What are Skill Sets?

Skill sets are the main components for constructing and customizing your SkillsEngine profiles. They represent groups of skills that are typically associated with one another and have been grouped together to make it easier to manage your profiles. This article provides an overview for understanding skill sets and learning how to work with them.

What is a Skill Set?

A SkillsEngine skill set represents a collection of skills that are commonly associated with each other. Standard skill sets can include three different types of skills:

1. Work Activities — How major units of time are organized on the job. Each statement is observable and produces results capable of being measured.
2. Soft Skills — Also called “Employability Skills” these are specific behaviors and characteristics that demonstrate general strengths and describe important social skills needed to function in today’s modern workplace.
3. Knowledges — Includes principles, bodies of content, and facts generally applied within academic domains. These represent areas of specialization or expertise and can vary widely.

For example, if you're crafting a profile for a pastry chef position you might add the skill set "Food Cooking and Baking." This skill set includes the work activities "Perform short order cooking" and "Follow recipe instructions", the soft skills "Attention to detail" and "Professionalism", and the knowledge "Culinary arts”.

There is also a stand alone skill set in each profile you create for Tools & Technologies. You can use the search bar within this skill set to add relevant tools and technologies from our library or create your own.

How to Manage Skill Sets

Managing and editing your skill sets effectively allows you to create comprehensive, accurate, and relevant profiles. Here are some tips for managing your skill sets and the skills within them:

• Add and Remove Skill Sets: You can add or remove entire skill sets from your profile based on your requirements. This makes your profiles adaptable to fit what you are building.

• Edit Titles of Skill Sets and Skills: To ensure your skill sets and skills are contextually relevant, you can edit their titles. This feature allows you to adapt the language to suit your unique circumstances while maintaining the underlying connection to the broader library.

• Add and Remove Skills within a Skill Set: SkillsEngine offers flexibility when it comes to customizing the skills within a skill set. You can add new skills or remove unnecessary ones to best fit your needs. New skills you create will show up as “Custom” in the skill set.

Export Skill Sets

For your convenience, SkillsEngine enables you to download a CSV of or copy and paste out any of your skill profiles. You can also copy and paste out individual skill sets from within a skill profile. These features make it easy to seamlessly move between SkillsEngine and your own internal workflows.

Conclusion

Mastering the management of skill sets is a fundamental part of maximizing your use of the SkillsEngine platform. By understanding their structure and how to manipulate them, you'll be able to create profiles that are comprehensive, precise, and valuable to your individual or organizational needs.