Vocations · Job Skills · Adult education · Free self-assessment

See where you stand.
Plan the next step.

8 core employability skills, 16 questions, and for each one four plain descriptions of what people actually do. Pick the one that sounds like you, see your profile, then turn the gaps into a dated plan.

Start the self-assessmentHow it works

A skills profile and a plan you wrote yourself

This is a self-assessment for your own planning, with a job coach, teacher or case manager if you like. It is not a hiring test, it does not produce a score for employers, and there are no right answers to aim for.

Start the self-assessment

Space: Vocations · Job SkillsAvailable

Outcome
A profile across eight employability skills with strengths and growth areas, and a personal action plan with dates and support, to print or download.
Who it is for
Adult learners, job seekers and older students, and the adult education teachers, job coaches and workforce staff who support them.
Format
Browser tool. About 15 minutes to rate and 10 to plan. Saved snapshots let you retake it later and compare.
Access
Free. No account. Answers are saved only in this browser on this device.

Self-assessment

Rate, read your profile, then plan. Labeled as a self-assessment throughout; saved as you go.

Loading the tool. If nothing appears, turn on JavaScript or try another browser.

How it works

What it measures. Eight skills employers across many fields ask for: communication, teamwork, reliability, problem solving, workplace conduct, customer focus, digital skills, and learning from feedback. They line up with the broad areas of the U.S. Department of Education's Employability Skills Framework (applied knowledge, effective relationships and workplace skills). The items and descriptions are written for this tool.

Behavior anchors. Each item has four levels, and each level describes something a person does, not a feeling. That makes ratings more honest and easier to talk about: "I keep a list and use it every day" is easier to judge than "I am organized." Think about the last few months of work, school, volunteering or family responsibilities.

Reading your profile. The page averages the two items in each skill on a 1 to 4 scale: 3.5 and up is marked a strength, under 2.5 a growth area. These cut points are a planning convenience, not a norm or a standard. Nothing is compared with other people.

Not a hiring test. Do not use these results to screen, rank or select people for jobs, programs or services.

Sources

  1. U.S. Department of Education, Office of Career, Technical, and Adult Education: Employability Skills Framework. cte.ed.gov/initiatives/employability-skills-framework.
  2. U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Disability Employment Policy: Skills to Pay the Bills: Mastering Soft Skills for Workplace Success. dol.gov/agencies/odep.
  3. Behaviorally anchored rating scales: Smith, P. C., and Kendall, L. M. (1963). Retranslation of expectations. Journal of Applied Psychology, 47(2), 149 to 155. The idea of describing each level with an observable behavior.

Questions, a problem with the tool, or a correction: team@caveatacademic.com

Self-assessment for personal planning only. It is not a hiring test, not a standardized or normed assessment and not a measure of ability; do not use it to make decisions about people. Free to use; nothing you type leaves this browser. Caveat Academic Services · team@caveatacademic.com