FAQs

In Lightcast’s Open Skills Library , skills are competencies in specific tasks or familiarity with specific subjects and tools acquired through education or experience. Each skill is classified as a specialized skill, common skill, or certification.

Specialized Skills – Skills primarily required within a subset of occupations or that equip one to perform a specific task (e.g., “NumPy” or “Hotel Management”). Also known as technical or hard skills.

Common Skills – Skills prevalent across many occupations and industries, including personal attributes and learned abilities (e.g., “Communication” or “Microsoft Excel”). Also known as soft skills, human skills, or competencies.

Certifications – Recognized qualification standards issued by industry or educational bodies (e.g., “Cosmetology License” or “Certified Cytotechnologist”).

We select skills that are relevant to individuals, employers, and educators; meaning they are commonly listed on real-world resumes, professional profiles, and job postings. We gather and analyze millions of skill mentions each month and also accept suggestions from the community.

You can suggest a skill .

Yes. All skills in the Open Skills Library include definitions.

The library reflects current common usage. To provide context, most skills are linked to relevant Wikipedia articles. For linked skills, we also include brief descriptions from Wikipedia, distributed under the CC BY-SA license .

We use two types of taxonomies:

• A traditional hierarchical taxonomy with defined categories and subcategories that tag each skill to show relationships.
• A dynamic taxonomy that allows classifications to emerge organically from relationships between skills in our aggregated supply and demand data.

Because the labor market evolves rapidly, we allow skill relationships to reflect real-world patterns rather than relying solely on predefined categories.

Read more about our dynamic taxonomic data or contact us to learn more.

Skills are constantly evolving. An API provides access to the most up-to-date dataset, whereas a downloadable file would quickly become outdated.

For this reason, we update the library monthly.

(See “How Often Does the Classification Change?”)

No. Rapid technological change has made highly structured, top-down systems like O*NET difficult to maintain and keep current.

(See “What Taxonomy Do You Use?” above.)

We release a new version of the library each month. Each release includes new skills and updates to how existing skills are identified.

You can review updates in the changelog .

Yes, absolutely. You can suggest a skill for consideration.

For more than two decades, we have analyzed labor market data. We believe creating a shared skills language benefits individuals, educators, and employers alike.

By making this library freely available, we aim to:

• Help jobseekers identify in-demand skills
• Help employers find qualified candidates more efficiently
• Help educators align programs with labor market needs

We provide services that can extract skills from job postings, resumes, professional profiles, and course descriptions.

Once extracted, your data can be analyzed and compared using the same skills framework used across our labor market datasets.

To get started, contact us .

Using a shared skills framework allows for consistent comparison across datasets.

By aligning your data with the Open Skills Library, you can:

• Compare your data with labor market demand
• Evaluate whether learners are acquiring relevant skills
• Identify companies seeking specific skill sets
• Create stronger job postings and resumes

You may use Lightcast’s Open Skills Library at no cost, provided you properly attribute Lightcast and comply with our usage policies.

Please review our Terms and Conditions for full details.