A skills taxonomy is a system for naming, classifying, and grouping skills.
Taxonomies can cover many human attributes, including skills, knowledge, and abilities. They also typically specify the skills requirements of different occupations.
What is Skills Taxonomy?
A skills taxonomy is a structured list of skills defined at the organization level that identifies the capabilities of a business in a quantifiable way.
It is a system that classifies skills within an organization into groups and clusters.
Having a skills taxonomy for your organization creates a unified understanding and language that can be used to deliver effective workforce strategies and drive operational efficiency.
How it is developed and maintained?
As the name suggests, the skills taxonomy is a library or taxonomy or lexicon of skills. It covers skills in different functions or domains or industries. The second aspect is its coverage. It is holistic and in-depth. The third aspect is that it is dynamic, not created once and adding different versions. It is dynamic, and there can be regular updates.
Skills are mapped in different industries and functions (Accounts, Information Technology, Engineering, and so on). Thus it is not a dump of skills (like a dictionary being a dump of words) but is a classified organization of skills (like the organization of words in say an encyclopedia or books in a library)
Skills are connected with relationships in multiple levels, including the context. The skills library is holistic and in-depth. The skills cover functional/technical skills as well as behavioral/cognitive skills. And in functional/technical skills the skills are organized under sections such as specialization, tools & technologies one uses, principles & concepts one knows, and domains in which the employee is working.
Applicability: Use cases
Example 1:
Nationwide tracking of skills and employability with a standardized and normalized skills database across the labor landscape is a boon for any labor department or national Human resource department. A skill taxonomy system must help build national employability and leadership training for the current and future jobs market. This covers the entire aggregation of job seekers and providers. This system should protect a governing body's whole ecosystem of skills missions, focusing on labor, employment, and skills development.
Example 2:
Due to Covid 19, hundred thousand expatriates, including industrial laborers, were returned to India. There were both unskilled to super skilled resources returning to India, maybe seeking jobs in India. They have a wide range of skills, including managerial expertise. There will be a heterogeneous group of multi-task labor, experienced workers in the oil industry, construction, food processing, IT, and many more industries suitable to support India's growth.
The system can profile the skills of the returnees. The system prompts the returnees/ job seekers to combine skills in different areas such as functional skills, technical skills, domain experience, behavioral skills, role/ activities, certification, knowledge, and many more.
Example 3:
Skills Passport: Skills passport is a generic term with no industry compliance or legally binding. Due to a lack of controlling authority, the term Skills passport is often misrepresented. However, the only goal of a skills passport system is to keep track of a person's skills and provide an integrity. It is a system or a utility for any skilled owner to keep track of their skills and update as and when a new skill is required. If the skills are approved or assessed by an employer or a supervisor, the system will have integrity.
Apart from above, the person can upload their certifications in the application/portal. When this person moves or changes employment, the system can keep tracking the updated new skills. A good skills taxonomy enables a an efficient skills passport system.
On the skills Taxonomy:
1) European Skills, Competences, Qualifications, and Occupations
The European Skills, Competences, Qualifications, and Occupations (ESCO) is a European Commission project, first published in 2017. ESCO has separate ‘pillars’ for categorizing and linking occupations, skills, and qualifications.
ESCO is the multilingual classification of European Skills, Competences, Qualifications and Occupations. It identifies and categorises skills, competences, qualifications and occupations relevant for the EU labour market and education and training, in 25 European languages. The system provides occupational profiles showing the relationships between occupations, skills, competences and qualifications. ESCO has been developed in an open IT format, is available for use free of charge by everyone and can be accessed through an online portal.
2) O*Net
O*Net is by far the most superior offering of the taxonomy out there.
"The Occupational Information Network (O*NET) was designed to replace the Dictionary of Occupational Titles, which was difficult to update and had generated numerous questions regarding sampling strategy, content coverage, and measurement strategy. O*NET improves upon the DOT in its sample size, sampling methods, and content coverage. Nevertheless, questions and issues regarding the sample, content, and measurement approach remain"
However, it has severe limitations in terms and thus limits its wide usage.
The most critical issue is that it does not exhaustively cover the current skills, i.e., skills in the latest prevailing environment or marketplace. For example, you will see that skills like Machine Learning, Blockchain, etc., are not on the list. And this is important. Any skills ontology needs to be current and dynamic. IYS Taxonomy is updated regularly. We use technology tools, human intelligence in the skills area, user contribution, and secondary research to update the skills ontology.
The most important aspect of the Skills Taxonomy is correlations between skills and skills groups to help better appreciate skills for jobs. While O*Net does tie Activities, Skills, Attributes, and Tools to Titles. The structure and richness are limited.
O*Net has one major flaw. It can get too broad or too narrow at times. In the skills space particularly, we need a good balance. Let me explain. O*Net refers to Mathematics as a skill. This is too broad. We must go to the next level, including Algebra, Statistics, etc. And at times, O*Net gets to specific, particularly with "tools" where things like smartphones are included. This is not necessary and has the danger of becoming redundant.
Finally, and this is an essential aspect, most of those delving into skills miss out - what is necessary is skills profile and not just skills. And skills profiles include knowledge, domain experience, tools & technologies, activities, behavioral skills, and certifications. O*Net has a similar structure. However, its treatment is identical for all functions. And this can be misleading. For example, what aspects of the skills profile are essential in Sales and differ from that for software development? And also, terminologies vary based on domain.
Applicability & benefits
A good taxonomy can help employers, employees and Govt:
- to understand the knowledge, skills and competencies that people have obtained through education, training or "on the job" experience;
- to express which knowledge, skills, competencies and qualifications they expect from their employees;
- to find the right person for a job.
- It helps in creating a skills profile of self for self-assessment & development
- Good taxonomy helps in creating skills profiles of jobs in place of unstructured job descriptions
- It enables to get the skills profiles of applicants to jobs, all in the same structured template
- It will ensure right assessment of proficiencies and capturing of the same in the skills profile
- Taxonomy helps to build inventorying skills in the company and thus planning for develop or hire decisions
- Responding to new business opportunities by bringing diverse skills together
- Helping individuals understand gaps in their skills
- Finding right sources for developing gaps in skills
- Giving feedback to employees based on skill gaps
- It helps individuals to understand what employers need;
- to understand how they can develop their career through lifelong learning;
- to document and describe their knowledge, skills and competencies in order to find the right job.
- Macro skills analytics, People skills analytics, supply and demand of skills and skills forecast
To know more about skills taxonomy and skills passport please connect with me . Thanks for reading! Rajmohan
