Adding skills tags to your badges, pathways, and activities can significantly enhance discoverability and help learners match their achievements with industry-recognised skills. Here are some recommendations for using skills tags effectively, based on guidance from Lightcast.
Types of skills tags
Specialised Skills: These are unique skills relevant to specific tasks or professions, such as technical skills or niche expertise.
Common Skills: Transferable skills that are valuable across various industries, such as teamwork or communication.
Certifications: Recognised qualifications or certifications, such as "AWS Certified" or "PMP".
Software: Specific tools, applications, or platforms, such as Microsoft Excel or Salesforce.
Other: Skills that don't fall into the categories above.
Adding tags
To make your content more visible and relevant, use the following best practices when adding skills tags:
Pick your tags from the list, do not just type them: Skills tags come in two kinds. A tag you choose from the auto-complete list, or from Suggest, is matched to the Lightcast skills taxonomy and is marked with a sparkle icon. A tag you type in yourself and save without picking a match is a custom tag: it still shows on your badge, pathway or activity, but it carries none of the taxonomy data behind it. The editor tells you which is which, so check for the sparkle before you save. If you remove a tag and add it back under a slightly different spelling it comes back as a custom tag, so re-pick it from the list instead.
Use Auto-Complete: type at least three characters into the skills box and the closest Lightcast matches appear, up to three at a time. Click one to add it. If nothing you want appears, try a different wording rather than typing your own version of the name.
Use Suggest: write your description first, then click Suggest. Navigatr scans your description, and on a badge your criteria too, and offers matching Lightcast skills as chips you can click to add. It needs at least a couple of sentences to work with. These recommendations are based on industry trends and employer language.
Choose Relevant Tags: Focus on skills that are directly relevant to the content. Avoid unrelated tags, as they may dilute the content's relevance and discoverability.
Aim for 6 to 8 Tags: Adding around six to eight skills tags strikes a balance between specificity and discoverability. You can add up to 20 tags if necessary.
Incorporating these tagging strategies can improve the learner's experience by making it easier for them to find relevant learning opportunities and for employers to recognise valuable skills.
Tip: For further assistance with skills tags, contact [email protected].