Skill Standards address employer-verified skills for an entire job cluster. Each standard includes knowledge, skills, abilities, tasks, employability skills, key performance indicators, and student learning outcomes. A job cluster can be used to create a complete program, including courses.

Skill Sets are smaller sets of knowledge areas that detail a level of awareness plus a bit more. Skill sets are meant to be layered onto any technical discipline, not just IT, enhancing existing programs and courses.