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Skills: create skills by batch upload

Elizabeth
  • Updated

Batch upload skills and skill descriptions

Using batch upload you can create skills with descriptions, links to courses, and job titles in your portal. This option helps you start using the skills feature quickly and smoothly.

Availability: depends on your LearnUpon plan

See Skills: overview and features for background about this feature.

Contact your Implementation Consultant or Customer Success Manager to discuss how to use skills effectively for your organization.

Develop your skills program and connect it to learning

The batch upload option for skills lets an admin:

  • download a spreadsheet template for skill contents
  • enter your skill names, descriptions, job titles, courses and associated proficiencies
  • upload the completed spreadsheet to your organization’s skills
  • review the Skills page in your portal, and confirm the expected skills and associated courses are available

The template includes:

  • Skill Name - required
  • Skill Description - optional. Defines the skill for your organization
  • Course IDs - optional. Links to the skill as relevant training
  • Proficiency Scale  - optional. Identify what proficiency your learners gain by completing an associated course
  • Job Titles - optional. Associate with skills

If the upload process encounters a skill name that already exists in the portal, it updates the skill name in the portal with additional details.

When the upload is complete you can download a report of the results, that shows any errors like invalid job titles or course identifiers.

The following screenshot shows the layout of the spreadsheet template.

skills template sample.png

Tip: for best results, organizations need to define and agree on their skills framework internally, before starting to add skills in LearnUpon.

Prerequisites

To make the most of the skills feature:

  • associate Job titles with skills: this option requires a custom user data field called Job title with titles provided for your organization
  • review the proficiency levels for skills expected in your organization. You can accept the default proficiency scales provided, or define each level manually with terms applicable to your organization

See:

Access permissions

  • all admins: have full access to this feature

Prepare a template of skill data

  1. From main navigation go to Skills.
  2. Select Batch import.
  3. From the dialog that opens, select Download template.

The following screenshot shows the Batch upload skills dialog.

batch upload skills dialog.png

Define the skills and associated courses

The template provides: 

  • your portal's courses and their associated Course ID, called a GUID or UUID. LearnUpon uses this unique identifier internally for processes in the database

The following screenshot shows a section of Course ID, Course Name and Course Version columns for a sample template. The second half of the Course ID is obscured.

sample course id and name in skills template.png
  • your proficiency scale for skills  - either the default scale or the scale you defined in Users > Skills

The following screenshot is the default Proficiency Scale shown in the template. Note the number assigned to each skill level. 

default proficiency levels in the template.png

The separator character lets you include multiple entries in a single field. 

For example you can list multiple job titles and courses that could apply to a single skill each separated by your chosen character.

  1. Open the template and review the instructions. 
  2. To associate a course with a skill:
    • from the Courses tab, copy the Course ID shown to the Skills tab > Course IDs column
    • enter as many Course IDs as required 
    • separate each Course ID with your chosen separator character (comma, semi-colon or pipe) 
  3. To add a proficiency level attained through the course:
    • In the Skills tab > Course IDs column - after each Course ID, within brackets, enter the Numerical level for the proficiency level attained by completing the course
  4. To associate Job Titles with a skill:
    • In the Skills tab > Job Titles column, enter the Job Titles that require the relevant skill
    • enter as many Job Titles as required
    • separate each Job Title with your chosen separator character (comma, semi-colon or pipe) 
  5. Continue adding Course IDs, optional Numerical level integers, and Job Titles as required.
  6. Save to complete this section of the task.

The following screenshot shows an example row from the Skills tab. It includes a Skill Name, Skill Description, 2 Course IDs with associated Numerical levels, and 3 Job Titles. Part of the Course IDs are obscured.

skills tab completed in the template.png

Upload skills to the portal

  1. From main navigation go to Skills.
  2. Select Batch import.
  3. From the dialog that opens upload your completed spreadsheet.
  4. Define the separator character as required.
  5. Select Start upload.

For uploading large volumes of skills data, you can follow the upload’s progress from the portal action tracker.

See Portal: follow bulk actions through the portal action tracker

Errors and troubleshooting

If your upload encountered any errors, LearnUpon records them in a report available from the portal action tracker. Check the tracker for any option to download a report for your most recent bulk actions.

Review the Skills page

When complete, Skills has a list of Skills and Job titles.

Select a skill to review its contents, its associated courses, and the proficiency level that learners can attain through it. 

See:

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