Top 5 career aptitudes for our young people revealed…
The top five career clusters for Northern Kentucky students based on their aptitudes are:
Business Management and Administration
Transportation, Distribution and Logistics
Human Services
Information Technology
Health Sciences
Career “clusters” are groups of jobs that rely on similar skills and typically require similar levels of preparation. There are 16 career clusters. Each cluster is further broken down into 79 “pathways,” which are specific career areas. For example, within the business management and administration cluster, some career pathways are administrative services manager, compensation & benefits manager, customer services representative, and operations manager.
Discussed with local educators, employers and support organizations at the NKY Works YouScience Summit on October 1, the results are based on 11,315 students from 17 local high schools with graduation years ranging from 2024 to 2027. The report compares career aptitudes to interests. Aptitudes reveal one’s innate ability to succeed in a career while interests reflect how appealing a career is to the individual. Research tells us aptitudes are fixed by age 14 while interests can continue to change over the years and are heavily influenced by outside forces.
Northern Kentucky’s regional report showed differences in aptitudes and interests across the clusters and pathways. For example, as seen in the chart below, 51% of students showed an aptitude for business management and administration (the teal line), but only 32% expressed an interest in that cluster (the purple line). On the other hand, 22% showed an interest in the health science cluster (the purple line) but only 19% demonstrated an aptitude for these careers (the teal line).
Chart showing Top 5 Career Clusters for NKY Students, based on Aptitude
The report is not meant to dissuade a student from any career options. “I would never tell a student not to pursue a career of interest, even if they don’t show a strong aptitude for it,” explained Jennie LaMothe. LaMothe presented the regional data and is the Director of Coaching and Operations for NaviGo, the event co-sponsor. “But it can be helpful for them to know they may have to work harder to build the necessary skills to excel in that pathway.”
The report highlighted gender differences in the career clusters. For example, the top aptitude for both females and males was in business management and administration. But among females, the next four were human services; transportation, distribution and logistics; information technology; and arts, audio/video technology, and communications, in that order. For males, the next four were transportation, distribution and logistics; human services; information technology; and finance, in that order. Interestingly, while 20% of males demonstrated an aptitude for finance, only 5% expressed an interest in it.
“When a student shows a high aptitude but low interest in a career, it often means they have not been exposed to it. It’s a great opportunity for schools to work with local employers to highlight specific career pathways,” LaMothe said.
Several Northern Kentucky employers are already working with schools to expose high-aptitude students to their careers. For example, Mubea, a manufacturing company in Boone County, promotes their apprenticeship programs through local schools. Rather than broadcasting their onsite information sessions to the general student population, they prepared a letter of invitation to the sessions and asked the schools to share it with students with high aptitudes for advanced manufacturing.
Similarly, St. Elizabeth Healthcare offers health-careers clubs onsite at schools, specifically intended for students with high aptitudes in healthcare. St. Elizabeth Healthcare is even forecasting where their openings will be over the next five years so they can entice high-aptitude students to explore those careers now.
“Everyone knows what a nurse does, and we certainly have a high need for nurses,” Brittany Sorrell, St. Elizabeth’s Manager of Workforce Development, shared at the summit. “But many don’t know what respiratory therapists, imaging professionals, EKG technicians, and similar professionals do. We know we are going to have a lot of openings in these areas in the future, so we want to start talking to the students with those aptitudes now.”
LaMothe noted that student data is protected by law. The schools cannot provide a list of students to employers but can reach out to the appropriate students on behalf of companies.
The full regional report is available upon request by emailing NKYWorks@NKADD.org or calling the NKY Works business resource line at 859.657.WRKS (9757). The NKY Works team can also connect interested employers and schools to NaviGo to learn more about YouScience.