# Skills Health Check: How to Read Your Results and What to Do Next Canonical URL: https://headwayskills.com/knowledge/types-of-skills/skills-health-check/ Markdown URL: https://headwayskills.com/knowledge/types-of-skills/skills-health-check.md Entity type: Article Last updated: 2026-07-07 Language: en Primary audience: professionals improving building self-awareness at work Owner: Headway Skills Contact: https://headwayskills.com/contact/ ## Short answer A skills health check maps your skills, interests and motivations to suitable jobs. Learn how far to trust the results and what to do with them next. ## Key facts - Title: Skills Health Check: How to Read Your Results and What to Do Next - Category: Types of Skills - Primary skill: Building Self-Awareness - Related skills: Setting Goals, Building Confidence - Primary keyword: skills health check - Source page: https://headwayskills.com/knowledge/types-of-skills/skills-health-check/ ## What this page covers - A skills health check maps your skills, interests and motivations to suitable jobs. Learn how far to trust the results and what to do with them next. - Practical guidance for skills health check - How this topic connects to Building Self-Awareness ## Detailed explanation A skills health check is a structured self-assessment, usually a set of short quizzes and activities, that helps you take stock of your skills, interests and motivations and connect them to the kinds of work that could suit you. Its value lies less in the score than in what you do with the report afterward. If you are close to finishing your studies, or a year or two into work, and still can't say clearly what you are good at or where you fit, that uncertainty can sit heavily. A good check gives it a shape you can work with, though only if you read the results the right way. The questions below cover what the check measures, how far to trust it, and what to do next. ## What is a skills health check? It is a guided way of asking yourself questions you rarely stop to ask: what you can do, what you enjoy doing, and what you want from work. The best-known version is the one offered by the UK's National Careers Service, a set of quizzes and activities for exploring your skills, interests and motivations. Its purpose is practical: to help you narrow down the kinds of jobs that could suit you. The mechanism is matching. You describe yourself, and the tool links that description to [job categories](/knowledge/types-of-skills/skills-profiler/). For someone who can picture themselves in almost any job, or in none, that turns a vague question into a short list of directions worth testing. The uncertainty a check addresses is common near the end of education. One of the young people we interviewed about starting work put it this way: > I'm about to finish my master's degree, and I'm currently writing my thesis. But I still don't really know what I'm going to do once I'm on the other side of it. > > That is probably my biggest concern: I simply don't have a very clear picture of what working life actually looks like, or where I might fit into it. > > It feels as though I'm running toward the edge of a cliff, and I still don't know where I'm supposed to jump. A skills health check won't settle that worry for him or for you. What it can do is replace the cliff edge with a handful of concrete options to try. ## What does the skills health check actually measure? It measures how you see yourself: which skills you believe you have, which activities interest you, and what motivates you. That is useful information, but it is self-perception, not a test of performance. Nobody watches you work, and no one checks your answers against what you actually do. This matters because self-ratings drift. They can run high in some areas and too low in others, and from the inside both feel equally accurate. The report reflects those beliefs back to you, neatly organized. Treat it as a set of hypotheses about yourself, not as findings. ## Can I save my results and come back later? Yes. On the National Careers Service skills health check, you can save your results and return to them at any time, and you can download a report as soon as you have completed at least one assessment. You don't need to do everything in one sitting. That makes it sensible to work in stages. Complete one assessment, read the report while it is fresh, and come back to the next when you have had time to think. A partial report you have actually reflected on is worth more than a full one you skimmed. ## How accurate is a skills health check? As accurate as the evidence you bring to it. Because the results come from your own answers, they become reliable only when you check them against things outside your head. Three kinds of evidence do most of the work: - **Tasks you have actually done.** For each skill the report says you have, name a real situation where you used it: a project, a shift, a group assignment. - **The results you got.** Did the work land well? Was it praised, used, repeated? - **How it felt.** Work you are genuinely good at tends to give you energy rather than drain it, even when it is hard. Then ask other people. Colleagues, managers, tutors and supervisors see behavior you cannot see in yourself. Pick the two or three areas where the report surprised you, and ask someone who has watched you work for one specific, forward-looking piece of advice on each. Their answers will confirm or correct the report faster than retaking it ever could. ## Is a skills health check the same as a digital skills check? Not necessarily. The name is also used for narrower self-assessments that cover a single skill area. The University of Oxford, for example, offers its staff a free digital skills self-assessment, the Jisc Discovery Tool, which takes up to 20 minutes to answer, including thinking time. So before you start, decide which question you are asking. A broad check helps when you are unsure about direction. A topic-specific one helps when you already know the area you want to strengthen. ## What should I do with my skills health check results? Read them for what to build on, not only for what is missing. The most useful distinction in any report is between your [natural strengths](/knowledge/setting-goals/play-to-your-strengths/), the things you are genuinely good at and energized by, and the things you can merely do competently. Early in a career, choosing roles and tasks that draw on your strengths usually pays off more than spending most of your energy patching weaknesses. Then turn the suggestions into [small experiments](/knowledge/setting-goals/what-jobs-fits-me/) rather than a fixed plan. A report