When you learn, you either improve your existing skills or acquire new ones. We make the result of learning visible. A user has a skill overview where they can add and assess their skills. In addition, as an administrator, you can assign skills to a role, so that a user with this role automatically sees these skills in their skill overview. This article explains in more detail how this works.
What skills are available in my academy?
We have already added a default list of skills to your academy. These are skills that are relevant to many organisations – a combination of hard skills and soft skills. You can customise this list to suit your organisation. You can do this by adding skills, deactivating default skills, or changing the name of a default skill.
Editing a standard skill
Go to “Organise” in the menu on the left, then navigate to the “Skills” tab.
Click the pencil icon next to the skill you want to edit.
You can make the following changes to a default skill.
Skill title: This is the name of the skill as shown to the user in their skill overview.
Skill description: This description is shown when requesting feedback on a skill. It is also visible to the user on the skill’s detail page.
Active: When a skill is active, an administrator can assign it to a learning activity or role. Users can also add an active skill to their skill overview.
Restore default settings: This option reverts the skill back to how it appeared in the default list. The name and description will be reset, and translations will be removed.
Type: It is not possible to change the type (hard skill or soft skill) for default skills.
Languages: Edit the translations of this skill for the different languages active in your academy.
Adding a new skill
Go to “Organise” in the menu on the left and navigate to the “Skills” tab.
Click the plus icon to add a skill.
Enter the following information for a skill:
Skill title: This is the name of the skill as the user will see it in their skill overview.
Skill description: This description is shown when requesting feedback on a skill. In addition, the user will see this description on the skill’s detail page.
Active: If the skill is active, an administrator can add it to a learning activity or role. The user can also add an active skill to their skill overview.
Type: Indicate whether it is a hard skill or a soft skill.
Languages: Adjust the translations for this skill for the different languages that are active in your academy.
Adding skills to learning activities
Skills can be linked to learning activities. You can do this at the bottom of the detail page of the learning activity. A maximum of five skills can be assigned to a learning activity.
By adding skills to learning activities, users can see on the skill detail page which learning activities they can use to develop that skill. In addition, a skill is automatically added to a user's skill overview once they have completed three learning activities linked to that skill.
Assigning skills to a function
It is also possible to assign skills to a function. Users with this function will then automatically see these skills in their skill overview. To do this, follow these steps:
Go to “Organise” in the menu on the left and navigate to the “Functions” tab.
Click the pencil icon next to the function you want to assign skills to.
On the detail page of the function, go to the “Skills” tab.
Click “Add” and select one or more skills from the list.
You can assign a maximum of 20 skills to a function.
Click “Add”.
Optional: Add a target level for each skill.
The user will see this target level on the detail page of the skill.
Save the changes to the function.
What does the skill overview for the user look like?
Users can go to “Skills” via the “My Growth” menu. There, they will find an overview of their skills.
Function-based skills
As mentioned above, skills can be assigned to a function. Skills that are assigned to a function automatically appear in the user’s skill overview. Such a skill is labelled “Function skill” on the skill tile. A role skill cannot be removed from the user’s skill overview.
If a user no longer holds a function, or if a skill is removed from a function, the skill will remain in the user’s skill overview. However, it will no longer be marked as a function skill.
Adding a skill
At the top of the skill overview, the focus skills are displayed. To make a skill a focus skill, it must first be added. To do this, the user should follow these steps:
Click the “Add” button on the right side of the screen.
In the menu that appears, search for the desired skill in the list of skills. You can select multiple skills at once.
Add the skills using the “Add Skills” button at the bottom of the screen.
The added skills will then be visible under “Your skills”. A skill can also be removed again by clicking the bin icon in the skill’s frame. If the user later chooses to add the skill again, the history for that skill will also become visible again.
If a user completes three learning activities linked to the same skill, that skill is automatically added to the skill overview. This skill will then be labelled “New”. Skills can always be removed or (re)added.
Adding a focus skill
Users can add up to five skills as focus skills. These can be skills they want to develop further within a certain period. There are two ways to set a skill as a focus skill:
The user clicks “Add focus skill” in the frame where the focus skill will appear. In the menu that follows, the user can select and add a focus skill from the list of skills.
Under “Your skills”, the user clicks the focus skill icon in the frame of the desired skill. The skill is then immediately added to the focus skills.
Skill detail page
By clicking on a skill or focus skill, the user is taken to the detail page of that skill. Here, the user can perform various actions and view different information:
Focus skill: The user can add or remove the skill as a focus skill by clicking the focus skill icon.
Self-assessment: Through “Assess yourself”, the user can rate their own level for the skill. By dragging the arrow along the bar, the user can assess themselves from “Beginner” to “Master”. A comment can be added to explain the self-assessment. The assessment must then be confirmed using the button in the bottom right corner.
Request feedback: Via “Request feedback”, the user can ask a colleague for feedback on the skill. To do this, the user follows these steps:
Select which skills they would like feedback on (up to 10 skills).
Choose whom to request feedback from.
Feedback can be requested from other users of the online academy, but it is also possible to add an external recipient. That person will receive an email with a link to the feedback page.
The overview shows which feedback will be requested and from whom. If everything is correct, the user can send the feedback request.
Function skill: If the skill is assigned based on the user’s role, the general skill information will show the label “Function skill”. The target level set by the organisation will also be displayed here.
Development: Here, the user can view the development of their skill level in a graph. The development can be viewed per month, year, or overall. Both self-assessments and colleague assessments are shown here, as well as whether the skill was marked as a focus skill.
Learning activities: The user can browse learning activities that help develop the skill. Using the learning list icon, they can add the activity to their learning list to follow later. By clicking the activity, the user can enroll and start the activity immediately.
Completed learning activities: Under “Completed learning activities”, the user sees all learning activities they have completed that are linked to the skill. If no such activities have been completed, the user can click through to the Library to find learning activities that help develop the skill.
Assessments: Under “Assessments”, the user sees the various evaluations from themselves and colleagues for the skill. By hovering the mouse over an assessment, the user can preview the comment. Clicking it reveals the full assessment. If there are no assessments yet, the user can start a self-assessment from this section.
Skill levels
We use five levels for assessing a skill and for setting the target level:
Beginner: The user is starting to explore the skill and is building a foundation.
Advanced: The user has mastered the basics and is working on further development.
Skilled: The user experiments and refines the skill in a critical manner.
Expert: The user applies smart improvements automatically thanks to extensive knowledge.
Master: The skill is fully integrated into the user’s daily practice.
Would you like to read more about the background? You can find that in this article.