Introduction
Note: This feature is available on request only.
This feature enables us to integrate external, customer-specific skills, such as your unique, proprietary skills or skills from your organisation's other systems, like a Human Resource Information System (HRIS) or an Applicant Tracking System (ATS). Once imported, these Customer-Specific Ontology skills (also known as custom skills) are seamlessly woven into the platform with all the core functionality of our standard ontology skills.
The value of this update is that it allows for true ontology customisation. This feature overcomes the limitations of the legacy Customer Specific Synonyms (CSS) feature. Custom skills are 'first-class citizens', meaning they are fully extractable, recognised, matched, and tagged by the system just as effectively as a standard ontology skill. Your learners can now search for, add to profiles, assess, and receive personalised recommendations for content and job opportunities using your unique custom skills.
How it works
Currently, the implementation and management of custom skills is an API-driven process handled internally by the Learning Pool team, as there is no customer-facing user interface at this time.
Clients must be on our latest ontology environment to use this feature. If you are unsure whether this is the case for you, please contact your Customer Success Manager.
There are typically two primary paths for adding custom skills:
External Provider Integration: We can import your established skills from external providers (e.g., HRIS/ATS systems). The level of integration depends on the provider.
File-based Imports: The most common method is for your organisation to provide us with a file (in a specific JSON format) containing the skills and their translations you wish to add. Our team will then upload, configure, and enable these for your instance.
To get started, you will need to raise a Support ticket requesting this.
Preparing the import file
To add your custom skills to the platform, we require them to be provided in a specific JSON file format. This file is essentially a list of all the skills you want to add, along with their translations. There is virtually no limit to the number of skills that can be included in the file, and we can bulk import them in one go.
The file should be a list, and each item in the list is a single new skill. Each skill must include two key pieces of information:
synonyms: This is the name of your skill and all its translations. The "en" (English) name is required as the default.
type: This is the category of the skill.
Supported Skill Types
We support three skill types:
| Skill Type | Description |
|---|---|
| skill | For professional or technical skills (e.g., 'Project Management', 'Java'). |
| softskill | For soft or interpersonal skills (e.g., 'Communication', 'Teamwork'). |
| langskill | For language skills (e.g., 'German', 'Mandarin'). |
Example File Structure (JSON)
Here is an example of a file containing three new skills (one of each type) with English, Spanish, and French translations. This is the format we would expect for the import.
JSON
[
{
"synonyms": {
"en": "TC Professional skill",
"es": "TC Professional skill es",
"fr": "TC Professional skill fr"
},
"type": "skill"
},
{
"synonyms": {
"en": "TC Language skills",
"es": "TC Language skills es",
"fr": "TC Language skills fr"
},
"type": "langskill"
},
{
"synonyms": {
"en": "TC Soft skills",
"es": "TC Soft skills es",
"fr": "TC Soft skills fr"
},
"type": "softskill"
}
]
A Note on Translations: We recommend that all translations are verified as correct by the client before being added to this file. While they can be updated later, it is much simpler to get them correct and bulk added in the initial import.
Future developments
We are currently developing new functionality to enhance your CSO experience which will be available soon:
Migration from CSS to CSO: A migration process will be available to automatically convert and re-map your existing CSS skills to new, corresponding custom skills. This will automatically update all related data, including skills on Employee Profiles, in Capabilities, and on tagged learning or LXs (where used) requiring little to no manual data mapping from you.
CSO Admin UI: This new client-facing user interface will allow platform admins to directly manage their custom skill library, including creating new skills, managing translations, and adding company logos.
FAQs
Q: How do I get this feature enabled for my organisation?
A: You must be on the latest ontology environment. Working with your CSM, you will need to raise an Implementation Support ticket and provide the import file, and our team will handle the import and get your custom skills set up on your instance.
Q: What happens to our existing Customer Specific Synonym (CSS) skills?
A: For now, they will continue to function as they are. However, CSS in its current form will be deprecated in the near future, and we are working on a development to allow customers to migrate all existing CSS skills to CSO.
Q: What if a CSO skill has the same name as a Lightcast skill?
A: We will not create new CSO skills that are a 100% match to Lightcast skills. Where there is a 100% match, we will simply ignore these and only create CSO skills that are different.
Q: Will there be a customer-facing user interface to manage CSO skills?
A: Yes, an admin UI for CSO is currently in development and we are aiming to deliver this early 2026.