DISCOVERY is an interest inventory, written by Brian Harris, B.A., M.Ed., specifically designed for students in grades 8-9. DISCOVERY is one of the most widely used career resources used by students across Canada. First written in 1986, DISCOVERY is constantly revised to keep the content and career lists relevant to the needs of students in this age group. The most current revision is 1999. DISCOVERY is easy for teachers/counsellors to administer. It is self-scoring and contains all the required information for students in one easy-to-use 16 page booklet.

DISCOVERY can help students to identify their interests and relate these to the subject areas they study in school. This can help students as they select courses throughout high school. This can also help students by showing them how subjects that they study in school relate to future educational and career planning.

In addition to the career lists provided in the DISCOVERY booklet, students can select the tab ADDITIONAL CAREERS on the left of this page to discover careers that relate to individual school subjects.

When DISCOVERY is used along with the accompanying COUNSELLOR’S MANUAL (which also contains 101 ready-to-use classroom activities for career education), students can achieve the following objectives:

• understand how abilities and interests relate to career planning
• have a greater awareness of personal abilities and interests
• make more realistic choices for their future
• become more aware of the many available resources that can assist with career/educational planning
• develop a career vocabulary
• understand personal strengths and weaknesses in choosing high school subject areas
• begin to understand the relationship between high school subjects and post-secondary planning
• begin to understand the prerequisites needed for specific post-secondary education/training options
• be more aware of ‘hot careers’ of the future
• be more aware of career trends for the future
• be more aware of internet sites to assist in career/educational planning
• understand how individual differences affect career/educational planning
• be more aware of school/community resources available to assist with career/educational planning
• identify occupational categories and related careers
• better understand how specific school subjects relate to specific careers
• begin to understand the necessary training/educational requirements for specific careers
• better understand that career education is a lifelong process
• begin to understand the factors involved in choosing a future career
• begin to understand the factors involved in career satisfaction
• provides a concrete resource to show their parents to discuss career/educational planning.
• Teachers/counsellors can access information on ordering DISCOVERY by selecting the ORDERING tab on the upper left corner of this page.