System and method for skills planning using a multi-source shared skills ontology

Abstract

A system and method for skills planning is disclosed, the system comprising a first computer system including non-volatile storage, the computer system defining a data-curation sub-system that is configured to compile and map multiple sources of both structured and unstructured data and metadata into a global structured shared skills ontology common to a plurality of skills planning systems; a second computer system including non-volatile storage, the second computer system defining one of the skills planning systems that is configured to consume the global shared skills ontology and merge it with content owned and edited by a tenant or local site and an interactive user interface; and a globally accessible shared storage service to store the global structured shared skills ontology.

Description

[0001] SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR SKILLS PLANNING USING A MULTI-SOURCE SHARED SKILLS ONTOLOGY

[0002] FIELD OF THE INVENTION

[0003] THIS INVENTION relates to a system and method for skills planning using a multisource shared skills ontology developed from structured and unstructured industry data. The aim is to enable an organization to automate skills planning across multiple certification authorities (primarily for but not limited to IT engineering functions including projects), determine skills readiness using a software platform, and determine technical skills gaps within the organization as a whole or in respect of at least one individual within the organization.

[0004] BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0005] Worldwide, skills management platforms exclude the above specific and highly technical OEM competencies due to their complexity and constant change. Typically, these skills management platforms are limited to being able to list certification titles only in their databases. Bringing all the world’s IT-OEM products and solutions skills requirements, which currently operate within separate silos, down to the smallest competency element for machine processing into one platform seems like an impossible task. Additionally, equipment versions change, new technology is released, meaning the skills data is constantly changing.

[0006] A novel and specialized software platform capable of constant updating and processing to manage these complexities, integrated with multiple software processing engines and tools for effective and always current enterprise skills planning, is thus required and disclosed further below. At a high level, the present invention aims to cover the world’s OEM information technologies skills requirements in a single platform for the first time. In particular, in terms of the disclosure below, individual OEM and unstructured data of different terms and language now, for the first time, has a single common language structured database for machine processing. A technical engineer, such as a network engineer, must work on the equipment of one or more IT OEMs. If they are employed in an environment which is built on one OEM’s devices, the relevant individual must be trained in that OEM’s technical skills requirements for that device, and in many cases obtain a certification from that OEM to prove their capabilities. IT networks are high risk uptime environments as they are kept live whilst engineers maintain them, make changes, introduce new devices etc., and in many cases the IT network cannot be taken offline. Skillsets are business critical.

[0007] There is a constant requirement for upskilling, reskilling and cross-skilling with multiple OEM devices and solutions which are updated continuously as technologies change. The disclosure below, although originating from within the IT industry, aims to provide a skills ontology and related skills platform that can support other OEM or services industries where certifications and exams are a feature of competency standards.

[0008] From the employer’s viewpoint, the plethora of IT vendor certifications and the regularity at which technology changes, which in turn requires engineer skills to change as IT vendor’s update their certifications and exams, make the management of the IT vendors technical skills extremely difficult.

[0009] There is currently no skills planning solution that brings all IT products and solutions, skills requirements and certifications together in a similar manner to how they are consumed within an organization. In particular, there is currently no skills planning solution that uses a multi-source shared ontology in a common structure, from unstructured data sources, to enable an organization to automate skills planning across multiple certification authorities.

[0010] This invention aims to provide an architecture, platform system and related methods to bring multiple different IT-OEM technologies, with their own unique products and solutions skills ontologies together, breaking down the silos between them, to provide in this invention a new centralized globally common skills ontology as a multi-vendor skills library for machine processing. This is the world's first IT-OEM skills integration technology enabling integration and processing of different IT-OEM skills across multiple business areas of an IT enterprise.

[0011] The present invention is able to stay current with the constant changes made weekly in multiple different product and solutions skills ontologies from many different IT-OEM sources. It can automate always up-to-date cross-vendor skills assessments; it can make recommendations on best fit resources to allocate to cross-vendor system integration projects; it can monitor and update project resources as they leave and join the local site; it automates skills plans on individual projects and automatically builds total annual skills plans. The system recommends shortest paths to project readiness.

[0012] It is thus not a simple “lowest common denominator” approach to data canonicalization, of the type described in US patent no. 8,539,484, for example. With the full depth modelling of the certifications and exams, the present invention aims to automate assessments, and machine processing can trigger skills planning related processes and tools which are always current with the latest technological changes in industry.

[0013] SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0014] In broad terms, this present disclosure provides a technical skills planning platform architecture comprising a shared site data ownership model in respect of a local site, with some data owned and editable by the local site, and a shared read-only skills library that is common to a plurality of local sites to ensure that all local sites see the same data. The data in the skills library may be internally updated but kept under “quarantine” until a coordinated release time across multiple independent local sites.

[0015] The technical skills planning platform architecture will run on at least one physical computer comprising a physical CPU, memory, network and storage disks. The computer may be either local to the site or as a public or private cloud infrastructure. In some embodiments, the local site includes or has access to a site-specific database, which includes:

[0016] 1 . An optional list of technical equipment (hardware or software) that the site has deployed with metadata that may include physical location of this equipment; product version of this equipment; dates when the equipment went into and left service; serial number or asset tag; references to cybersecurity vulnerabilities for the equipment; and a list of the number of devices for this equipment; an indication of the importance of the particular instance of equipment to business or service continuity.

[0017] 2. A collection of various hierarchical business organizations for example Company, Division, Department or Team with metadata that may include but is not limited to:

[0018] 2.1 . A list of persons who are members of the organization that may have some of the following metadata: their role in the organization; list of certifications held; list of non-certifiable skills; person’s manager; grades of a completed certification; the list of persons may be taken from an external system (such as a HR system or user provisioning system); an optional list of future projects that require skills planning; and an optional list of measurable factors to allow organizational trends to be observed.

[0019] 2.2. An optional list of local assessment criteria to extend the supplied assessment criteria for local site-administered skills assessment.

[0020] 2.3. An audit log, which may optionally be digitally signed, of changes to data / metadata to record who updated a given record.

