focuses on the importance of students addressing their disability-related needs with others in a proactive and positive manner. In addition, this competency encourages students to assume responsibility for their own affairs (setting an appointment with a doctor or scheduling a job interview, for example).
Application of compensatory skills. This competency addresses the disability-specific skills (traveling with a long cane, dog guide, or sighted guide; reading and writing with braille, using optical devices, or audio cassettes, using assistive technology, and so forth) that young people with visual disabilities need to master in order to live and work without unnecessary external supports.
Knowledge of career options and sources of information. This competency relates to the students’ need to learn about a broad range of jobs through resources available nationally and locally.
An understanding of employers’ concerns. This competency addresses the need for students to be familiar with employers’ greatest concerns about hiring individuals with visual disabilities and understand how to allay their concerns.
An understanding of levels of ability and their impact with regard to job placement. This competency focuses on how students learn and what help they need from others (parents, teachers, counselors, significant others) in order to be successful.
Mastery of career counseling content areas. This competency focuses on self-awareness, career exploration, job seeking, job maintenance, and employment skills.
Evidence of participation in work experience opportunities. This competency addresses the need for students to have as many work experiences as possible while they are still in school. Their work experiences may be either paid or unpaid (volunteer) experiences.

To complete the checklist initially, a student will need approximately 20-30 minutes. However, this tool is not intended to be administered under timelines—it is a self-evaluation tool and students may take as long as they like or need to complete the checklist. Once the checklist has been completed, a helper (counselor, teacher, parent, or other significant adult figure) may want to review the student’s answers with him or her.

Indicators where the helper may want to elicit examples from the student are noted with an asterisk on the attached helper’s checklist format. (Please note: It is not necessary to ask for examples for every marked item—the asterisks are to facilitate as the helper reviews results with the student by indicating where such probes would be appropriate.) Some indicators may indicate an attitudinal or emotional concern that may necessitate follow up between helper and student. For example, if a student responds to “I recognize when I have a problem” with a “No” or responds to “Someone helps me arrange transportation” with a “Yes,” the helper might want to find out if these are areas in which the student would like or needs some help.

Items that ask for detailed information, such as how fast a student types or reads, may require additional assessment. If a student does not know the answers to these questions, the helper may want to suggest an appropriate mechanism for finding out the pertinent information. For example, a timed reading sample to determine how fast a student can read unfamiliar material would be an appropriate suggestion.

Finally, it is important for helpers to emphasize to students that there are no “right” or “wrong” answers on the Transition Competencies Checklist. Each student’s answers are “right” for him or her. The Transition Competencies Checklist is designed for self-evaluation and personal goal setting. It is not graded!

Completed checklists can be included in a student’s Transition or Career Portfolio as well as shared with significant others: parents, teachers, counselors, employers; thereby helping document student progress over time.