SFIA 9

Skills Framework for the Information Age

workforce
global
Published

May 8, 2026

At a glance

Steward SFIA Foundation
Canonical page SFIA Foundation
Version 9
Released 2024-10
Source format PDF, XLSX, JSON, and RDF distributions. cybedtools reads a third-party SQLite structural extract, and full skill text is fetched separately under the SFIA Use Policy
License SFIA Use Policy. Free for individuals, small employers, and accredited training providers, paid for commercial consultancies and large employers, with full skill text redistribution restricted at every tier
framework_summary slug sfia-9

Structure in cybed: terms

SFIA 9 structural mapping Framework sfia:Framework Skill (skills, not roles) sfia:Skill = cybed:OrganizingUnit (no cybed:Role) Level descriptor sfia:LevelDescriptor = cybed:RoleElement contains cybed:hasOrganizingUnit has element cybed:hasElement
SFIA enumerates skills, not roles. Click any box or edge label to flip between plain English and the technical schema name.

Counts

Measure Value
Skills 147
Strict elements 830
With-examples elements 830
Elements per skill 5.6

The elements counted here are level descriptors (one per skill-level pairing where the skill is defined at that level). SFIA’s seven levels of responsibility define the scale itself. Those level definitions are part of the framework’s overall structure but are not counted as per-skill elements.

Provenance

Source

SFIA Foundation’s published distribution. cybedtools reads a third-party SQLite structural extract for the skill and level scaffolding. Full skill text is fetched separately under the SFIA Use Policy.

Ingestion

scripts/010-ingest-sfia.R parses the structure into the cybed schema.

License

Subject to the SFIA Use Policy. The package stores only structural metadata locally and does not redistribute full skill text.

Caveats

  • SFIA enumerates skills and proficiency levels, not roles. Cross-framework analyses should not equate sfia:Skill with nice:WorkRole or dcwf:WorkRole without explicit justification.
  • Level descriptors only make sense relative to SFIA’s seven-point level scale. Cross-framework comparisons of “elements per organizing unit” reflect that scale, not absolute specificity.
  • The SFIA Use Policy’s licensing tier matters for redistribution. Free for individuals, small employers, and accredited training providers. Paid licensing for commercial consultancies and large employers. Redistribution of full skill text is restricted at every tier. Researchers extending cybedtools with downstream publications should verify their use case against the current policy.
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Reuse

SFIA Use Policy