Labor Market and Career Information

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities (KSA's)

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) created the Occupational Information Network (O*NET) as a replacement to the Dictionary of Occupational Titles. DOL then enhanced the O*NET to include a database of job characteristics and worker attributes. The O*NET provides information about the specific knowledge, skills and abilities needed for a given occupation; which occupations are most suited to specific work values and personal interests; and how to transfer proven skills to a new occupation.

For purposes of standardization, the requisite KSAs for the emerging and evolving occupations are chosen from the O*NET master list.

Business and industry input is vital to the validation of the KSAs we have included in our emerging and evolving occupations study. Please review our occupations and their requisite KSAs.

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Knowledge

Skills

Abilities

Knowledge - Knowledge is a set of facts and principles needed to address problems and issues in particular parts of a job.
Administration and Management	Knowledge of principles and processes involved in business and organizational planning, coordination, and execution. This includes strategic planning, resource allocation, manpower, modeling, leadership techniques, and production methods.
Biology	Knowledge of plant and animal living tissue, cells, organisms, and entities, including their functions, interdependencies, and interactions with each other and the environment.
Building and Construction	Knowledge of materials, methods, and the appropriate tools to construct objects, structures, and buildings.
Chemistry	Knowledge of the composition, structure, and properties of substances and of the chemical processes and transformations that they undergo. This includes uses of chemicals and their interactions, danger, signs, production techniques, and disposal methods.
Clerical	Knowledge of administrative and clerical procedures and systems such as word processing systems, filing and records management systems, stenography and transcription, forms design principles, and other office procedures and terminology.
Communications and Media	Knowledge of production, communication, and dissemination techniques and methods including alternative ways to inform and entertain via written, oral, and visual media.
Computers and Electronics	Knowledge of electric circuit boards, processors, chips, and computer hardware and software, including applications and programming.
Customer and Personal Service	Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services including needs assessment techniques, quality service standards, alternative delivery systems, and customer satisfaction evaluation techniques.
Design	Knowledge of design techniques, principles, tools and instruments involved in the production and use of technical plans, blueprints, drawings, and models.
Economics and Accounting	Knowledge of economic and accounting principles and practices, the financial markets, banking, and the analysis and reporting of financial data.
Education and Training	Knowledge of instructional methods and training techniques including curriculum design principles, learning theory, group and individual teaching techniques, design of individual development plans, and test design principles.
Engineering and Technology	Knowledge of equipment, tools, mechanical devices, and their uses to produce motion, light, power, technology, and other applications.
English Language	Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.
Fine Arts	Knowledge of theory and techniques required to produce, compose, and perform works of music, dance, visual arts, drama, and sculpture.
Food Production	Knowledge of techniques and equipment for planting, growing, and harvesting of food for consumption including crop rotation methods, animal husbandry, and food storage/handling techniques.
Foreign Language	Knowledge of the structure and content of a foreign (non-English) language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition and grammar, and pronunciation.
Geography	Knowledge of various methods for describing the location and distribution of land, sea, and air masses including their physical locations, relationships, and characteristics.
History and Archeology	Knowledge of past historical events and their causes, indicators, and impact on particular civilizations and cultures.
Law, Government, and Jurisprudence	Knowledge of laws, legal codes, court procedures, precedents, government regulations, executive orders, agency rules, and the democratic political process.
Mathematics	Knowledge of numbers, their operations, and interrelationships including arithmetic, algebra, geometry, calculus, statistics, and their applications.
Mechanical	Knowledge of machines and tools, including their designs, uses, benefits, repair, and maintenance.
Medicine and Dentistry	Knowledge of the information and techniques needed to diagnose and treat injuries, diseases, and deformities. This includes symptoms, treatment alternatives, drug properties and interactions, and preventative health-care measures.
Personnel and Human Resources	Knowledge of policies and practices in personnel/human resource functions. This includes recruitment, selection, training, and promotion regulations and procedures; compensation and benefits packages; labor relations and negotiation strategies; and personnel information systems.
Philosophy and Theology	Knowledge of different philosophical systems and religions, including their basic principles, values, ethics, ways of thinking, customs, and practices, and their impact on human culture.
Physics	Knowledge and prediction of physical principles, laws, and applications including air, water, material dynamics, light, atomic principles, heat, electric theory, earth formations, and meteorological and related natural phenomena.
Production and Processing	Knowledge of inputs, outputs, raw materials, waste, quality control, costs, and techniques for maximizing the manufacture and distribution of goods.
Psychology	Knowledge of human behavior and performance, mental processes, psychological research methods, and the assessment and treatment of behavioral and affective disorders.
