In May alongside a veritable slew of other features, LinkedIn previewed Skill Assessments, a library of 10-15 minute tests users can take to validate the skills they’ve listed on their LinkedIn profiles. This week marks the broad launch of Skill Assessments in select categories, with more to roll out in the months ahead.
“At LinkedIn, we want everyone to have access to opportunities based on the skills they have, regardless of their background or where they went to school. That’s why we’re excited to roll out LinkedIn Skill Assessments,” wrote LinkedIn in a press release. “With Skill Assessments, our members can assess and validate their own skills and improve upon them.”
Skill Assessments are free, short-form standardized exams designed by third-party subject matter experts to validate LinkedIn members’ skills. Regardless of whether said member passes, they’re offered relevant content from LinkedIn Learning’s catalog intended to help them improve upon their skills.
The first crop of Skill Assessments cover coding languages like C++, design software like Adobe Photoshop, and business tools like Microsoft Excel. Members who successfully rank in the 70th percentile or above will gain the option to add a Verified Skill badge to their profile pages.
On the recruitment side, hiring managers can quickly spot candidates in search results who’ve passed a Skill Assessment and who’ve chosen to make the results public. Additionally, when they perform searches for keywords corresponding to Skill Assessments (like “Java” or “Photoshop”), they’ll yield members with verified core competencies in those areas.
“When skills are validated, members can build a stronger profile and become more discoverable to opportunities — early results show a [30% improvement] in the likelihood to get hired if [they] complete a LinkedIn Skill Assessment,” said LinkedIn. “According to new research conducted by LinkedIn, 69% of professionals think verified skills are more important than college education when job-seeking, and 76% think a way to verify skills would help them stand out amongst other candidates.”
The launch of Skill Assessments comes after LinkedIn, the world’s largest job marketplace with over 20 million listings, announced it will introduce changes aimed at making it easier for job seekers to stand out from the crowd. A refreshed, optimized-for-mobile homepage is in the works, as is a redesigned LinkedIn Career, which will enable candidates to specify preferences for things like remote work quickly.
In related news, job searches on LinkedIn will soon be saved automatically, so users will be able to dive back in with a tap or click from the Jobs page, and pay information provided by employees and employers from LinkedIn Salary, a feature which was previously exclusive to LinkedIn Premium, will become visible to all LinkedIn users. This summer saw the general availability of Instant Job Notifications, which lets LinkedIn members create search alerts for listings that meet a set of criteria and which takes into account posts they’ve engaged with, along with their career path and their skills and work experience. And in a related change, LinkedIn will soon streamline the process of requesting referrals from friends and colleagues by surfacing shortcuts on pages where those people work.
