A decade ago, conceptualizing a way to create job or career paths based on skills, I tried to use current public (government) and private skills databases for my apps. Two problems I identified back then remain today:
Skills databases are massive. As I build my Job Label Catalog, I realize why these databases grow rapidly: companies look to claim a three-letter acronym to describe a process; or a software company looks to claim a niche for their latest platform or application. I know from our platform. I have one such claim:
Skills Based Approach (verb) - a lesson plan, project, course, training module, or simply a day's work
Skills nomenclature is too deliberate, general or philosophical. With a government skills database, I simply could not realistically connect the database to actual job listings – didn’t make sense. Or being too general, like listing ‘Problem Solving’ for a job is meaningless. Or, while suggesting ‘resiliency, adaptability, or learning’ as the most important skills are good for a mindset, they are not easily practiced day in and day out.
In the 7th Skills Label Insights Report, I suggest a Skills Profile (a combination of one Thinking, Transferable, Technical, and Focus Technical Skill) to get an understanding of what and how many jobs are worth identifying as a career path. This is derived from our publicly accessible Job Label Catalog.
I think the first two branches of the hierarchy are particularly effective. Regardless of what is required in a job, I think a person favors a single thinking type and prefers applying a single transferable skill on the job – perhaps identified with a Myer Briggs Personality or a Gallup Strengths test.
The separation of the number of jobs requiring Analytical and Critical Thinking is significant and the lack thereof Creative and Novel Thinking surprising. But Analytical Thinking being the most sought-after skill, matches the most recent WEF survey. On our Job Labels, we also get right in how to reference Problem Solving - define it in smaller more detailed categories.
The complete 7th Skills Label Insights report is accessible and downloadable as a PDF on our website.
I think a Skill Profile is the right combination. This is also applied Skills Label Job Profiler . An interface to work through the combinations to identify the right job, when you find one, create a Job Future or a Skills Based Approach Instance.
For the careful observer, the report shows combinations, highlighting their appearance frequency rather than suggesting skill correlations. For example, 'Management of Personal Resources' and 'Java' might appear together for a Software Engineering Manager, irrespective of their correlation.