1.8-M students to take career assessment exam

About 1.8 million Grade 9 students from public and private schools nationwide will take the National Career Assessment Examination (NCAE) on March 1 and 2. (Photo: DepEd Philippines/Facebook)

MANILA—About 1.8 million Grade 9 students from public and private schools nationwide will take the National Career Assessment Examination (NCAE) on March 1 and 2.

The Department of Education (DepEd), through the Bureau of Educational Assessment (BEA), will lead the administration of the annual NCAE, with help from personnel of schools divisions nationwide.

The NCAE determines the learner’s aptitude and occupational interest in any of the Senior High School (SHS) tracks. Occupational interest is the learner’s preference in specific vocations and career categories.

The two-day exam also aims to guide the conduct of career guidance at the school level and to ensure the development of skills and competencies required for the world of work and career choices.

This is also to provide basis for profiling a learner’s aptitude in the four SHS tracks — Academic, Technical-Vocational-Livelihood, Sports, and Arts and Design.

Under the Academic track are the following strands: Accountancy, Business and Management (ABM); Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), and Humanities and Social Sciences (HUMSS).

The career assessment covers three domains — General Scholastic Aptitude (GSA), Occupational Interest Inventory (OII), and Aptitude for the SHS tracks.

The GSA refers to the student’s scientific ability, reading comprehension, verbal ability, mathematical ability and logical reasoning ability.

The OII pertains to the checklist of occupational interests which provides an assessment on preferences for comprehensive career guidance.

The Aptitude test measures the innate ability of the student to succeed in the SHS tracks.

This year’s career assessment is pursuant to the DepEd’s Memorandum No. 16 s. 2017.