Vocational assessment (IPE builder)

What an employment plan contains

An IPE turns interests, strengths, and support needs into three suggested employment goals plus the services that make them reachable. Typical services include counseling, training funds, assistive technology trials, transportation help, and placement support. Your draft proposes language. Your counselor checks accuracy, adds required formal wording, and approves the final version with your signature. The plan stays reviewable, so amendments follow the same path when goals or needs change.

• Interests: the kinds of tasks, settings, shifts, and people you prefer, in your own words.
• Strengths: observable behaviors from game play and real life, such as steady pace or careful checking.
• Barriers and supports: what gets in the way plus the specific help that addresses it, with backups.
• Three suggested goals: ranked directions with a first trial step and a review date.

Draft it well in five steps

1. Describe work that sounds good plus what gets in the way. Example: stocking shelves mornings, while the bus connection is the hard part.
2. List strengths one per line. Copy lines from File Sort or Focus Shift results, then add one real life proof each.
3. Mark the barriers that apply, borrowing wording from the barriers shortlist you already built.
4. Propose three goals in order, each with one trial step and one measure, such as complete two practice shifts or finish a certificate module.
5. Print the draft and bring it to your session. Walk through edits line by line and confirm what the counselor will formalize.

Example draft, annotated

Interests: morning warehouse or grocery stocking, weekday shifts, steady routines with clear lists. Strengths: kept a steady pace across sorting rounds, bounced back after misfiles without stopping, asked for clarification once instead of guessing. Barriers: transfer bus arrives ten minutes before shift start, evening fatigue after long standing blocks. Supports: backup ride contact, ten minute early arrival buffer, break signal agreed with supervisor. Goals: grocery stocking mornings first, warehouse picking second with a forklift certificate question, office filing third pending keyboard comfort practice. Each goal carries a two week trial and a dated review. Notice how every claim pairs with evidence or a next check, which is exactly what counselors need to approve services.

Common mistakes to avoid

Vague interests produce vague plans, so name tasks, places, and shifts. Borrowed strengths without proof sound hollow, so attach game lines plus lived examples. Hidden barriers resurface later, so write down transportation, scheduling, stamina, technology, and benefits worries now, even briefly. Finally, never treat the draft as submitted. Until your counselor reviews and you sign, it remains a worksheet. That boundary protects you and keeps the formal plan accurate.

Frequently asked questions