Skill standards have been used by individual firms and industry for a number of years for a variety of purposes including the selection and promotion of individual employees. Professions have used skill standards as a way to define the common core of knowledge required to call one's self a doctor or lawyer. Today these concepts are moving into a broader arena. After many years of effort on the part of those working to reform education and improve the preparation of students for work, there has developed a conviction that one important means of achieving both these goals is the creation of standards for the knowledge and skills required to work. The National Skill Standard Board (NSSB) is an essential part of this creation.