Managing Skill Categories

Overview

Skill categories help organise your skills library into logical groups, making it easier for learners to browse and discover relevant skills. Categories appear during onboarding, in the Discover experience, and when users are adding skills to their profiles.

Beyond basic organisation, categories can be featured in onboarding flows, shown or hidden in search, styled with custom colours, and imported in bulk via CSV.

Functionality Breakdown

What Skill Categories Enable

• Organisation – Group related skills together (e.g., "Leadership", "Technical", "Communication")

• Onboarding – Feature categories prominently when new users select their initial skills

• Discover – Control which categories appear in the search and browse experience

• Branding – Apply custom gradient colours to match your organisation's visual identity

• Bulk management – Import categories and their skills via CSV

Category Settings

Each category has several configurable options:

Pre-requisites

To manage skill categories, you'll need:

• Skills feature enabled on your account

• Access to the Manage Skills area

Required User Roles

Quick Start Guide

Accessing Skill Categories

1. Click Manage in the sidebar

2. Select Skills

3. Click the Skill Categories tab

Creating a Skill Category

1. Click + Add skill category

2. Enter the category details:

   • Name – A clear, descriptive name

   • Description – Optional context about what skills belong here

3. Configure options:

   • Featured in onboarding – Toggle on to show in new user onboarding

   • Skills – Add skills to this category (you can also do this from individual skill settings)

4. Click Save

Editing a Skill Category

1. Find the category in the Skill Categories list

2. Click the category name or the edit icon

3. Update the settings as needed

4. Click Save

Featuring Categories in Onboarding

When a category is featured in onboarding, it appears prominently when new users are selecting their initial skills:

1. Find the category you want to feature

2. Click the three-dot menu (⋮) → Feature in onboarding

3. The category now appears in the onboarding flow

To remove from onboarding:

1. Click the three-dot menu (⋮) → Remove from onboarding

💡 Tip: Feature 3–5 categories that represent your organisation's core skill areas. Too many featured categories can overwhelm new users.

Controlling Search Visibility

You can control whether a category's skills appear in search and Discover:

To hide a category from search:

1. Find the category

2. Click the three-dot menu (⋮) → Hide from search

3. Skills in this category won't appear in search results

To show a category in search:

1. Find the category

2. Click the three-dot menu (⋮) → Show in search

This is useful for:

• Internal or administrative skills that shouldn't be discoverable

• Categories still being set up

• Deprecated categories you're phasing out

Applying Custom Colours

Categories can have custom gradient colours for visual distinction:

1. Edit the category

2. Enable Custom colours

3. Set the Start colour and End colour for the gradient

4. Preview the appearance

5. Click Save

Custom colours appear when the category is displayed in onboarding and browsing experiences.

Importing Categories via CSV

For bulk category management, you can import via CSV:

1. Go to Manage → Skills → Skill Categories

2. Click Actions → Import

3. Download the template CSV if needed

4. Prepare your file with columns for:

   • Category name

   • Description (optional)

   • Skills (comma-separated list)

5. Upload your CSV

6. Review and confirm the import

FAQs

Q: Can a skill belong to multiple categories?
Yes. Skills can be assigned to multiple categories, helping users find them through different browsing paths.

Q: What happens if I delete a category?
The category is removed, but the skills within it are preserved. They simply no longer belong to that category (they may still belong to other categories).

Q: Do featured categories affect content recommendations?
Featured status affects onboarding and search visibility. Content recommendations are based on the skills themselves, not their categories.

Q: Can I reorder categories?
Categories are displayed alphabetically by default. Custom ordering is not currently supported.

Q: What's the difference between "Featured in onboarding" and "Featured on search"?
"Featured in onboarding" controls whether the category appears when new users select skills during onboarding. "Featured on search" controls whether the category's skills appear in search and Discover results.

Q: Can I hide all skills in a category without disabling them?
Yes. Use "Hide from search" to remove them from discovery while keeping them available for users who already have them.

Q: How many categories should I have?
There's no limit, but aim for 10–20 well-organised categories. Too many categories can make browsing difficult; too few may not provide useful organisation.

Troubleshooting