[0021] 2.4. A means to track users Continuing Professional Development points towards recertification.

[0022] 2.5. A searchable record of the users’ projects and OEM vendor products and solutions involved in a project.

[0023] In some embodiments, the shared, read-only, globally common skills library includes:

[0024] 1. A list of the names of certification authorities (IT vendors themselves and vendor-neutral, multi-vendor, a local site-specific organization or governmental certification authorities).

[0025] 2. A list of each certification and its related exams issued by each certification authority. 3. A collection of metadata properties for each certification and its exams that may include but is not limited to: technology area; proficiency level, based on competency elements, for the certification and / or the exam; dates during which this version of the certification and exam is valid; learning objectives, or skills domains; knowledge and skills statements and assessment criteria; which±if any±vendor partnership programs this certification is relevant to; and a recommended list of available training classes / organizations or certifications, by various parameters (including, but not limited to, location, cost and content domain).

[0026] 4. A list of all vendor equipment that includes metadata such as name, version, model; links to cybersecurity threats the equipment is vulnerable to; and a list of certifications and / or exams required by the equipment.

[0027] 5. Means to load and / or curate certification, exam and course data supplied by the certification authorities.

[0028] 6. Means to personalize the global common skills library to the requirements of the user by providing them with access to their relevant vendor skills libraries only.

[0029] The phrase “local site” is meant to include a tenant within the context of a multitenanted Software as a Service (SaaS) arrangement. In this context, the term "tenant" typically refers to an individual customer, organization, or local site that utilizes the shared SaaS platform. Each tenant operates as a logically separate entity within the system, maintaining its own data, configurations, and often custom izations, while sharing the underlying infrastructure and application resources with other tenants. With reference to the present disclosure, a tenant or local site is able to merge the global shared skills ontology with its own locally owned and edited content. Tenants can also choose to contribute anonymized benchmark data, which is then aggregated and analyzed across multiple tenants, with global benchmark metrics distributed only to those who participate.

[0030] In some embodiments a certification authority may be marked as “Unmanaged” to indicate that its list of certifications, exams and courses is not shared between sites.

[0031] In some embodiments, the shared read-only, globally common skills library data may include the certification authority’s specific Al models. The use of a shared, read-only, globally common skills library that may include a certification authority’s specific Al models results in a more sophisticated approach to skills planning and management within a local site or tenant. By incorporating the Al models developed or endorsed by such a certification authority into the shared skills library, the system ensures that the skills ontology and related data are aligned with industry-recognized standards.

[0032] The shared skills library, being read-only and globally common, means that all tenants or local sites have access to the same authoritative data, but cannot alter it. This ensures consistency and trustworthiness across the entire system. When the library includes a certification authority’s Al models, it means uniform access to standards, prevention of unauthorized modifications, and facilitation of benchmarking.

[0033] In some embodiments, the technical skills planning platform architecture may combine the skills-library and site data into a single database (while preserving the “read-only” nature of the data in the skills library), or it may use separate and isolated databases.

[0034] In use, as will be defined and described in more detail further below, the technical skills planning platform architecture is adapted to:

[0035] 1. Synchronize the globally common data across all installations and trigger any notifications of changes at the same time (to avoid perceptions of bias between local sites), which in turn includes:

[0036] 1.1. Updating available certifications, exams and courses including marking as unavailable any that are now retired

[0037] 1 .2. Updating potential next certifications, exams and courses for any users.

[0038] 1 .3. Updating any organizational skills gaps or other measurable factors based on the updated certifications, exams and courses, including project resource plans and technical assignments

[0039] 2. Perform skills planning that can optionally be blind to bias by not exposing protected personal identifying information to decision makers.

[0040] 3. Calculate various organizational scores and optionally comparing against an anonymized benchmark, or other organizations within the local site.

[0041] 4. Calculate skills gaps for the organization given a future project plan and optionally provide a training plan for the organization. 5. Minimise skill gaps given a fixed training budget.

[0042] 6. Load proof of certification and / or exam completion for later retrieval and optionally verify it with the certification authority.

[0043] 7. Generate reports of certifications and / or exams held by a plurality of organizations and digitally sign reports for direct incorporation into tender documents as proof of competency.

[0044] 8. Report of certifications and / or exams held may include verified and unverified information. Information that has not been verified to be clearly marked as such.

[0045] In some embodiments, as will be explained and defined in more detail further below, the data in the skills library may be curated and reviewed in an isolated administrative database and the system may then generate a “diff” or patch to update the data in the skills library at the remote site. Original certifications, exams or course data may originate from manual data entry or be supplied automatically or semi-automatically from a machine-readable source.

[0046] In some embodiments the user may import their certifications or uncertifiable skills from a single vendor website or employer’s HR system, or they may provide proof of certifications manually.

[0047] In some embodiments the users existing certifications and skills will be loaded from a CV, resume or from an on-line system.

[0048] At a high level, the present disclosure provides a computer-implemented method of, and related system for, automating and updating (so that the method is kept up-to- date with constant technology changes) technical skills planning across multiple IT vendor technologies integrated into one skills planning system, the method comprising any one or more of the following steps: providing or accessing a certifications, exams and courses database, which includes any one or more of the following: a list of the names of certification authorities (IT vendors themselves and vendor-neutral or governmental certification authorities); a list of the competency elements issued by each certification authority; a collection of metadata properties for each competency element that may include but is not limited to: technology area; proficiency level; dates during which this version of the competency element is valid; any competency sub-elements; which if any vendor partnership programs this competency element is relevant to; and a recommended list of available training classes / organizations or certifications by various parameters (including, but not limited to, location, cost, domain of content); and a list of all vendor equipment that includes metadata such as name, version, model; links to cybersecurity threats the equipment is vulnerable to; and a list of certifications, exams or courses required by the equipment; receiving an update message in respect of an update in respect of any of the competency elements, certifications and / or exams and / or courses and updating the certifications, exams and courses database whenever there is an update; providing a users’ database, including any one or more of the following: a list of the names of relevant users; a list of departments the users are working in; a list of the job titles of the users; a list of the line managers of the users; a list of each certification and / or exam and / or course achieved by each user; and a list of skills held by each user where they are not certified; and determining a skills gap in respect of a user and assigning a suitable competency element assessment to the user.