Public Safety and Security	Knowledge of weaponry, public safety, and security operations, rules, regulations, precautions, prevention, and the protection of people, data, and property.
Sales and Marketing	Knowledge of principles and methods involved in showing, promoting, and selling products or services. This includes marketing strategies and tactics, product demonstration and sales techniques, and sales control systems.
Sociology and Anthropology	Knowledge of group behavior and dynamics, societal trends and influences, cultures, history, migrations, ethnicity, and origins.
Telecommunications	Knowledge of transmission, broadcasting, switching, control, and operation of telecommunication systems.
Therapy and Counseling	Knowledge of information and techniques needed to rehabilitate physical and mental ailments and to provide career guidance including alternative treatments, rehabilitation equipment and its proper use, and methods to evaluate treatment effects.
Transportation	Knowledge of principles and methods for moving people or goods by air, rail, sea, or road, including their relative costs, advantages, and limitations.
Skills - Some of the skills are developed over time and are used not only to do work but also to learn other skills. Other skills are important for performance on many jobs.
Active Learning	Working with new material or information to grasp its implications.
Active Listening	Listening to what other people are saying and asking questions as appropriate.
Coordination	Adjusting actions in relation to others' actions.
Critical Thinking	Using logic and analysis to identify the strengths and weaknesses of different approaches.
Equipment Maintenance	Performing routine maintenance and determining when and what kind of maintenance is needed.
Equipment Selection	Determining the kind of tools and equipment needed to do a job.
Idea Evaluation	Evaluating the likely success of an idea in relation to the demands of the situation.
Idea Generation	Generating a number of different approaches to problems.
Identification of Downstream Consequences	Determining the long-term outcomes of a change in operations.
Identification of Key Causes	Identifying the things that must be changed to achieve a goal.
Implementation Planning	Developing approaches for implementing an idea.
Information Organization	Finding ways to structure or classify multiple pieces of information.
Information Gathering	Knowing how to find information and identifying essential information.
Installation	Installing equipment, machines, wiring, or programs to meet specifications.
Instructing	Teaching others how to do something.
Judgement and Decision Making	Weighing the relative costs and benefits of a potential action.
Learning Strategies	Using multiple approaches when learning or teaching new things.
Management of Material Resources	Obtaining and seeing to the appropriate use of equipment, facilities, and materials needed to do certain work.
Management of Personnel Resources	Motivating, developing, and directing people as they work, identifying the best people for the job.
Management of Financial Resources	Determining how money will be spent to get the work done, and accounting for these expenditures.
Mathematics	Using mathematics to solve problems.
Monitoring	Assessing how well one is doing when learning or doing something new.
Negotiation	Bringing others together and trying to reconcile differences.
Operation Monitoring	Watching gauges, dials, or other indicators to make sure a machine is working properly.
Operation Analysis	Analyzing needs and product requirements to create a design.
Operation and Control	Controlling operations of equipment or systems.
Persuasion	Persuading others to approach things differently.
Problem Identification	Identifying the nature of problems.
Product Inspection	Inspecting and evaluating the quality of products.
Programming	Writing computer programs for various purposes.
Reading Comprehension	Understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work related documents.
Repairing	Repairing machines or systems using needed tools.
Science	Using scientific methods to solve problems.
Service Orientation	Actively looking for ways to help people.
Social Perceptiveness	Being aware of others' reactions and understanding why they react the way they do.
Solution Appraisal	Observing and evaluating the outcomes of a problem solution to identify lessons learned or redirect efforts.
Speaking	Talking to others to effectively convey information.
Synthesis/Reorganization	Reorganizing information to get a better approach to problems or tasks.
Systems Perceptions	Determining when important changes have occurred in a system or are likely to occur.
Systems Evaluation	Looking at many indicators of system performance, taking into account their accuracy.
Technology Design	Generating or adapting equipment and technology to serve user needs.
Testing	Conducting tests to determine whether equipment, software, or procedures are operating as expected.
Time Management	Managing one's own time and the time of others.
Troubleshooting	Determining what is causing an operating error and deciding what to do about it.
Visioning	Developing an image of how a system should work under ideal conditions.
Writing	Communicating effectively with others in writing as indicated by the needs of the audience.
Abilities - An ability is an attribute that influences performance on a variety of tasks
Arm-Hand Steadiness	The ability to keep the hand and arm steady while making an arm movement or while holding the arm and hand in one position.
Auditory Attention	The ability to focus on a single source of auditory (hearing) information in the presence of other distracting sounds.
Category Flexibility	The ability to produce many rules so that each rule tells how to group (or combine) a set of things in a different way.
Control Precision	The ability to quickly and repeatedly make precise adjustments in moving the controls of a machine or vehicle to exact positions.
Deductive Reasoning	The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to come up with logical answers. It involves deciding if an answer makes sense.
Depth Perception	The ability to judge which of several objects is closer or farther away from the observer, or to judge the distance between an object and the observer.
