Modeling of Skills, Abilities, Competences, and Related Dispositions in the Occupation Ontology

There are many terms used by organizations that collect occupation-related data to refer to what job-seekers can do, including: skill, ability, capability, knowledge, and competence. These terms are often poorly defined and used interchangeably or inconsistently. In this study, we have identified and ontologically defined these and other related terms for inclusion into the Occupation Ontology (OccO), a reference ontology scoped to the broad domain of occupations and nearby phenomena. Our research provides a systematic account of disposition classes related to occupations, thereby supporting occupation data modeling and integration of disparate data structures.