[0049] In some embodiments the method includes the step of receiving from the user a request to complete a particular competency element requirement with the method including the further step of determining from the competency elements database, and presenting to the user, a suitable competency element. Optionally, the user can specify a particular certification authority, with the method then determining from the competency elements database, and presenting to the user, a suitable competency element from the selected certification authority. Once the competency element has been selected, the user may upload proof of completing the competency element with an optional grade. The method may include the step of verifying the supplied proof by contacting the certification authority.

[0050] In some embodiments, the method includes the step of loading certification and exam data supplied by the certification authorities.

[0051] In some embodiments the method includes compiling and displaying a timeline or tree graph of a user’s competency elements along with other competency elements that utilize common knowledge and prompt the user to provide relevant criteria, including desired future certifications, time to complete, costs or future career goals to suggest possible future career or learning paths.

[0052] In some embodiments the method includes calculating a skills gap analysis for a person or organization by comparing the current certifications, exams or courses (or self-assessed skills) held by the user or organization with a list of desired or required competency elements. The gap analysis may be for an organization, for a division within the organization, a department of a division, or of a team in a department. The gap analysis comprises those skills held by all members of the organization, division, department or team collectively and may also be shown for an individual alone as part of a Personal Development Plan. The gap analysis may be presented either as an aggregated score or specific missing competency elements.

[0053] In some embodiments, the method includes using a skills gap analysis for a single person or organization to produce a learning or training plan to reduce or eliminate the gap. The method may include determining and suggesting a plurality of potential alternative plans ranked by a given criteria such as time, cost, or availability of training resources and optionally prioritize the plan with the shortest path.

[0054] In some embodiments, the calculation of shortest path to eliminating a skills gap may include consideration of a person’s existing competency elements and offer a subset of the required skills domain. In some embodiments, the method may include considering a competency element’s metadata, such as end-of-life date, when calculating the shortest path.

[0055] In some embodiments, the shortest path to the organization’s required / desired list of certifications and / or exams and / or course and / or learning objectives and / or domains and / or knowledge and skills requirements and / or assessment criteria across all the organization’s users who may be uncertified, is determined by scoring each user’s current knowledge and skills for a relevant certification and / or exam against the required / desired list, via an automated assessment process for the relevant certification and / or exam and / or course. This includes a certif ication-to-skil Is mapping process. In an embodiment, a single score may be calculated for each user’s current capabilities that represents their closeness to the certification authority’s requirements. By only looking at competency elements, the present invention can be blind to any biases of protected classes such as: Race, National origin, Age, Gender, Sexual Orientation, etc., but may show the names of people to allow assessments to be completed.

[0056] The shortest path calculation depends on the data within the certifications and exams and courses database being associated with current certifications and / or exams and / or courses of a certification authority which have not been retired. In some embodiments, the path can consider the end-of-life date of a certification and / or exam or course to prioritize the completion along the shortest path.

[0057] In some embodiments, the competency elements database may include, in the case of a graded competency element, the grade obtained by the user. In some embodiments, when calculating the shortest path, the user’s grade is used when assigning competency elements to a specific user within the organization. Some of the plurality of paths may require passing pre-requisite competency elements at a higher grade than a simple ‘pass’.

[0058] In some embodiments, the method includes accessing an automated assessments database of current competencies by IT vendor, or the system may integrate a crossvendor assessment using data from multiple IT vendors to evaluate a user’s level of competence (i.e. knowledge and skills) in respect of a learning objective and / or skills domain and / or assessment criteria.

[0059] In some embodiments, the list of site equipment may be imported from an organization’s asset register or other database.

[0060] In some embodiments, the site’s equipment list may be used to prioritize training and certifications for assets based on the risk of cybersecurity attacks or threats against that equipment or vendor. In some embodiments, the system may use equipment risk scores from an external source to determine the training priority.

[0061] In some embodiments, the site’s equipment list may be used to prioritize training and certifications for assets based on the equipment’s indicated importance for business / service continuity.

[0062] In some embodiments, the number of equipment items may be used to calculate the number of individual persons with the certifications or skills that are required to support the equipment capacity.

[0063] In some embodiments, the method may include interrogating the site database to compile risk scores for each organization based on a list of key indicators, such as critical certifications and / or skills across the organization at risk due to expiry / staff chum, IT vendor partnerships at risk, and IT equipment at risk of insufficient support skills, and compared to other organizations both internal and external.

[0064] In some embodiments, the system may direct access or otherwise link to the vendor’s official training materials or courses for a given certification and / or exam and / or course.

[0065] In some embodiments, the site’s equipment (inventory) list may be used to determine the recommended / required certifications, exams or courses according to the equipment’s vendor and from that calculate a skills gap analysis and training plan. In some embodiments, in the case of the certification authority comprising an IT vendor, the method may include the step of accessing the users’ IT equipment asset register to determine which IT vendor’s products are being used within the organization. This maps to the IT vendors required / recommended knowledge and skills for the product / s enabled by their certifications, exams or individual courses. This mapping determines the appropriate certifications or courses required by the organization, from which a skills gap analysis may be performed.

[0066] In view of the above, according to a further aspect of the invention there is provided a skills planning system comprising a data curation sub-system and a shared skills platform, the data curation sub-system further comprising a data compiler to curate multi-source structured and unstructured data from at least one information service to define a common structured skills ontology, and a first storage to store the data corresponding to the common skills ontology, the shared skills platform comprising a batch processor to retrieve the common skills ontology data from the first storage.

[0067] In an embodiment, the source data includes a plurality of ontologies from a plurality of IT vendors. In other words, in one version, the system, and in particular, the data curation sub-system sources multiple siloed IT-OEM vendor skills ontologies and remodels these into a single centralised global common skills ontology for crossvendor machine processing.

