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Overview

A Career Pathway (called a Career in SkillsDB) is a structured definition of a role or job function within your organization. Each career maps out the skills an employee needs, how those skills are organized into sections, and the progression levels a person can move through — for example, from Junior to Senior. Career Pathways serve as the foundation for talent development in SkillsDB. When an employee is assigned to a career, SkillsDB uses the career’s structure to drive proficiency tracking, training requirements, and self-assessments. Managers and administrators can see each person’s progress against the career benchmark, identify skill gaps, and plan development accordingly. Career Pathways are configured and managed by administrators. Managers can assign employees to careers and view their progress. Employees can view their assigned career overview through their personal dashboard.

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Understanding Career Pathway structure

A Career Pathway in SkillsDB is made up of four building blocks: Careers can also belong to a Career Type — an optional category that helps organize careers across your organization (for example, “Job Role” vs. “Specialty Path”).

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Prerequisites

Before you create and configure Career Pathways, you need:

• Permission level: Administrator role in SkillsDB
• Setup requirement: Skills must already exist in your Skills Library before they can be added to a career
• Access: Navigate to Library > Careers from the left sidebar

Managers can assign employees to existing careers but cannot create or configure careers. Standard users (employees) can view their assigned career overview but cannot modify career structure or settings.

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Creating a Career

Administrators create careers from the Careers Library. Each new career starts with a name and optional icon and type, and is then configured with levels, sections, and skills.

1. Navigate to Library > Careers from the left sidebar.
2. Select Create Career in the top-right area of the page.
3. In the Add Job Role modal, enter a Career Name (required).
4. Optionally, select a Career Type from the dropdown.
5. Optionally, select an Icon to visually represent the career.
6. Select Create.

The career is created and opens in the career details panel, where you can configure levels, sections, skills, and settings.

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Configuring Career Settings

Each career has configurable settings that control how proficiency, training, assessments, and dashboards behave for employees assigned to that career. Access career settings from the career details panel by selecting Settings.

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Proficiency grading

Proficiency grading enables skill-level scoring within the career. When proficiency grading is enabled, grade columns appear in the skills matrix and employees’ proficiency scores are included in search and analytics results. When proficiency grading is disabled, grade columns are hidden and grading data is excluded from all search results and analytics reports.

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Training dates

Training dates enables training approvals and makes the career’s skills visible in the training matrix. When training dates are enabled, employees can request training approval for skills within the career, and those skills appear in Team > Training > Training Matrix. When training dates are enabled, you can also set a Training Timeline — the expected time for an employee to complete training for all skills in the career. The timeline is configurable in days, months, and years.

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Assessments

Assessments include the career’s skills in manager and self-assessments. This setting is only available when proficiency grading is enabled. If proficiency grading is disabled, assessments are automatically disabled as well.

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User dashboard

The User Dashboard gives employees a personal career overview at Profile > Career > Overview. When enabled, the dashboard displays career-specific metrics and progress indicators. You can choose which components appear on the employee’s dashboard:

• Career Description — displays the career’s description
• Training Dates Summary — shows training completion progress
• Proficiency Summary — shows overall proficiency across career skills
• Pinned Pages — shows pages pinned to the career

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Managing Career Levels

Career levels define the progression stages within a career. Levels are ordered and represent advancement — for example, Level 1 = “Junior”, Level 2 = “Mid-Level”, Level 3 = “Senior”. Administrators manage levels from the career details panel. To add a level:

1. Navigate to Library > Careers and select the career.
2. In the career details panel, open the levels management section.
3. Select Add Level.
4. Enter a Level Title (for example, Junior, Senior, Principal).
5. Select Save.

To reorder levels, drag and drop them into the desired position. The sort order determines how levels appear to managers and employees throughout SkillsDB.

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Managing Sections and Skills

Sections organize skills within a career into logical groupings. Each skill in a career belongs to exactly one section. Administrators add sections and then add skills to each section.

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Adding a section

1. Navigate to Library > Careers and select the career.
2. In the career details panel, select Add Section.
3. Enter a Section Title (for example, Technical Skills, Leadership, Communication).
4. Select Save.

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Adding skills to a career

Skills are added from your organization’s Skills Library into a career section.

1. In the career details panel, select the section you want to add a skill to.
2. Select Add Skill.
3. Search for and select the skill from the Skills Library.
4. Configure the following skill-level settings as needed:
   • Training Required — whether employees must complete a training approval for this skill
   • Evidence requirements — whether text field evidence or file attachments are required for training
   • Training Expiration — how long a training approval remains valid (configurable in days, months, and years)
5. Select Save.

Skills can be reordered within a section by dragging them into the desired position.

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Assigning Employees to a Career

Once a career is configured with levels and skills, administrators and managers can assign employees to it. Each assignment optionally includes a level, which determines which proficiency benchmarks and training requirements apply to the employee.

1. Navigate to Library > Careers and select the career.
2. In the career details panel, select Assign.
3. In the Assign Employees drawer, search for and select the employees to assign.
4. Optionally, select a Level from the dropdown to assign the employee at a specific level.
5. Select Assign.

The assigned employees now appear in the career’s people list. Their skills profile, training matrix, and assessments will reflect the career’s configuration. To reassign an employee to a different level within the same career, select the employee’s current assignment and choose the option to reassign them to a new level. To remove an employee from a career, select the employee in the people list and choose Unassign.

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Managing Career Types

Career types are optional categories that help organize careers in the Careers Library. For example, an organization might use career types such as “Job Role”, “Specialty Path”, or “Development Program” to distinguish between different kinds of career structures. Administrators manage career types from the Careers Library by selecting Manage Types. To create a career type:

1. Navigate to Library > Careers from the left sidebar.
2. Select Manage Types from the top of the page.
3. In the Manage Career Types drawer, select + New.
4. Enter a Name and optional Description for the career type.
5. Select Save.

Once created, career types are available in the Career Type dropdown when creating or editing a career. Career types can also be used as filters in the Careers Library table to narrow the career list by type.

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Deleting a career

Administrators can delete a career from the career details panel. If the career has dependencies — such as assigned employees, sections, skills, or levels — SkillsDB will report those dependencies and require confirmation before proceeding.

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Common Questions

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Related Articles

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