Do you have a new professional project in mind? A desire to take stock of your experience? A need to reflect on your professional career? Your professional future? A skills assessment is a good way to think about all this! How to do one? Is it possible to do it alone? Which organizations should I contact for a skills assessment? When is the right time to do it? What are the financing solutions? We enlighten you on all these subjects.
Why make one?
Are there any good reasons to do a skills assessment?
- You want to make a career change
- You want to take stock of your professional skills and abilities
- Your life no longer suits you
- You wish to make a professional evolution
- You have a new professional project in mind
- You are a student and you are looking for orientation
When to do a skills assessment?
Rule number 1: when you have decided to give yourself time to do it and you are mentally and physically ready! You're going to be shaking things up and sometimes it's a bit overwhelming !
During a Leave of Absence
As an employee with an open-ended contract, fixed-term contract or temporary employment, you are entitled to a certain amount of paid vacation per year.
How long does it last?
Whether you work full time or part time, you will benefit from a minimum of 2.5 working days per month, i.e. 30 working days (5 weeks) for a full working year. Certain absences are also taken into account when calculating the number of days of leave: maternity, civil union, marriage, work stoppage due to an accident at work, training leave, etc.
On the occasion of a Training Plan
Formerly called "Training Plan", the PDC is set up at the initiative of the employer, to develop the skills of the employees and can provide for skills assessment actions. If this is not the case, take this opportunity to ask for it ;)
An argument that will hit home?
"I want to carry out an internal professional mobility and I need to specify the skills I have and those I need to acquire."
On your work time
To carry out a skills assessment during your work time, you can ask your employer for a leave of absence.
In order for it to be valid, you must request it:
- at least 60 calendar days (days worked or not) before the start of the assessment, if it lasts less than 6 months.
- at least 120 calendar days before the start of the assessment, if it lasts more than 6 months.
Your employer then has 30 days from the date of receipt of your request to give you an answer. If you do not respond within this time frame, your request will be considered accepted.
Outside of work time
Most assessments are tailored to professionals, with evening and sometimes weekend sessions and online formats. Among jobs_that_makesense's partner programs, a large majority can be done 100% online.
👉 In this article, you can learn more about the best reasons and times to take a skills assessment!
How to do a skills assessment yourself?
How does it work?
An assessment lasts between 2 and 4 months, with sessions or exercises to be carried out at a rate of 2 to 4 hours per week. If you want to do one on your own, it will be up to you to adapt your schedule to carry it out.
There are generally 3 main stages in the process of carrying out an assessment:
- A preliminary phase of introspection: you take stock of your skills and aptitudes, your motivations and interests, your professional experience to date.
- Secondary phase of reflection: you explore other potentialities.
- An action phase: you put things in place in your current job, you look for training to develop the skills you would like to acquire, you go and observe what is happening elsewhere, by attending conferences, workshops, coffee meetings, by joining an association...
The important elements of a balance sheet
- Take time for yourself
- Ask yourself questions about your professional situation, your motivations, what makes you tick on a daily basis, what makes you feel good at work (your professional environment, the content of your work, your daily life, your relationships, etc.)
- Use tools to advance step by step in your reflection
👉 We detail it all in this article: Doing your own skills assessment
Which organizations can help you carry out a skills assessment?
To carry out a skills assessment, you can also be accompanied by a professional who can help you to highlight the skills you have acquired so far, and if necessary, to build a professional project that is coherent with your personality and your tastes. Often, assessment organizations offer two types of support: personalized and/or group, which allows you to analyze your career path in a workshop, with people who often share the same desires and questions as you.
Here are some organizations that offer skills assessments
Personalized accompaniment with a coach
👉 At jobs_that_makesense, all assessments offer a personalized format and we also have a partnership with a committed coach to navigate impact.
To do a 100% online assessment
If you want to do the whole assessment program at home!
👉Most of jobs_that_makesense's partner assessments have an online program.
To make a reconversion in the impact
👉 Hisse et Haut, Cap Positif, Komunii and the Third Place Transition pro à impact.
For young people
👉The skills assessment center Chance is suitable for students, as it allows you to pay the balance sheet in several monthly instalments!
👉If you are interested in another review on jobs_that_makesense, don't hesitate to ask the organizers of the assessments directly what financing solutions they can provide you with.
How to finance an assessment?
For employees in the private or public sector, job seekers
The Personal Training Account (CPF) allows you to acquire training rights in the form of euros throughout your professional life. If you choose this method of financing as part of the skills assessment, unless your employer agrees, you will have to carry it out outside of your working time.
If you are a job seeker, Pôle Emploi can help you with the financing, via an abondement of CPF
For private sector employees
You can ask your employer to pay for your assessment, who will be able to finance it via the OPCO (Opérateur de Compétences), which is an approved parity organization responsible for supporting professional training. If your employer agrees with the realization of your skills assessment, the level of financial support will depend on the professional branch to which your company is linked.
Would you like more information on the possibilities of financing whatever your status?
👉Here is an article dedicated to the financing of skills assessments.
To take action
👉 Here are the training organizations offering assessments.
To go further
👉Skills assessments to take stock of your pro life.
👉 I am an executive, what are the options for my reconversion ?
👉Without a bachelor's degree, how do you make a career change ?
👉The 32 jobs that are recruiting for a career change in the impact industry