[0068] In one version, the globally common skills library described above is built on the common skills ontology. In general, the terms ‘globally common skills library’ and ‘common skills ontology’ are interchangeable, except in cases in which the disclosed system and method uses a plurality of different and siloed vendor skills ontologies that may not interface or align with each other and the defined common structured skills ontology.

[0069] In a typical embodiment, the data curation subsystem and skills platform are isolated and skills ontology data only flows unidirectionally from the data curation subsystem to the skills platform, where it is considered read-only. There is typically a single data curation sub-system creating the common skills ontology and multiple independent instances of the skills platform at a local site in communication with the data curation sub-system in conjunction with the local site’s own local data.

[0070] In some embodiments within each instance of the skills platform on a local site, the common skills ontology data is stored in second storage, this may further be organized to include data versioning to allow for quarantining of internally updated data versions until a future release date.

[0071] In a typical embodiment the data curation sub-system and skills platform are isolated and potentially executing on different physical computing systems.

[0072] In an embodiment, the data compiler is arranged to extract, curate, annotate with meta-data and then compile the structured and unstructured data from at least one information service into the common structured skills ontology, with the first storage being a globally accessible shared storage. In particular, the data compiler is configured to compile and map multiple sources of both structured and unstructured data and metadata into a global structured shared skills library common to a plurality of skills planning platforms.

[0073] In an embodiment, the data curation sub-system includes a first database which the data compiler can use to store unique session or object identifiers to allow data provenance to be tracked over time.

[0074] In an embodiment, the batch processor of the shared skills platform is configured to consume the global shared skills library and merge it with content owned and edited by a tenant or local site.

[0075] In an embodiment, the batch processor of the shared skills platform is configured to collect and anonymize benchmark data and personal metrics and then upload this data to the first storage. In some embodiments, the anonymized benchmark data are optionally aggregated and analyzed across multiple local sites and distributed as part of global benchmark metrics. In some embodiments, the global benchmark metrics are only available to those sites that make their own metrics available for aggregation and analysis.

[0076] In an embodiment, the skills platform comprises a second database on second storage, an application service and a web-based user interface.

[0077] The batch processor is configured to run tasks (either synchronous or asynchronous) that interact with the application service and the second database. The tasks may be triggered periodically or by application logic executing in the application service or by a human via the user interactive. Tasks that the batch processor executes may include downloading and importing the compiled common skills ontology from the second storage into the second database for subsequent use by the application service. The import task may optionally check the provenance of the compiled skills ontology using digital signatures prior to loading into the second database.

[0078] The web-based user interface presents a human accessible interface whereby authenticated users, at their local site, may view their instance of the common skills ontology and view and edit their local skills, profile and projects data.

[0079] In an embodiment, the shared skills platform comprises a skills planning platform architecture, the platform architecture comprising local context data, in respect of the local site, and a shared read-only skills library data.

[0080] The local context data may include but is not limited to audit records, profile data, project data, equipment inventory data and organization data. The information in this data block may include information regarding users or individuals who are members of the organization; their role in the organization; and a list of certifications, exams and courses successfully completed by each person.

[0081] In an embodiment, at least some of the local context data is owned and editable by the local site. The shared read-only skills library data includes the common skills ontology which is common to a plurality of local sites to ensure that all local sites can access and see the same data. In particular, the shared read-only skills library data manifests a specific instance of the common skills ontology.

[0082] In an embodiment, the common skills ontology includes data regarding a plurality of authorities responsible for administering certifications, exams and courses. In conjunction with the authority data block, data regarding a plurality of technology subject areas may be provided, with this data being mapped to at least one course and to at least one certification.

[0083] In an embodiment, the exams and courses competency elements may both include and / or be defined by a plurality of hierarchical competency elements that may include but not limited to learning objectives, skills, knowledge and assessment criteria.

[0084] BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0085] Figure 1 shows a high-level diagram of a skills planning system according to an embodiment of the present invention, the skills planning system comprising a data curation sub-system and a shared skills platform, with each organization having its own instance of the skills platform;

[0086] Figure 2 shows the data components of the shared skills platform shown in Figure 1 , comprising local context data and shared data, the shared data comprising a readonly, globally common skills library and related skills ontology;

[0087] Figure 3 shows an embodiment of the skills ontology used in the shared skills platform shown in Figure 2;

[0088] Figure 4 shows the components used to calculate risk metrics for both a project and an organization; Figure 5 shows a block diagram of a project skills platform component of the skills planning system, across multiple certification authorities, which combines assessments to identify individuals for a project and a method of linking competency elements across multiple vendors to identify shortest path routes between competencies.

[0089] DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0090] The following description of the invention is provided as an enabling teaching of the invention. Those skilled in the relevant art will recognize that many changes can be made to the embodiment described, while still attaining the beneficial results of the present invention. It will also be apparent that some of the desired benefits of the present invention can be attained by selecting some of the features of the present invention without utilizing other features. Accordingly, those skilled in the art will recognize that modifications and adaptations to the present invention are possible and can even be desirable in certain circumstances and are a part of the present invention. Thus, the following description is provided as illustrative of the principles of the present invention and not a limitation thereof.

[0091] Referring to Figure 1 , a skills planning system 10 is shown comprising a data curation sub-system 12 and a shared skills system or platform 14. Within the data curation subsystem 12, multiple information services 16 (Source 1 ...Source n) are consulted and their information extracted, curated, annotated with meta-data and then compiled into a common skills ontology by a data compiler 18 using database 20 to store unique session or object identifiers. Database 20 uses storage 22 which may be local or remote. The data curation sub-system is adapted to curate multi-source unstructured data from the multiple information services 16.

[0092] The data curation sub-system 12 is defined by a first computer system 12 including non-volatile storage 22, and the skills planning system 12 is defined by a second computer system 14 including non-volatile storage 30. Figure 1 shows the separation between creating a skills ontology within the data curation sub-system 12, which can then be used by the shared skills platform 14 by a plurality of users. The users may either be within the same organization or across different, unrelated organizations, but each organization has its own instance of the shared skills platform 14 to define a local site and related local data. The skills ontology will be described in more detail with reference to Figure 3.

