Canonical: https://www.skillhive.com/en/user-guide/skills-mappings-and-areas-of-expertise
Language: en
Updated: 2026-10-01
Parent: Skillhive User Guide (https://www.skillhive.com/en/user-guide/skillhive-user-guide)

# Skills mappings and areas of expertise

> A skills mapping is a flexible tool that any authorised user can use to map selected skills quickly, for example for a team, a project or a new theme such as AI skills. An area of expertise, by contrast, is a permanent set of skills defined jointly by the organisation and offered to every user already during profile creation.

**For:** administrators, HR and managers

### Skills mapping or area of expertise?

Area of expertise

Skills mapping

Purpose

Strategic, shared or role-specific skills that deserve long-term attention

A more detailed or quick mapping for a specific need: a team, a project, a new theme

Who typically defines it

Management and HR together with experts

A team, a manager, HR or a project

Where the user encounters it

In the new user tutorial and in their own profile (Edit areas of expertise and skills)

On the Skills mappings page, through an invitation or by joining

Lifecycle

Permanent, updated rarely

Flexible: easy to create, edit, close and delete

Both work the same way technically: they share the same assessment, discussion and chart views. The organisation can rename them, for example areas of expertise can be called roles.

The same skill can belong to many areas of expertise and skills mappings. The assessment is made for the skill, not for the mapping, so users never need to assess the same skill twice. A team's own detailed mapping therefore does not break the organisation's shared areas of expertise.

### Who can create skills mappings?

The administrator decides this under **Admin panel → Swarm settings**. There, each user group (regular users, external experts, mentors, HRD and administrators) is given the swarm types it may create.

-   The setting only applies to creating **new** mappings. Without creation rights, users can still view and complete mappings that are visible to them.
-   When the swarm type is enabled, Skills mappings appears in the left-hand menu.
-   A typical choice: creation rights for HR and managers, or for everyone if teams are expected to run their own mappings.

### Who can see a mapping?

The Skills mappings page shows the latest mappings that are visible to you.

-   An **internal** mapping is visible to all staff.
-   An **invite-only** mapping has a lock icon and is visible only to invitees, members and owners.
-   An **open** mapping is also visible to external experts (EXT). EXT+ users never see mappings. They can be given skills to assess through areas of expertise.

No mapping is ever visible outside your organisation's own Skillhive environment.

### Related guides

-   [Swarm types](/en/user-guide/swarm-types)
-   [Swarm visibility](/en/user-guide/swarm-visibility)
-   [Skills and areas of expertise](/en/user-guide/skills-and-areas-of-expertise)