Technology is changing our world quickly transforming all aspects of life, especially education. The following is an announcement by Upwork, the world’s largest platform for freelancers and companies with twelve million registered service providers and five million registered clients. Upwork used to have skill tests on their site for freelancers to prove their aptitude in a variety of fields such as programming, mathematics, data engineering, languages, design, etc.
However, new technologies make those tests irrelevant since clients are more interested in what a provider is capable of doing rather than in their formal education which is quickly becoming outdated. Here is the quote from Upwork:
*UPDATE: The removal of skill tests has been delayed until July 16th. Skill tests may still be visible when freelancers view other freelancers’ profiles in search. We’re aware of this bug and will have a fix in place by tomorrow (7/17).
A few months ago we ran a test to evaluate the impact of removing skill tests, announced here. As a result of the data from the test, we will be removing skill tests from the platform on July 9th July 16.
Our research found that clients don’t find skill tests important when making a hiring decision. They found profile introductions, portfolios, and job feedback to better showcase a freelancer’s skills and experience.
Here in the forums, many of you have pointed out that skill test scores can easily be manipulated by cheating, as many skill test answers can be found online. Additionally, we frequently hear that these skill tests – especially technical ones – quickly become outdated or irrelevant. This decreases the value and accuracy of skill test results to fairly reflect a freelancer’s proficiency in that skill.
Instead of continuing to provide development resources towards skill tests and asking freelancers to invest time on tests that don’t provide much additional value, we will be removing them all together. This means starting July 9th freelancers will no longer be able to take skill tests, and prior skill test results will be removed from profiles. The elements to reach 100% profile completion will change and no longer include new skill test results. However, all freelancers will maintain their current profile completion percentage gained from skill tests up to the time of this announcement.
Passing the Upwork Readiness test will continue to be required for new freelancers to be eligible for the Rising Talent program. The “Tests” link in the navigation bar will be renamed to “Upwork Readiness Test” and direct straight to the Upwork Readiness Test page where new freelancers will also find links to read our Freelancer Manual and watch videos in our Education Hub.
To set yourself apart from the competition, we recommend following these best practices for your profile. We also recommend creating specialized profiles to market your services if you haven’t already, which come with category-specific ways to demonstrate your talent and are intended to help you showcase your skills.