[0093] The data compiler 18 stores the compiled common skills ontology in storage 24 for later retrieval by a batch processor 26 in the skills platform 14. Storage 24 is a globally accessible storage service that is shared by all instances of the skills platform. The compiled ontology may be digitally signed and / or encrypted prior to saving into storage 24.

[0094] The skills platform 14 comprises a database 28 on storage 30, the batch processor 26, an application service 32, and a web-based user interface 34 (Interactive III). Storage 30 may be either local or a remote storage service 30.

[0095] The batch processor 26 is configured to run asynchronous tasks that interact with the application service 32 and database 28. The tasks may be triggered periodically or by application logic executing in the application service 32 or by a human via the user interactive 34. Tasks that the batch processor 26 executes may include downloading and importing the compiled skills ontology from storage 24 into the database 28 for subsequent use by the application service 32. The import may optionally check the provenance of the compiled skills ontology using digital signatures prior to loading into database 28.

[0096] The database 28 includes any one or more of the following, as described in more detail further below: a list of the names of certification authorities (IT vendors themselves and vendor-neutral or governmental certification authorities); a list of the competency elements issued by each certification authority; a collection of metadata properties for each competency element that may include but is not limited to: technology area; proficiency level; dates during which this version of the competency element is valid; any competency sub-elements; which if any vendor partnership programs this competency element is relevant to; and a recommended list of available training classes / organizations or certifications by various parameters (including, but not limited to, location, cost, domain of content); and a list of all vendor equipment that includes metadata such as name, version, model; links to cybersecurity threats the equipment is vulnerable to; and a list of certifications or exams required by the equipment.

[0097] The web-based user interface 34 presents a human accessible interface 34 whereby authenticated users, at their local site, may edit and view their instance of the skills ontology and profile data, as will be explained in more detail with reference to Figures 2 and 3. The batch processor 26 may also run tasks that communicate with external remote services 36 to import additional data and meta-data that is relevant to the local site or the local site users.

[0098] In addition, the human accessible interface 34 is adapted to receive from the user a request to complete a particular competency element requirement. The human accessible interface 34 is then arranged to determine from the competency elements database, and present to the user, a suitable competency element. Optionally, the user can specify a particular certification authority, with the human accessible interface 34 then being arranged to determine from the competency elements database, and present to the user, a suitable competency element from the selected certification authority. Once the competency element has been selected, the user may upload proof of completing the competency element with an optional grade.

[0099] Turning now to Figure 2, a skills planning platform architecture 40 is provided comprising a shared data ownership model. In particular, Figure 2 shows the data components of the shared skills platform 14 shown in Figure 1 , comprising local context data 42, in respect of the local site, and shared read-only skills library data 44.

[0100] The local context data 42 (metadata, typically) includes audit records 46, profile 48 data, project 50 data, inventory 52 data and organization 54 data. The information in this data block may include information regarding users or individuals who are members of the organization; their role in the organization; a list of certifications, exams and courses successfully completed by each person; an optional list of future projects, represented by the project data block 50, which require skills planning. Some of the local context data 42 is owned and editable by the local site (i.e. by authorized users within the organization).

[0101] In an embodiment, the user profile data 48 is stored in database 28, and includes any one or more of the following: a list of the names of relevant users; a list of departments the users are working in; a list of the job titles of the users; a list of the line managers of the users; a list of each certification and / or exam achieved by each user; and a list of skills held by each user where they are not certified.

[0102] The shared read-only skills library data 44 primarily includes a common skills ontology 56, which is common to a plurality of local sites to ensure that all local sites can access and see the same data. In particular, the shared read-only skills library data 44 manifests a specific instance of the common skills ontology 56. The shared read-only skills library data 44 may be internally updated but kept under “quarantine” until a coordinated release time. The skills planning platform architecture 40 may combine the shared data 44 and local context data 42 into a single database 28, while preserving the “read-only” nature of the data in the shared data 44 using common database techniques, or it may use separate and isolated databases.

[0103] The skills planning platform architecture 40, in an embodiment, is executed on at least one physical computer comprising a physical CPU, memory, network and storage disks. The computer may be either local to the site or as a public or private cloud infrastructure.

[0104] The common skills ontology 56, with reference to Figure 3 as well, includes data regarding a plurality of authorities 58 responsible for administering certifications 60, exams 62 (which may form part of certifications 60 or may be separate, standalone exams 62) and courses 64 (which may be non-examination courses). The certifications 60 and courses 64 data block may include information (metadata, typically) regarding levels within, and prerequisites for, each certification 60 and course 64. The exams 62 data block may include information (metadata, typically) regarding versions of, and prerequisites for, each exam 62.

[0105] As best shown in Figure 3, in conjunction with the authority data block 58, data regarding a plurality of technology subject areas 66 may be provided, with this data being mapped to at least one course 64 and to at least one certification 60.

[0106] In some cases, the authority may be an OEM or vendor, who would typically have a partner program 68 that may have specific requirements regarding which certifications are required to be held by the organization. In this case, the technology subject areas data block 66 includes data, metadata typically, mapped to the partner program data block 68.

[0107] The technology subject areas data block 66 may also include data, metadata typically, mapped to an equipment data block 70 and related inventory data block 72, which includes data, metadata typically, in respect of OEM or vendor equipment. This may include, for example, exams 62 required by the equipment, with the exams data block 62 accordingly being mapped to the equipment data block 70. The equipment data block 70 is also shown in Figure 2, with the inventory data block 72 corresponding to the inventory block 52 shown in Figure 2. As such, this information typically relates to equipment and inventory which the local site (i.e. the organization) has deployed and that requires skilled engineers to oversee.

[0108] The common skills ontology may include a JobRoles component 73 as part of the competency element to reflect the link to an external human resource system or a given Profile’s job title.

