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Home | Essential Skills

assess your Digital skills

The Digital Essential Skills (DES) Self Assessment platform is a free tool that allows you to easily review and assess your digital skills as well as explore high-demand roles across 12 different occupational sectors in Nova Scotia. The platform measures a set of knowledge, abilities, and attitudes required when using information, technology, and digital media to communicate with others, perform tasks, solve problems, and much more.

Once complete, your results will be shown in the following proficiency levels: Non-applicable, Novice, Foundational, Intermediate, Adept, or Advanced. Each job role is assessed differently, and your results will likely vary depending on which role you select (even if your chosen statements remain the same). If your competency result is lower than what is recommended for your selected job role, the tool will provide training resources to help you develop and expand your knowledge in that area.

Please note: the recommended proficiency levels shown in this tool are not an objective measure of one’s ability to succeed within any given job role. This tool focuses exclusively on digital competencies and does not include other technical or behavioural competencies that are essential for a job role or a specific industry sector.

An illustration of an individual at a laptop with six arms doing things like holding a cup of tea, a megaphone, a phone, and a clipboard.

Select your industry

Choose an industry that is either relevant to your skillset or that you are interested in exploring. Each industry contains two job roles that you can use to self-assess.

Employer Resources

Explore resources that are relevant to the four main competencies being assessed, and see role-specific proficiency recommendations for each.