is a snapshot. Career direction tends to become clear through work, not through upfront analysis, so take one or two suggested directions and test them with something real: a student job, an internship, a volunteer project, a conversation with someone who does the work. Plan for the next six to eighteen months, not the next ten years, and let what you learn reshape the list. ## What if my results say I'm bad at something? Then you have found something you haven't learned yet. A low result on a skill like communicating clearly, working in a team or handling setbacks is not a verdict on your personality. These are [learnable behaviors](/knowledge/improve-skills/develop-new-skills/), and people build them the same way they build anything else: through practice in small, manageable steps. Before you act on a weak result, give it the same evidence test as a strong one. Some low ratings say more about a bad week or a harsh inner critic than about your actual ability. If the gap survives the evidence test, pick one small situation where you can practice that skill this month, and start there. ## How do I check the skills that matter day to day at work? Matching your interests to job types answers the question of where to aim. How well you do once you get there depends on a different set of skills: how you communicate, how you work with a team and a manager, how you manage your time, and how you handle pressure and setbacks. These interpersonal and self-regulatory skills are rarely taught in school, which is why many people only discover their gaps on the job. They are worth looking at separately, with questions built for them. If your skills health check has given you a direction, it is worth getting a [reading on your workplace skills](https://assessment.headwayskills.com/) as well, so you know which ones to practice before that direction turns into a first job. ## How often should I do a skills health check? Return to it whenever you have meaningful new evidence about yourself: after your first job or internship, at the end of a big project, or when you are weighing a move. Each round should be shorter and sharper than the last, because you will be answering from experience rather than from guesswork. The change between two reports is often more revealing than either report alone. ## What turns a skills report into a next step Look back across these answers and the same thing keeps coming up. The report itself is the easy part. What decides whether it helps is how honestly you read it, what you choose to do with it, and whether you act when it shows a gap. **Building Self-Awareness** is what separates a useful report from a flattering one. It is the habit of telling natural strengths apart from mere competence, and of asking for the feedback that exposes your blind spots, so that every result is tested against what you have actually done. Without it, a skills check simply returns your existing beliefs in tidier language. The aim is not to collect labels about your personality but to know which tasks and roles genuinely fit you. **Setting Goals** is what turns suggested job categories into a direction you own. It means checking each option against your work values and strengths, and treating the next role as an experiment rather than a lifelong commitment. It is not about application tactics or a rigid five-year plan. It is about letting goals emerge from what you discover, and keeping the choice your own rather than someone else's idea of a good career. **Building Confidence** is what keeps a weak result from becoming a reason to stop. Confidence grows from doing: picking one small step, getting through it, and taking the next. When a score stings, a few reality checks help. Is this true always, or only sometimes? In everything, or in one area? This doesn't require positive thinking. It is about collecting enough evidence of progress that the gap starts to close. If you would like to know where you stand on these three, and on the wider set of twelve work skills they belong to, you can get a **[map of your work skills](https://assessment.headwayskills.com/)** in a few minutes. Whatever it shows, each of those skills can be learned. ## Where your own evidence already points Some of this may already be familiar. Perhaps you can name a group project where you ended up organizing everyone, or a shift that flew by while another one dragged. If you can point to one task that left you energized and one that wore you down, you already have the first piece of evidence any skills check needs. What comes next is yours to shape. The skills that will matter most for you right now can be built in steps, without becoming someone you are not. And knowing where you stand tends to count for more as your choices get bigger, from a first job to a first move to the first time someone asks what you want next. Each of those decisions gets easier once you have an honest picture of where you are. ## Get a clear picture of your work skills All that remains is to put a structured picture next to your own. The Job Skills Test is a **free** self-assessment of the workplace skills that shape how you work with others and manage yourself. In 7 minutes it shows where you stand across all twelve and which ones would make the biggest difference to develop first. ## Who this is for - Professionals building practical workplace skills - Readers looking for specific, usable work advice - Managers, educators, and coaches supporting career readiness ## Common questions ### What is this guide about? A skills health check maps your skills, interests and motivations to suitable jobs. Learn how far to trust the results and what to do with them next. ### Which Headway skill does this connect to? This guide connects primarily to Building Self-Awareness. It also relates to Setting Goals, Building Confidence. ### What is the recommended next step? Use the free Work Skills Test to reflect on which work skill to improve next. ## Related pages - https://headwayskills.com/knowledge.md - https://headwayskills.com/knowledge/types-of-skills.md - https://headwayskills.com/knowledge/self-awareness.md - https://headwayskills.com/knowledge/setting-goals.md - https://headwayskills.com/knowledge/confidence.md - https://headwayskills.com/work-skills-test.md ## Citation guidance Use the canonical page when citing this content: https://headwayskills.com/knowledge/types-of-skills/skills-health-check/ Preferred summary: "A skills health check maps your skills, interests and motivations to suitable jobs. Learn how far to trust the results and what to do with them next." ## Change log - 2026-07-07: Content collection version published.