[0109] The equipment data block 70 may include information (metadata, typically) regarding the name, version, type and CPE (customer premises equipment)., whereas the inventory data block 72 may include information (metadata, typically) regarding location, service priority and the equipment. The exams and courses data blocks 62, 64 may both include and / or be defined by a plurality of learning objectives or competency elements, represented by the domain data block 74, which in turn is supported by knowledge and skills data blocks 76, 78, which in turn is / are assessed by assessment criteria data block 80.

[0110] The common skills ontology 56 of Figures 2 and 3 is central to the present disclosure. The authority 58 may be an individual vendor or a consortium or an independent organization that sets that provides skills training. Their given certification 60 can be further broken down into components, including exams 62, objective domains 74, knowledge 76 and skills 78, and assessment criteria 80 that are used to determine a given person’s understanding of the knowledge 76 and skills 78 that they have acquired through the certification or course. As indicated above, an authority 58 that is a vendor would typically have a partner program 68 that may have specific requirements regarding which certifications 60 are required to be held by an organization. A given vendor certification 60 or course 64 may comprise a wide variety of different technology areas 66, such as networking, cyber security, data centers etc. These are represented in the technology area 66 and they are linked through each of each of the various objects to identify similar paths to acquiring a skills qualification. A vendor authority 58 may require certain equipment 70 both to undertake a certification 60 and also, if the equipment 70 is installed at a site, the vendor may require certain number of certifications 60 in respect of that equipment for support. A given piece of equipment representing a specific model inside the vendor product suite may have multiple instances, although there may be multiple pieces of equipment at a given local site. These are represented in the inventory 72. The vendor may require a certain number of people to be certified with a piece of equipment for higher levels of support.

[0111] Turning back to Figure 2, the skills library 44 has been developed using skills training and certifications datasheets from a plurality of authorities 58. The different skills planning terms and approaches have been aligned into one common language structure (i.e. the ontology 56) to enable machine processing. The present disclosure models each certification 60, exam 62 and course 64 as a series of hierarchical “nodes” with relationships between various key components making up a technical competency standard allowing for a common ontology of certifications across all authorities 58 to be built. The various terms found across authorities, OEMs and vendors in industry have been identified, commonalities and a decision made on an overarching term which would be understood by all in the industry and maintain integrity of the certifications.

[0112] In use, the skills planning platform architecture 40 is adapted to:

[0113] 1. Synchronize the globally common data across all installations and trigger any notifications of changes at the same time (to avoid perceptions of bias), which in turn includes:

[0114] 1.1. Updating available certifications 60, exams 62 and courses 64, including marking as unavailable any that are now retired.

[0115] 1.2. Updating potential next certifications 60, exams 62 and courses 64 for any users.

[0116] 1 .3. Updating any organizational skills gaps or other measurable factors based on the updated certifications, as will be described in more detail further below.

[0117] 2. Perform skills planning that can be blind to bias by not exposing any protected personal identifying information to decision makers.

[0118] 3. Calculate various organizational scores and optionally comparing against an anonymised benchmark.

[0119] 4. Calculate skills gaps for the organization given a future project plan and optionally provide a training plan for the organization.

[0120] 5. Minimise skill gaps given a fixed training budget.

[0121] 6. Load proof of certification, exam and course completion and optionally verify it with the relevant authority.

[0122] In an embodiment, skills gaps and training plans are automated off the system. In other words, the system will identify the vendor's competencies relevant for assessment, relevant for closing the gap analysis result, and relevant to the training plan development, and then identify which content of the vendor should be in the training plan.

[0123] In an embodiment, the batch processor 26 is adapted to receive update messages in respect of an update in respect of any of the competency elements, certifications and / or exams and updating the certifications and exams database whenever there is an update. Alternatively, the batch processor 26 is adapted check for updates in respect of any of the competency elements, certifications and / or exams, typically by querying the storage 24.

[0124] In an embodiment, the application service 32 is used to determine the skills gap.

[0125] In an embodiment, the skills planning system 10 may use and combine vendor supplied Al models to build cross-vendor assessments in a single project, which represents a significant advancement in collaborative skills planning and benchmarking. This approach leverages the strengths and specializations of multiple vendors, enabling a more comprehensive and flexible assessment framework. In one embodiment of the skills planning system 10, each vendor may provide their own Al models, which are designed to assess, categorize, or recommend skills based on their proprietary methodologies or industry expertise. By integrating these models into a single project, the system 10 can leverage diverse expertise, enhance assessment accuracy, and support comprehensive skills mapping. Building cross-vendor assessments means that the system is not limited to the perspective or data of a single vendor. Instead, it can facilitate benchmarking across standards, enable customized assessment pathways, and promote interoperability.

[0126] As disclosed, a global shared skills ontology is maintained and can be consumed by multiple skills planning systems. When vendor-supplied Al models are incorporated the global shared skills ontology provides a common structure into which the outputs of various vendor models can be mapped, ensuring consistency and comparability, and each tenant or local site can merge the global ontology with their own local content, creating a tailored assessment environment that still benefits from global standards.

[0127] Figure 4 shows example criteria that may be utilized to calculate metrics on the risks that a given local organization or project may encounter in relation to the skills held by its users. The risk score can change based on the overall skills held by the users within the organization or assigned to that product. For example, a project risk score may take into account the certifications held per person within that particular project technology areas or how concentrated are those certifications held within the entire project team and the time between the score and when the project starts or is expected to end as people move in and out of an organization. Previously held certificates may now no longer be available to a project, thereby requiring the risk score to be recalculated on an ongoing basis to present users with up-to-date indications of the project’s current risk. Likewise for an organization, an overall risk score for a given organization may be calculated as an organization may be a team, a department or division. These scores may be benchmarked against anonymous data from other local sites, and may include determining the number of certifications held by an organization, the overall trend as people move in and out of the organization; the concentration of certificates across team members, the turnover rate for persons in the organization.

[0128] For a project risk score 100, or a project, the flow begins at a “Start” node 102 and then draws on several skill-related criteria, namely:

[0129] • Average Certifications per Person in the project’s technology areas (block 104).

[0130] • Measurement of Certification Concentration (block 106).

