Knowledge
In ONET, the Occupational Information Network, knowledge categories are used to classify and categorize information related to various occupations. These knowledge categories provide a comprehensive framework for understanding what people should know to work in various professions. The knowledge categories in ONET include areas such as Mathematics, English Language, Administration and Management, Customer and Personal Service, Education and Training, Law and Government, Engineering and Technology, and many more.
Bedrock recently posted this video summarizing the broad knowledge categories.
ONET not only defines these categories but they also rate the importance and level for each knowledge category across hundreds of major jobs across the USA. This means that when you look at a particular job, you can easily see which knowledge areas are most important to that job and the knowledge level we’d expect someone in that job.
For example, if you look up Tire Repairers and Changers (49-3093.00), there are four knowledge areas important for this job.
Mechanical — Knowledge of machines and tools, including their designs, uses, repair, and maintenance.
Customer and Personal Service — Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
Administration and Management — Knowledge of business and management principles involved in strategic planning, resource allocation, human resources modeling, leadership technique, production methods, and coordination of people and resources.
Sales and Marketing — Knowledge of principles and methods for showing, promoting, and selling products or services. This includes marketing strategy and tactics, product demonstration, sales techniques, and sales control systems.
You likely aren’t surprised by this list. However, it does help to show how other knowledge areas are simply not as important as we may think. For example, what about these knowledge areas?
English Language - Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.
Public Safety and Security - Knowledge of relevant equipment, policies, procedures, and strategies to promote effective local, state, or national security operations for the protection of people, data, property, and institutions.
Production and Processing - Knowledge of raw materials, production processes, quality control, costs, and other techniques for maximizing the effective manufacture and distribution of goods.
Transportation - Knowledge of principles and methods for moving people or goods by air, rail, sea, or road, including the relative costs and benefits.
These categories are the next highest rated beyond what we see online. Are they important? Sure, but not nearly as much as the top four. The site limits the list to those categories rated 50 or higher in importance. English Language is 49 so it’s close but not quite on the list they default to. To see the other categories, switch your view on ONET to “Detail” and you can see the full list of how knowledge scores for that job. This may enlighten you to other areas of training for that job.
To really dig into the data in ONET, I recommend you check out the ONET Resource Center. There they offer the files themselves, studies behind the data, web services, and good overviews of their content model and Occupation Taxonomy.