Education & Skills Online includes four non-cognitive assessments modules:

Skill Use

The Skill Use assessment utilises items from PIAAC to gain information concerning the specific skills that respondents use in both their work and daily lives as important drivers of skill acquisition as well as critical outcomes affecting their lives. The questions in this module focus on skills associated with reading, writing, use of mathematical information and ideas, and information and communications technology (ICT). These activities are important for building and maintaining skills in literacy, numeracy, and problem solving in technology-rich environments. The results for this assessment are linked to the PIAAC skill use scales.

Career Interest and Intentionality

This assessment measures an individual’s preferences for different types of work activities and environments and the level of an individual’s intention to seek out new job opportunities and career- and job-related training. Research suggests that career interests not only drive individuals’ choices in educational and occupational development but also are key predictors of achievement including educational attainment, job performance, occupational prestige, and income. This assessment provides a career interest profile across six dimensions, a career fit index and identifies gaps between an individual’s level of intentionality for finding a job and action taken to do so.

Subjective Well-Being and Health

The online assessment of subjective well-being and health is an important information source to policymakers who examine the well-being of the young and adult population and subpopulations, including workers and those seeking work. Measures of subjective health and well-being offer policymakers a valuable tool in assessing both the impact of policy as well as progress made toward short- and long-term goals. Questions cover the main components of subjective well-being: life evaluation and positive and negative affect, in addition to subjective health and well-being. The health indicators include measures of subjective health, sleep quality, body mass index (BMI), smoking, diet, and exercise.

Behavioral Competencies (only available from March 2018 to June 2020)

Research shows that certain personality characteristics predict educational success to a degree comparable to cognitive ability measures as well as being predictive of workforce success. This assessment is based on the use of existing items that have demostrated their validity and reliability as measures of personality facets that have relevance and utility for academic and workforce readiness and success.