Top LMS Tools For Skills Development And Assessment In 2026 (Update)

The Best Skills Development And Assessment LMS Tools For 2026 (Update)

Do you know what the best skills development and assessment tools have in common? They save you time and effort when you need to manage and assess skills your learners gain during training. Plus, you can use them to evaluate and test skills when hiring an employee. Or, you can even leverage such training and assessment tools to develop competencies to decide which employees need assistance in improving their skills. Best of all? You can do all this with an LMS.

Skills evaluation is essential, especially for businesses that want to be future-ready. By evaluating competencies and using employee skills assessment tools, you can identify gaps and understand which areas need more work. But first, you need a learning solution to help develop employee skills. Then, you have to make sure it has the right training assessment tools to prove the effectiveness of each program.

Skills development is certainly one of the corporate culture trends that will impact your workforce in the upcoming years.

To help you, we decided to rank the best skills development and assessment LMS tools for 2026.

Go ahead and see who got first place!

Award-Winning LMS Tools To Assess Skills And Develop Employees

If your company is listed among the Best LMSs for Skills Development and Assessment in 2026, feel free to add this badge to your website.

Top List Rankings: eLearning Industry's LMS Selection Criteria

Globally recognized LMS experts, including C. Pappas and our Editorial team, thoroughly reviewed each vendor's eligibility and relevant published content (articles, eBooks, webinars). Our committee ranked the top Learning Management Systems for skills development and assessment on the following nine criteria:

• Customer support
• Customer experience
• Software features
• Software innovation
• Customer reviews
• Economic growth potential
• Company's customer retention
• Employee turnover
• Company's social responsibility

After checking our top skills development and assessment LMS tools list, you can dive a little deeper by checking some extra tips on how to make your final decision. Use our insights below as a valuable guide to choosing and trying out the ideal LMS software for skills development and assessment. We've also included tips on must-have features for assessment skills tests.

Benefits Of LMS Solutions With Skills Assessment Tools

As corporate learning keeps evolving, almost 80% of organizations use eLearning to help their teams grow. That's yet another reason for companies with many employees working remotely. When scattered around various parts of the globe, you need one centralized solution to take learning to the next level.

By now, you must consider implementing an LMS to make eLearning courses available and accessible for your workforce. Sure, it's amazing to start offering training opportunities to all employees. But there are certain challenges along the way. For one, you must find a way to ensure that each training program meets the learning objectives. Secondly, it's essential to assess if learners have reached the skill levels necessary to help them perform well in their job roles. And that gets more complicated when learners have unprecedented autonomy.

Thankfully, LMS assessment tools can solve all of the above. In fact, it's your go-to tool to understand each learner's mastery level through the eLearning courses. All L&D professionals depend on such assessments. So do managers of different departments in an organization. Why? Well, it's the secret weapon that helps demonstrate to the upper management how effective every training program is. And what effect it has on the company's bottom line.

Let's go a little deeper.

Importance Of Skills Development Tools

Supporting skills development in the workplace is now more important than ever. Even though most employers have lost touch with what employees want, giving skills development opportunities can turn things around.

Did you know that the total cost of hiring a new employee might reach $5,000 or more? Considering that, employers are looking to measure and improve employee satisfaction. Not only do skills development tools alleviate employee turnover, but they also drive more productivity.

In fact, offering skills development tools to your workforce is a proven way to improve how employees feel about your business. Plus, it can lead to employee retention. And it can also help pave the way for company growth, especially if you plan to scale from within.

Thus, it's clear that skills development tools are part of the solution. By investing in professional development and employee growth, you can actually make your business more compelling for top talent.

Importance Of Skills Assessment Tools

There are ways to evaluate your training programs, and you can also check individual learner performance. But first, what is a skills assessment?

When you want to hire, develop, or promote employees for new positions, resumes and interviews give you only a glimpse of what a person can do. Sure, a person's education and experience are something you should consider. And, of course, references provide indicators of someone's skills and experience. However, the best way to understand an individual's abilities and level of proficiency is none other than conducting a skills assessment.

To put it simply, a skills assessment is a way to evaluate an individual's ability when performing a specific skill or set of skills. By evaluating skills, you'll know which participant has mastered something or is entirely a novice.

Skills assessment reports are crucial for managers. Why? Well, they help them understand what kind of skills individuals and teams have. Plus, they help identify areas where training is needed.

You can use a skills assessment test for various hiring and employee development initiatives. For example, in recruiting, career development, Learning and Development, rapid adoption of new skills, or reskilling and upskilling.

Best Practices When Creating LMS Assessments

When creating LMS assessments, there are certain best practices you can follow. All online evaluations bring different challenges along the way. So, instructors must keep an eye on several pitfalls they need to avoid.

I'm sure you'll find the following tips about creating LMS assessments helpful. Firstly, consider allowing multiple attempts. Even when learners get it wrong, multiple attempts will enable them to rethink the question, thus leading to better understanding. Secondly, enriching courses and testing with gamification is vital to keeping learners motivated. Another great tip is to use automated grading options to ease the instructor's workload. Plus, you get to share the results immediately.

Of course, remember to use learning analytics, as they are the key to identifying knowledge gaps. Also, with such comprehensive reports, you can point out a specific program's strong and weak points. Last but not least, use competency-based training. The above is essential for corporate training and development. Primarily because it focuses on creating competencies and building skills that employees need in their job roles.

Most Common Assessment Features Your LMS Should Have To Assess And Develop Learners

Great—now that you've decided you need an LMS for skills development, what's next? Skills development programs are good when they are effective. And to prove that a training program gets the job done, your LMS tool needs certain assessment features. Thus, ensure your eLearning LMS includes the essential tools to evaluate learner progress.

Here are some common LMS assessment features you need to keep an eye on:

1. Learning progress tracker
2. Quiz or exam
3. Learning journal
4. Open-ended or essay-type questions
5. Drag-and-drop activities
6. Dialogue simulation
7. Surveys
8. Forum

Assessment tools in LMS platforms and eLearning courses are crucial. Without this process, you cannot measure a learner's progress and understanding of the content. So, having as many assessment tools as possible gives you more ways to figure out how well your learners have understood what was taught. By making learners take tests or quizzes, you can then evaluate the results and see what worked and what didn't. Not only does it help to understand where your learners are struggling, but it also helps improve your training courses.

Of course, there's much more to learner evaluations than simply using quizzes and grades. By creating relevant and well-constructed assessments, managers and trainers can prepare learners for future success. For example, you can require that learners analyze, engage, and use the knowledge gained to respond to questions, solve issues, or even convey information.

Evaluation Tips When Choosing Development And Skills Assessment LMS Tools

No one said that training and assessing employees is easy. However, when you have the right tools, you can help each employee improve core competencies and become better.

By leveraging an LMS with skills assessment tools, hiring managers can reduce bias and have consistency. Also, it's a great tool for personalized development plans. A skills assessment can certainly pinpoint which areas an employee should improve to be more productive or even get a promotion. Plus, skills assessment tools are great for measuring progress while, at the same time, they improve employee engagement.

Online evaluation tools like skills assessment software are in abundance these days. But how many different tools can you handle? If you want to save the trouble and get a tool that allows you to create a competencies framework and train employees while at the same time offering skills testing, then choose an LMS instead. From pre-hire assessments to skills tracking and developing competencies, by choosing one of the LMS tools on this list, you get a powerful solution.

Not sure which one is ideal for you? Make your own LMS comparison!