An honest assessment can make the difference between successful, rapid career searches or a disappointing and drawn-out process for jobseekers looking for a new role or changing careers. 

There are lots of opportunities in the changing job market, and increased support and recognition for skills and ambitions. To date, qualifications and experience have reigned supreme, but with new roles arriving this mindset is giving way to something more positive and accessible. Many of us will find ourselves in completely different careers, and this requires a candid assessment of what we’re good at and where this could take us. 

Creating a skills roadmap 

If you are a jobseeker, or are looking to broaden your competences, the first step is to set goals on your upskilling journey. These can be personal and/or professional, but the important thing is to prioritize them and understand how they may depend on each other. Looking back on previous experience can help you to identify your strengths and weaknesses, allowing you to form a plan. Measuring these goals will ensure that you stay on track. 

Discover more about yourself with assessments  

Performing self-assessments in advance of making job applications gives you the time and space to acquire the skills and knowledge you might be missing or to formulate a plan to present to potential employers. This can also be informed by their ambitions and the outcomes of personality tests that determine suitable and rewarding careers for everyone. Besides, competency tests can reveal alternative career paths that will make use of existing skills, with some commitment to upskilling and gaining role and sector specific knowledge. Finding commonalities between professions is the foundation of competence-based matching. This approach doesn’t exclude formal qualifications and experience but does allow for the candidate to have acquired the competences in an alternative way. Where a gap does exist, it also allows for a targeted, detailed training plan to be conceived to upskill the candidate. 

Below are the hiring selection practices ranked from most effective to least effective: 

Upskilling for a future career 

Once skills gaps have been identified, short-term courses can drastically improve a jobseeker’s chance of securing an alternative career. Learning within a short space of time, or even on the job, can produce great results for both the jobseeker and employer. Its intensive nature allows for questions and immediate feedback that allow the learner to progress through stages fast and see their learning put into practice. 

According to a recent survey, 82% of employees and 62% of HR directors believe workers will need to reskill at least once a year in order to maintain a competitive advantage in the global labor market. – Citrix 

How does skills assessment benefit employers? 

Right now, the availability of professionals with the exact skills and experience for most roles is a problem for many employers. It can be solved with solid training opportunities and comprehensive tools that uncover the true potential of jobseekers who may have previously expressed an interest in switching careers but were rejected for failing the box-ticking recruitment exercises of the past. 

Employers can find a great candidate with a 70-90% match if they are flexible. Then, they can identify if the person has the right motivation, and the potential to quickly upskill to meet 100% of the competencies associated with the role. This is how the provision of short courses and on-the-job training to plug skills and knowledge gaps can drastically widen the pool of candidates in a recruitment exercise. 

WCC’s Employment Platform meets this challenge with integrated Gap Analysis that can ease any upskilling process and provide much-needed direction as jobseekers and career counselors embrace the new flexible, skills-based job market. If you would like to learn more about how our Employment Portal can open up new directions for your jobseekers, contact us to find out more.