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Getting started with the Customer Skills Ontology

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Getting started with the Customer Skills Ontology (CSO) Admin UI

Welcome to the Customer Skills Ontology Admin UI. This guide will walk you through the essential steps to get started to use this self-service skill management interface that empowers you to create and manage your own custom skills directly within the Learning Pool platform.

Access & Permissions

The following conditions are required for user to access the Admin UI

  1. User must have HR/Admin role in the platform
  2. CSO feature must be enabled for the organisation

Once enabled you will see Custom Skills in your avatar dropdown.

 

Below are the features available to users who are HR admins and non HR Admins 

HR Admin Users

  1. View CSO library
  2. Create new CSO skills
  3. Edit existing CSO skills
  4. Delete CSO skills
  5. Search and filter skills

Non HR Admin Users

  1. Cannot access CSO Admin UI at all
  2. Will see CSO skills in learner-facing interfaces (if visible)
  3. Cannot distinguish between CSO and Lightcast skills (unless logo shown), but renamed from will be displayed in search.
     

Features available in the Admin UI 

The CSO Admin UI provides a complete self-service workflow for custom skill management:

  1. Users can create custom skills instantly through intuitive UI
  2. Skills can be translated into any language your organisation supports
  3. You can brand skills with your company logo
  4. Users can link custom skills to Lightcast skills
  5. Users have the ability to override Lightcast skills to eliminate duplicates
  6. You can manage the entire lifecycle (create, edit, delete)

Skill Creation Modes

The Admin UI gives the user two options for creating CSO skills.

Create a completely new skill that doesn't reference any existing Lightcast ontology skill. This is ideal for:

  1. Organisation-specific skills not found in standard taxonomies
  2. Internal methodologies or frameworks
  3. Proprietary tools or technologies

Selecting create a new skill from scratch opens up a new page where you will have to fill in the following information

  1. Enter the skill name
  2. Select the skill type
  3. Checkbox if you want to make your company logo visible
  4. Create a custom description
  5. Add a description for each proficiency level
  6. Add a custom translation
     

Select the Next button and you will be taken to a new page to review the skill you just created and Confirm if you are happy with the information you added.

This will bring you back to the Custom Skills page where you will see the skill you just created

When you select "I want to customise an existing" skill this opens a new page where you can search and select an existing skill

When you select a skill more options will appear on the page the first is to provide a translation of the skill in a language your organisation supports. Here you will enter the following information

  • The translated name of the skill
  • A description of the skill in the translated language
  • The proficiency levels and descriptions in the translated language

The next option on the page will let you manage how the skill appears to users. Here you can select to replace the existing skill name with custom translation and to make the company logo visible. Select next to review and confirm the information you have added.

You are then taken back to the Custom Skills page where you will see the skill you have customised

Now you can see in the Associated Skill column the skill Project Management and in the Relation to Associated Skill column the word Override. This is because we have decided to override this skill and customise it for our organisation. Now navigate to the Skills page from the side bar
 

In the Skills page search for Project Management skill that was customised. It will not appear in the search as we have selected to Override that skill with the customised skill.

Now search for Chef de Project and you will see it appear in the search with the company logo displayed.

Comprehensive Translation Management

Admins can provide translations for their CSO skills in any Lightcast-supported language, including:

  1. Skill name
  2. Skill description
  3. Proficiency level descriptions (Beginner, Experience, Expert)

Whilst all Lightcast supported languages are supported in CSO, only languages configured in backoffice for the client will be available

The system validates translation availability in real-time to prevent duplicate skill names within the same language.

Skill Type Classification

Each CSO skill must be classified into one of three types

  1. Technical Skill (skill): Hard skills, technical competencies
  2. Soft Skill (softskill): Interpersonal and behavioral competencies
  3. Language Skill (langskill): Language proficiency and communication skills

Company Logo Visibility

Admins can choose to display their company logo alongside CSO skills to

  1. Clearly identify internal/custom skills
  2. Distinguish CSO skills from standard Lightcast skills
  3. Reinforce organisational branding

Skill Override Feature

The Override feature allows clients to hide the original Lightcast skill while preserving all its data connections and intelligence. This results in:

  1. All learner-facing interfaces now show only the custom skill
  2. Original skill hidden from
    1. Search results
    2. Skill recommendations
    3. Profile pages
    4. Content skill tags
    5. All reporting

The table below explains what happens when the Override feature is enabled and when it is not enabled, called Extend.

Key Characteristics

  1. Instance-Specific: Override only affects your organisation's instance
  2. Non-Destructive: Original Lightcast data is fully preserved
  3. Reversible: Disabling override immediately restores the original skill
  4. Seamless: Content extraction and recommendations continue working normally

When to Use Override vs Extend

Use Override when:

  1. Client wants to replace standard terminology completely
  2. Goal is to simplify and reduce skill duplication
  3. Organisation has strong internal brand/terminology
  4. Client previously used CSS renaming

Use Extend when:

  1. Client wants to give an indication of what the skill used to be named

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: "How many CSO skills can we create?" 

A: No limit. Create as many as you need for your organisation.
 

Q: "Can we bulk import skills?" 

A: Bulk import can still be done via API but only for pure CSO skills.

 

Q: "What happens to our existing CSS skills?" 

A: Every CSS skill will be converted into a new, corresponding CSO skill.

 

Q: "How long does it take for skills to appear to learners?" 

A: Immediately. Changes take effect in real-time.

 

Q: "Will this break our existing content extraction?"

A: No, content extraction still works—it just displays your custom skill name.

 

Q: "Can we undo an override?"

A: Yes, simply edit the skill and uncheck the override option.

 

Q: "Does this affect other organisations?"

A: No, overrides are completely isolated to your instance.

 

Q: "What happens to learner profiles with the old skill?"

A: Data is preserved and automatically mapped to the new custom skill.


 

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