[0131] • A Count of Persons Holding each Certification (block 108), enabling visibility of single-points-of-failure where only one or two individuals possess critical credentials.

[0132] • Project Size (block 110), recognizing that larger projects warrant a heavier risk weighting.

[0133] Each of these inputs are then taken into account to ultimately calculate the overall risk score (block 112).

[0134] For an organization risk score 120, the flow begins at a “Start” node 122 and then draws on several skill-related criteria, namely:

[0135] • Count of Active Certifications across the organization (block 122). • Count of Persons in the Organization (block 124), which, when paired with the certification count, produces an Average Certifications per Person measure (block 126).

[0136] • A Measure of Certification Concentration (block 128), highlighting how evenly or unevenly those certifications are distributed across staff.

[0137] • Count of Persons Holding each Certification (block 130), to identify bottlenecks where only a small subset of employees control key skills.

[0138] • Measure of Persons Turnover (block 132), providing insight into whether the organization is losing certified talent at a rate that jeopardizes capability.

[0139] Each of these inputs are then taken into account to ultimately calculate the overall risk score (block 134).

[0140] Turning now to Figure 5, shows how the skills planning system 10 may be used to automatically identify complimentary assessments to be assigned to a user when there is a need to cross-train or up-skill a user from a certification (or exam) they currently hold to skills that are required by the organization. This is done by finding suitable profiles and certifications for a particular project, when none of the required certifications are currently held. In this case, the project requires certification for an ISR Router (143) but nobody currently holds that certification. However, the skills planning system 10 is adapted to identify common technology areas (66 from Figure 3) from ISR Router (143) to other certifications or exams held by other profiles inside the database. In this case, a held FortiGate (142) certification shares a common Firewall technology area 151. The skills planning system 10 then identifies users that hold the FortiGate certification and assigns them a selection of assessments on the various competency elements (Exam 1 , 145, Domain 148, Knowledge 1 155, Skill 2 156). The figure indicates that the profile was assessed at 3 159 for Knowledge 1 155, and 4 for Skill 2 156. These assessment results may indicate sufficient skills and knowledge to then assess them directly on material from the ISR Router (143) Exam 2 (146), Domains A 157 and B 158. The skills planning system 10 may also identify the learning materials a user might need to self-study to convert from the FortiGate certification 142 to an ISR Router certification 143. In some embodiments the system may be configured to directly assess the selected user’s skills on the desired competency elements (157, 158) rather than benchmarking them on competency elements (155, 156) they already hold.

[0141] The present invention is currently targeted at the information technology (IT) field, but a person skilled in the art could see other fields of certifications that would be applicable.

[0142] In some embodiments an organization may be able to utilize the audit data regarding its current certifications to reduce cybersecurity insurance premiums.

[0143] The present disclosure facilitates automated skills planning for users individually, and / or the whole departments within which they work, and / or for an entire organization, by mapping the users’ existing capabilities (and in particular, their certifications and skills) to the technical equipment that they are responsible for working with, and the certifications and skills relevant to those, to produce a skills plan for the user / s to close any skills gaps. (In some embodiments of the invention consideration is taken of differences between skills proficiency levels, which may be measured with an assessment automatically produced from the software, where a certification is not held.

[0144] This software platform of the present invention offers a unique automated skills planning solution that is enterprise-wide, across multiple teams, including, but not limited to, sales, service delivery, human resources and risk management. The uniqueness lies in the following:

[0145] • This is the world’s first multivendor skills planning platform for the Information Technology sector.

[0146] • A common language skills ontology has been researched and developed from evaluation of multiple IT vendors’ skills training and certifications datasheets. The different skills planning terms and approaches have been aligned into one common language structure to enable machine processing.

[0147] • The software facilitates automated skills planning for the user according to their unique vendor technologies application profile. It does this by allowing vendor selection by the user and enabling mapping of the organization’s skills requirements to the vendor’s skills requirements for a device, as well as mapping the existing capabilities the organization has, to produce a skills plan to close any skills gaps.

[0148] • The system enables cross-vendor skills planning.

[0149] • The platform operates off a multivendor competencies database which is automatically kept current. It also includes customer data.

[0150] Glossary

[0151] Skills Ontology: Structured, data-driven model that categorizes and connects skills, competencies, job roles, and learning resources. It establishes relationships between different skills and job functions, creating a dynamic skills taxonomy.

[0152] IT-OEM / Vendors: The Original Equipment Manufacturers of IT technologies, products, and solutions.

[0153] Certification Authority: The Original Equipment Manufacturers, or other bodies, that create Certifications and Training.

[0154] Competency Element: Includes any one or more of the following which may be issued by a Certification Authority: Name or title of the Competency Element, the type of Competency Element (i.e. certification, exam, course, domain, knowledge, skills, assessment criteria, etc.), data and metadata to record: the version information of the competency element, the dates of validity, competency renewal requirements, replacement competency element, seniority level and career path, any required or optional child competency elements, any prerequisite competency elements, categorization tags, whether this competency element is required by Vendor’s partner program, equipment for which this competency is recommended or required by the certification authority

[0155] Certification: Or award by an education body or a Certification Authority to a candidate that has achieved a passing grade. It could be a certificate, certification, diploma, degree, badge, or similar. It also applies to a short course which is not tested and has no award. It also applies to exams that are required for a successful passing grade.

[0156] Exam: A formal measurement of a set of knowledge and skills requirements to receive an award from a certification authority.

[0157] Learning Objective: This includes the alternative terms Specific Outcomes; Learning Outcomes and similar descriptive terms that describe what a candidate will learn from a course.

[0158] Skills Domain: Includes the term Section and is used to describe a cluster of skills grouped together in a common area, eg ‘Network Architecture’.

[0159] Knowledge and Skills Requirements: These are Skills Domains’ knowledge or skills statements of what must be known and / or done.

[0160] Assessment Criteria: Statements attached to Knowledge or Skills requirements, with information about qualities, characteristics and aspects of an assessment task that will be used to measure achievement. This includes the term ‘task statements’ and similar terms meaning same.

