Written by Sara Rydin

At a time when technology is transforming the job market, the Norwegian Directorate for Higher Education and Skills has introduced a new digital tool that helps job seekers identify and articulate both specific and transferable skills. The tool, called “Describe what you can do” (Beskriv hva du kan), is part of the digital career guidance service Karriereveiledning.no and is based on the AI technology ChatGPT.

By combining AI with a user-friendly interface, the agency hopes to help job seekers express their competencies—regardless of previous work experience.

“For many, it can be hard to describe what they’re capable of. The tool was developed to meet a need among job seekers to articulate their skills and reflect on them in relation to a job they want. A job title or a degree name doesn’t always show what a person can actually do. With the help of ChatGPT, you can get suggestions on how to describe your skills—suggestions that can then be used in a CV, a job application, or an interview,” says Tomas Iversen, career advisor at Karriereveiledning.no.

Tomas Iversen explains that the agency continuously develops the “Describe what you can do” tool to keep it up to date and adapted to users’ changing needs and preferences, just like all parts of Karriereveiledning.no.

Tomas Iversen, Norwegian Directorate for Higher Education and Skills. Photo: HK-dir

Simple to use

The “Describe what you can do” tool is easy to use. Job seekers enter a few keywords about previous work or education and then choose whether they want responses that reflect transferable or occupation-specific skills. The AI then generates a list of suggested skills.

When we try the tool ourselves by entering the keyword “technical communicator,” we receive ten transferable skills associated with that role. Two of them are:

• Communication – Ability to convey information clearly and precisely, both verbally and in writing.

• Teamwork – Experience working effectively in teams, including collaboration, communication, and conflict management.

Even people with little or no work experience receive skill examples from the tool. To demonstrate this, Tomas Iversen types “stay-at-home dad” into the search box. On the screen, we see suggested skills. According to the tool, a stay-at-home dad is likely good at organization and planning, as well as solving problems under time pressure.

Anonymous and time-saving

A major advantage of the “Describe what you can do” tool is that users can remain completely anonymous. No login is required, and no personal data is collected or stored, allowing users to use the tool as many times as they wish in a safe and relaxed way. If users want further support, they can bring the results to a counselor. Alternatively, they can contact counselors digitally via chat, phone, or email during the day.

The agency also finds that the tool, together with their other digital career guidance services on Karriereveiledning.no, eases the workload of their career advisors. Many steps in the guidance process can now be performed or at least prepared by the job seeker—either before, during, or after the counseling session.

“We realize that we used to do much of this during career guidance sessions. The tool is based on how we used to structure the guidance, ask questions, and explain things,” says Tomas Iversen.

Future development

The agency is continuously developing the “Describe what you can do” tool to ensure it remains current and adapted to users' evolving needs, just as they do with all other parts of Karriereveiledning.no.

“We are constantly working to develop the content on our website based on user needs. We continue improving the tools based on chat logs. From those, we can see previous counseling sessions, the situations job seekers are in, and what their needs and challenges are. We can also see how we’ve guided them and what has been helpful. Then we use that insight to develop all relevant self-help tools,” says Tomas Iversen.

Because “Describe what you can do” is based on AI—which is known to sometimes stretch the truth—they also need to check that the responses are reliable and that changes to the AI algorithm don’t affect the output. Since the agency cannot influence future changes to ChatGPT, they are constantly evaluating whether ChatGPT remains the best AI technology for the tool. In the future, they also hope to simplify the user experience further and are therefore considering alternative data storage solutions.

🔗 The “Describe what you can do” tool (in Norwegian)

Sara Rydin is a writer and the editor at the Nordic Network for Lifelong Learning (NLL) that is tasked with spreading information about adult education in the Nordic countries.

This article is part of NLL’s reportage series: Make All Skills Visible!