Your invitation

Access inspiration, tools and tech for skills discovery. Explore content covering: the benefits of skills visibility for making better career and deployment decisions; how to empower skills-based hiring; and how to build skills confidence and skills currency.

Why should I accept the invitation?

Here are answers to questions you might have about subscribing.

  1. Why would I want to sign up to a subscription?

    1. Get frequent tips and tools to your inbox to help you excel in your career

    2. Understand how to make better career choices, aligned to your intrinsic motivators

    3. Identify how to perform better at work

    4. Know how to make better hiring and deployment decisions

    5. Learn how to adapt to change and regenerate

  2. What will the content give me?

    • Stories, tips and tools that will help you:

      • Gain insights to your skills and motivations

      • Develop regenerative behaviours to adapt to change

      • Empower high-performance

  3. How will it make me happier, healthier or wealthier?

    1. Develop insights to improve your enjoyment of work and productivity

    2. Gain a sense of purpose and fulfillment by aligning career choices to intrinsic motivators

    3. Increase opportunities for wealth creation as purpose is aligned with the will to put effort into what is intrinsically enjoyed

Hello

Hi, I’m

, the creator of Skills Current and the founder of Ardcairn. I’ve created this Substack publication to share content I think might prove useful for others and to pull together various threads that run through my work.

Purpose

Skills Current isn’t a usual skills publication. The intention is to explore approaches for skills discovery from an individual and employer perspective.  

For an individual, the posts will help you dig deeper into your motivations and skills, and to look beneath the surface of what really inspires you. The purpose is to provide posts and tools to aid skills rediscovery and discoverability. You will find approaches you can use for rediscovering what inspires and motivates you, and to increase discoverability for jobs you’d love.

Posts will spark ideas about different ways to consider skills, and encourage you to reflect on yourself and the kind of work you would find fulfilling.

I invite you to gain inspiration and tips from Skills Current posts to:

  • Gain insights to the full range of your skills

  • Clarify the career path you really want to take

  • Increase your confidence in the value you can contribute within an increasingly AI-driven workplace

  • Prove to yourself why you can make the move to a career you’d love

For employers, the posts will highlight approaches for identifying the ideal candidate for the job and how to make better informed deployment decisions. 

I invite you to gain inspiration and tips from Skills Current posts to:

  • Understand how to improve productivity with skills-based hiring and deployment decisions

  • Discover tools and mechanisms for improving skills visibility and skills-based decision making

  • Address the challenges and opportunities of skills-based hiring

  • Gain insights to skills gaps, skills needs and how to improve skills pipeline

Please join me

To receive free rediscovery content all you need to do is subscribe.

To support the publication financially and to access the full range of posts, tools and other benefits, please consider upgrading to a paid subscription. A paid subscription gets you:

  • Additional and extended posts  

  • Interviews

  • Practical tools

  • Access to the full publication archives

  • Full access to community features including commenting

  • Early access to events and updates on new skills discovery developments

About me

I’m interested in how to get the ideal person into the ideal job, from the perspective of both individuals and employers. I’m named on the Mozilla Monument in San Francisco for my contribution to pioneering work on skills recognition and discovery, including conceptual input to the Open Badge standard that is credited with seeding the microcredential and skills-based hiring movements globally. My work has been incorporated into blueprints, policies and platforms, and I have helped numerous individuals, governments, companies, cities and education institutions around the world to improve outcomes based on skills visibility.

Stay up-to-date

Never miss an update - most posts are sent directly to your email inbox, with the full archive accessible from the website or app. For a spam-free, ad-free reading experience, plus audio and community features, get the Substack app.

Join the community

Be part of a community of people who share your interests. Participate in the comments section and support this work with a subscription.

We accommodate group subscriptions and have special rates for students with ‘.ac.uk.’, ‘.edu’ and equivalent student email addresses. Please email us for details: ardcairn@substack.com

To learn more about the platform that powers this publication, visit Substack.com.

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Discussing the skills ecosystem from the perspective of job seekers, employers and society. Read for inspiration to make better career and hiring decisions; apply skills-based hiring and advancement; build skills confidence & skills currency.

People

Ardcairn provides consultancy across the skills ecosystem. Pioneers in skills discovery, we: advise policymakers on skills policy; partner with employers to implement skills-based hiring & advancement; and help job seekers build skills confidence.
Skills ecosystem strategist and skills credentials pioneer discussing skills-based hiring & advancement, skills validation and skills currency. RSA Fellow. Consultant, innovator and advisor on skills discovery standards, tools & policy.