College & Career Exploration
Understand your abilities. Discover your strengths. Make more confident decisions about what comes next.
Choosing a college major or career path can feel overwhelming. LinkED's College & Career assessment combines two powerful tools to help teens, college students, and adults better understand their natural abilities, strengths, and potential direction.
Is This For Me?
Not Sure What Comes Next? You don't have to have your future figured out to start exploring it. College & Career testing may be helpful if you're:
Choosing a College Major
Trying to narrow down areas of study that may be a good fit.
Exploring Career Options
Wondering what types of work might align with your abilities.
Questioning Your Direction
Not sure your current major or career path is the right one.
Considering a Career Change
Ready for something different but unsure where to go next.
Wanting to Understand Yourself Better
Looking for greater insight into what you naturally bring to school, work, and life.
TWO ASSESSMENTS. ONE BIGGER PICTURE.
Two different perspectives. One more complete picture of you.
Abilities and strengths aren't the same thing, and understanding both can provide a much richer picture of who you are. That's why LinkED's College & Career Assessment includes both the Highlands Ability Battery and CliftonStrengths.
Highlands Ability Battery
What am I naturally wired to do?
Highlands looks at your natural abilities ... the things you tend to do well and the ways you naturally approach tasks, information, and problem-solving.
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Unlike an interest or personality questionnaire, Highlands uses performance-based work samples to measure natural abilities.
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Think: "What comes naturally to me?"
CliftonStrengths
What strengths do I naturally bring?
CliftonStrengths identifies recurring patterns in how you naturally think, feel, and behave.
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It provides language for understanding the talents you bring to relationships, decisions, challenges, school, and work, and how those talents can be intentionally developed.
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Think: "How do I naturally approach the world?"
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Your Bigger Picture
ABILITIES + STRENGTHS
Together, the two assessments provide different, but complementary information that can help you better understand yourself and make more informed decisions about college, career, and what comes next.
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A Closer Look at Highlands
Discover Your Natural Abilities
The Highlands Ability Battery is designed to identify your natural abilities and personal style.
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Rather than asking what you like or how you perceive yourself, Highlands uses performance-based work samples to measure how you naturally approach different kinds of tasks.
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The assessment takes approximately 3.5 hours and can be completed independently online.
What You'll Explore
How You Think
Natural patterns related to reasoning, problem-solving, ideas, and learning.
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How You Work
How you naturally approach tasks, structure, and productivity.
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How You Communicate
Abilities related to language, expression, and working with information.
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Your Personal Style
Patterns that influence how you approach work, decisions, and your environment.
A Closer Look at CliftonStrengths
Discover the Strengths You Already Bring
CliftonStrengths identifies your most prominent talent themes ... natural patterns that influence how you think, feel, and behave.
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Rather than focusing on what you don't do well, CliftonStrengths provides a framework for understanding the talents you already possess and how they can be developed into strengths.
Your Results Can Help You:
Better understand yourself
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Recognize what you naturally bring to a team
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Understand how you approach challenges
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Communicate your strengths more effectively
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Identify opportunities to intentionally use and develop your talents
Where It All Comes Together
After you've completed both assessments, you'll meet with a Highlands Certified Consultant for a personalized debrief.
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Together, you'll review your findings in detail, explore how your abilities and strengths work together, and discuss potential career paths or fields of study that may be worth exploring. You'll leave with:
Comprehensive Reports
Personalized Debrief
Career & College Exploration
Ongoing Resources
Detailed results from your assessments to reference now and in the future.
One-on-one guidance to help you understand what your results actually mean.
Discussion of potential careers, majors, or fields of study based on your findings.
Access to online reports, references, and tools for continued exploration.