Dynamic Flexibility	The ability to quickly and repeatedly bend, stretch, twist, or reach out with the body, arms, and/or legs.
Dynamic Strength	The ability to exert muscle force repeatedly or continuously over time. This involves muscular endurance and resistance to muscle fatigue.
Explosive Strength	The ability to use short bursts of muscle force to propel oneself (as in jumping or sprinting), or to throw an object.
Extent Flexibility	The ability to bend, stretch, twist, or reach out with the body, arms, and/or legs.
Far Vision	The ability to see details at a distance.
Finger Dexterity	The ability to make precisely coordinated movements of the fingers of one or both hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble very small objects.
Flexibility of Closure	The ability to identify or detect a known pattern (a figure, object, work, or sound) that is hidden in other distracting material.
Fluency of Ideas	The ability to come up with a number of ideas about a given topic. It concerns the number of ideas produced and not the quality.
Glare Sensitivity	The ability to see objects in the presence of glare or bright lighting.
Gross Body Coordination	The ability to coordinate the movement of the arms, legs, and torso together in activities where the whole body is in motion.
Gross Body Equilibrium	The ability to keep or regain one's body balance or stay upright when in an unstable position.
Hearing Sensitivity	The ability to detect or tell the difference between sounds that vary over broad ranges of pitch and loudness.
Inductive Reasoning	The ability to combine separate pieces of information, or specific answers to problems, to form general rules or conclusions. It includes coming up with a logical explanation for why a series of seemingly unrelated events occur together.
Information Ordering	The ability to correctly follow a given rule or set of rules in order to arrange things or actions in a certain order. The things or actions can include numbers, letters, words, pictures, procedures, sentences, and mathematical or logical operations.
Manual Dexterity	The ability to quickly make coordinated movements of one hand, a hand together with the arm, or two hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble objects.
Mathematical Reasoning	The ability to understand and organize a problem and then to select a mathematical method or formula to solve the problem.
Multilimb Coordination	The ability to coordinate movements of two or more limbs together (for example, two arms, tow legs, or one leg and one arm) while sitting, standing, or lying down. It does not involve performing the activities while the body is in motion.
Near Vision	The ability to see details of objects at a close range (within a few feet of the observer).
Night Vision	The ability to see under low light conditions.
Number Facility	The ability to add, subtract, multiply, or divide quickly.
Oral Expression	The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
Oral Comprehension	The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented though spoken words and sentences.
Originality	The ability to come up with unusual or clever ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem.
Perceptual Speed	The ability to quickly and accurately compare letters, numbers, objects, pictures, or patterns. The things to be compared may be presented at the same time or one after the other. This ability also includes comparing a presented object with a remembered object.
Peripheral Vision	The ability to see objects or movement of objects to one's side when the eyes are focused forward.
Problem Sensitivity	The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing there is a problem.
Rate Control	The ability to time the adjustments of a movement or equipment control in anticipation of changes in the speed and/or direction of a continuously moving object or scene.
Reaction Time	The ability to quickly respond (with the hand, finger, or foot) to one signal (sound, light, picture, etc.) when it appears.
Response Orientation	The ability to choose quickly and correctly between two or more movements in response to two or more different signals (lights, sounds, pictures, etc). It includes the speed with which the correct response is started with the hand, foot, or other body parts.
Selective Attention	The ability to concentrate and not be distracted while performing a task over a period of time.
Sound Localization	The ability to tell the direction from which a sound originated.
Spatial Orientation	The ability to know one's location in relation to the environment, or to know where other objects are in relation to one's self.
Speech Clarity	The ability to speak clearly to that it is understandable to a listener.
Speech Recognition	The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
Speed of Limb Movement	The ability to quickly move the arms or legs.
Speed of Closure	The ability to quickly make sense of information that seems to be without meaning or organization. It involves quickly combining and organizing different pieces of information into a meaningful pattern.
Stamina	The ability to exert one's self physically over long periods of time without getting winded or out of breath.
Static Strength	The ability to exert maximum muscle force to lift, push, pull, or carry objects.
Time Sharing	The ability to efficiently shift back and forth between two or more activities or sources of information (such as speech, sounds, touch, or other sources).
Trunk Strength	The ability to use one's abdominal and lower back muscles to support part of the body repeatedly or continuously over time without "giving out" or fatiguing.
Visual Color Discrimination	The ability to match or detect differences between colors, including shades of color and brightness.
Visualization	The ability to imagine how something will look after it is moved around or when its parts are moved or rearranged.
Wrist-Finger Speed	The ability to make fast, simple, repeated movements of the fingers, hands, and wrists.
Written Expression	The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
Written Comprehension	The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.

1. Definitions and descriptive text were developed for the U.S. Department of Labor and can be found in the Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities Questionnaires �1995 Utah Department of Employment Security.