Lightcast is pleased to announce the release of the "DDN Skills" framework in Analyst and Developer!
What are DDN Skills?
DDN Skills are occupation-specific skill categories. While common, specialized, and software skills describe a skill, occupational skill categories describe the relationship between an occupation and a skill.
This hierarchy begins with skills that are basic foundations of an occupation, graduating to advanced skills required for more senior or specialized roles that will set job seekers apart.
Occupational Skills:
Necessary skills: Necessary skills for an occupation are the ‘specialized skills’ required for that job and are relevant across other similar jobs. These are foundational skills for the broader career area.
Defining skills: Defining skills are the ‘specialized skills’ that represent the day-to-day tasks and responsibilities of the job.
Distinguishing skills: An occupation’s Distinguishing skills are the advanced skills that are called for occasionally. An employee with these skills is likely more specialized and able to differentiate themselves.
Where can I find DDN Skills?
The DDN skills framework can be found in the Occupation Overview/Snapshot reports in Analyst and Developer. The DDN skills framework requires at least one occupation as an input and since this report is focused on occupations and requires at least a single occupation before it can be run it is a natural starting spot for DDN skills. We will be working in the coming months to continue to expand where and how DDN skills are used in Analyst and Developer.
How can DDN Skills help me?
The occupational skill categories enable users to get beyond simply recall rate (what skill is most requested for the occupation), and hone in on the skills that best describe the job, and what a person is doing in it. Rather than always viewing "communication" as one of the top few skills, with DDN we see when communication is necessary but not sufficient to a role.
Viewing skills to this level of granularity and segmentation can be helpful in use cases such as:
Help job seekers identify what are “must have” skills on their resumes to improve their chances of landing their dream jobs
Improve your curriculum to keep it up to date with the most in-demand jobs and skills.
Build a core curriculum around Necessary Skills.
Build advanced tracks around Defining and Distinguishing Skills
Make your students and workers more marketable by teaching them distinguishing skills
Help students develop skills that improve their salary prospects by focusing on acquiring salary premium skills.