An inventory, in the broadest sense, is a document containing a list of things. Usually, inventories are used when one needs to track, check, or monitor contents of places like buildings or classrooms. An inventory can be used in checking intangible qualities like skills of people. For example, a classroom inventory may be used by someone to track the things found in a classroom or evaluate the behavior of students or teachers inside the classroom.

A skills inventory examples is typically used in monitoring and checking skills of people especially employees working in a certain company. Basically, a skills inventory contains a list of certain skills of an individual. At times, it contains skills of people in general to check if an individual possess such skills.

Inventory for Leadership Skills

Study Skills Inventory Example

Inventory for Life Skills

Political Skills Inventory Sample

Purpose of a Skills Inventory

Typically, a company or organization use inventories to track their employees’ skills and performance to determine if they meet the standards set by the company or organization.

A sample  inventory is also used to check if the employees’ current skills can be used in meeting the company’s targets or goals. With inventories, a company is able to monitor the overall skills and qualities its employees currently have, and to find areas for improvement in order to improve the efficiency of their employees’ skills as a whole.

This will help and encourage the employees to perform better and use the skills they learn in the company’s future strategic planning.

How Is an Annual Skills Inventory Important to Your Career?

An annual skills inventory is usually done before the end of the year where an individual is given the chance to look back at the professional skills he/she has used for the whole year, and how these affected his/her overall performance.

Also, an annual skills inventory is done to see his/her professional growth and improvement over the year. A person usually ask questions to see the new possible skills he/she needs to learn, and evaluate what he/she needs to improve.

So basically, your annual skills inventory will help you track your performance every year, giving you the chance to determine whether you are ready for a big change in your career (for the better), or not.

Student Skills Inventory Sample

Inventory for Personal Skills

Inventory for Technical Skills

Volunteer Skills Inventory

Transferable Skills Inventory

How to Write a Skills Inventory

If you’re planning on creating your own skills inventory either for your employees or for yourself, here are the basic things you need to know:

• Have a purpose in making a skills inventory. You need to remind yourself as to why you’re doing a skills inventory in the first place.
• Determine the things you need to include in a skills inventory. Make a list of skills you want to evaluate, and write them down.
• Write everything in an organized way, like an outline or a table. If your list is organized, it will be easier to read and check anytime.
• Be specific and do not write goals which are impossible to achieve, or things which may be unrelated to your skills inventory.
• Recheck and edit your inventory. Ask someone to check the things you’ve written and ask for his/her opinion as to what you can improve in your inventory.