The MECA System
Product Type:
Primary device
Manufacturer Name:
Product Description:
The MECA System is a cloud-based age-appropriate transition, career exploration, career assessment, and vocational assessment system related to training, education, and employment. It also is a maker education system connecting hands-on projects to applied academics.
Main Features:
- The system is comprised of four parts, tied together by a management system:
- Interest Indicator.
- Work Samples.
- Learning Assessment Programs.
- Career Planners.
- The management system allows for a program integration from interest testing to the assigning, delivery, benchmarking, tracking, and creating a transition IEP and a Summary of Performance.
- Features the Interest Indicator, which is an assessment of interests based upon personal likes and dislikes of general everyday activities.
- Assesses individual career interests.
- Places users into areas of interest in the MECA system.
- Contains an audio option for individuals with limited reading skills.
- Works with assistive technology devices such as touch screens, switches, screen readers and more.
- Can be used by individuals with little or no work experience.
- Links to Guide for Occupational Exploration (G.O.E.) and John Holland Scales for access to O*Net and other occupational information systems.
- Features the Work Samples, which are hands-on simulations of an actual part of a job.
- Work Samples provide opportunities to try out jobs in a non-threatening way.
- Each career kit contains all of the tools, supplies, and hardware needed to perform all activities.
- Each career area contains three Work Samples. This allows exposure to entry-level, mid-level, and advanced-level job activities.
- Can be used in maker education programs linking hands-on projects to post-secondary careers.
- Provides age-appropriate transition assessments.
- It takes about 30-40 minutes to complete each Work Sample, allowing users to experience some entry-level, mid-level, and advanced-level job activities.
- Every step is presented through a video clip coupled with audio.
- If the video is too fast, the program can be slowed down by using the still image with audio and/or text options.
- Contains over 2,000 video clips.
- The computer administrator scores the Work Samples (time and quality).
- Comes with Learning Assessment Programs (LAPs), which are designed to help create an academic course of study that directly relates to a learner’s post-secondary goals.
- Each LAP demonstrates how math, communication, and problem-solving skills relate to the actual demands of the workplace.
- There are three LAPs per career area with 12-15 job-specific assessments.
- Each assessment takes about 20-30 minutes to complete and includes full audio.
- Each LAP addresses entry-level, mid-level, and more advanced-level skill requirements for the job.
- The Career Planner provides information and planning activities for each occupation in the MECA System.
- The Career Planner was designed to hold interest through extensive use of pictures, video clips, and limited use of text (4th – 5th-grade reading/listening level), as well as full audio for low and non-readers.