[0161] Modules: A component of a course with its own objectives and assessment criteria which clusters learning objectives and assessment criteria together.

[0162] Continuing Education Credits: Post-qualification process of accumulating credits or points towards re-certification where a certification may become outdated over time due to technological advancement. Also known as Continuing Professional Development, or CPD, Continuing Professional Education, or CPE. Self-assessed: Refers to various assessment methods such as 360

[0163] Assessments and Multiple-Choice Questionnaires and any other type of assessment selected for the invention.

[0164] Skills Gap Analysis: Refers to all processes and tools associated with determining what training is needed by the individuals in an organization to meet organizational objectives. May also be called Skills Planning.

[0165] Vendor-Neutral: An education body that provides functional training certifications not specific to any one vendor’s equipment. Personal Development Plan (PDP): Also known as an Individual Development Plan (IDP). A training plan for an individual.

[0166] Computer System: A computing system compromising a processing unit, memory and non-volatile storage; it may further be a dedicated physical system or a virtualized, containerized or otherwise partitioned slice of a physical computing system's resources.

Claims

CLAIMS1 . A system for skills planning, the system comprising: a first computer system including non-volatile storage, the computer system defining a data-curation sub-system that is configured to compile and map multiple sources of both structured and unstructured data and metadata into a global structured shared skills ontology common to a plurality of skills planning systems; a second computer system including non-volatile storage, the second computer system defining one of the skills planning systems that is configured to consume the global shared skills ontology and merge it with content owned and edited by a tenant or local site, and an interactive user interface; and a globally accessible shared storage service to store the global structured shared skills ontology.

2. The system of claim 1 , where the second computer system separates synchronization of the global shared skills ontology into the tenant or local site from visibility of that ontology in the skills planning system user interface.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the skills planning system is arranged to collect and anonymize benchmark data and any personal metrics prior to being uploaded to the globally accessible shared storage service.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the anonymized benchmark data and personal metrics are aggregated and analyzed across multiple tenants or local sites and distributed as global benchmark metrics across the multiple tenants or local sites.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the skills planning system automates the resourcing of projects across multiple physical or virtual locations, the system being arranged to predict personnel availability and skills requirements utilizing all versionsof the global shared skills ontology and local content both visible and non-visible to a tenant or local site.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the skills planning system automatically maps the forecasted skills requirements to a common skills library, which incorporates the latest vendor skills recommendations for relevant products.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein the skills planning system is further configured to automatically and repeatedly monitor and check the status of personnel availability and skills requirements, the skills planning system being arranged to update project resourcing recommendations in real time or at predefined intervals.

8. The system of claim 1 , wherein the data curation sub-system is further configured to ingest and process multiple disparate skills ontologies originating from different vendors, the data curation sub-system being further arranged to synthesise these ontologies into a single, unified, machine-processable common language.

9. The system of claim 1 , wherein the skills planning system is further configured to perform automated assessments of skills across multiple vendors, the skills planning platform being arranged to evaluate and benchmark the skills of personnel or resources against a unified, cross-vendor skills ontology derived from the aggregation of multiple vendor-specific ontologies.

10. A computer-implemented method of automating and updating skills planning across multiple certification authorities integrated into one software platform, the method comprising any one or more of the following: providing or accessing a competency elements database, which includes any one or more of a list of the names of certification authorities; a list of each competency element issued by each certification authority; a list of available training classes or organizations ranked by various parameters; a list of vendor equipment that includes metadata; links to cybersecurity threats the equipment is vulnerable to; and a list of certifications required by the equipment;receiving an update message in respect of a data update in respect of any of the competency elements and updating the competency elements database whenever there is an update; providing a person database including any one or more of the following: a list of the names of relevant persons; a list of business organizations the persons are in; a list of the job titles of the persons; a list of the line managers of the persons; a list of each competency element achieved by each person; and a list of skills held by each person where they are not certified; and providing an equipment inventory database including one or more of the following: a list of individual items of equipment, a list of each item’s physical location, metadata properties that may include but is not limited to the business impact of downtime for each item.

11. The method of claim 10, which includes the step of determining a skills gap in respect of a person and then automatically assigning a training plan that includes completing a competency element.

12. The method of claim 10 where a skills gap is determined for at least one business organization and an individual improvement plan is collectively assigned to any number of persons within that organization.

13. The method of claim 10 further including scoring logic configured to generate organizational risk scores using data and metadata that includes the number of persons holding a given competency and the number of pieces of equipment that require a given competency.

14. The method of claim 10, which includes the step of automatically identifying persons for a project based on the project’s required competency elements and the person’s competency elements.

15. The method of claim 14, which includes automating the assignment of assessments based on a project’s required competencies and a given person’s competency gaps.

16. A computer-implemented system for automating and updating skills planning across multiple certification authorities integrated into one software platform, the system comprising a computer system comprising at least one processing unit and non-volatile storage; a competency element database, which includes any one or more of the following: a list of the names of certification authorities; a list of each competency element issued by each certification authority; and a list of available training classes or organizations ranked by various parameters; and a list of all vendor equipment that includes metadata, links to cybersecurity threats the equipment is vulnerable to, a list of competency elements required by the equipment; a user database including any one or more of the following: a list of the names of relevant users; a list of business organizations the users are in; a list of the job titles of the users; a list of the line managers of the users; a list of each competency achieved by each user; and a list of skills held by each user where they are not certified; a memory device containing instructions which when executed cause the processor to: receive an update message in respect of an update in respect of any of the competency elements, and update the competency database whenever there is an update; anddetermine a skills gap in respect of a user; and optionally assigning a training plan to the user that may include but not limited to a completing a certification or competency element.

17. The system of claim 16 wherein the memory device contains instructions which when executed cause the processor to determine a skills gap for at least one business organization and an individual improvement plan is collectively assigned to any number of users within that organization.

18. The system of claim 16 further including scoring logic configured to generate organizational risk scores that may include but not limited to: number of persons holding a given competency, the number of pieces of equipment that require a given competency.

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