Maker Skill Trees are printable templates that can you can use to visuallise your skill progress, identify skill gaps and get inspired to try new things. Color in the boxes as you go, starting at the base in the basics and moving to advanced skills at the top. This repository is always growing and aims to include a large variety of skills, see full list below. Everyone's journey is different and you can interpret the goals flexibly. Not everything needs to be completed, and tiles can be completed out of order. Print your own in A4 or A3 size. This project is collaborative and aims to refine and grow these resources through community involvement.
Each skill tree has 73 skill or experience hexagonal tiles, ordered in a spectrum of basic skills at the bottom to more advanced skills at the top. This includes 5 set your own goal tiles for you to tailor to your own interests. Maker Skill Trees are released under the Creative Commons Licence, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. You are free to share, adapt, remix or transform the printables or templates for non-commercial purposes. However, you must do so by giving credit to Steph Piper / Maker Queen (or leaving the credit at the bottom of the page) and if you release a remix it must be under the same licence.
Join the discussion and chat about Skill Trees and Skill Seeker, the book on the MAKE Discord
Print out your chosen template or use the template digitally. Start at the base and color in the boxes of anything you've already done. Use the template to visualise your current skills and identify any skill gaps. You may wish to use the below coloring convention to tailor the tree to your own journey, and there are sticker templates available (under templates folder) if you wish to make goal replacement stickers on a vinyl cutter. Think of the tiles as suggestions that can be changed based on your priorities and ability.
You can now make your own skill tree templates with the web app designed by the talented @schme16. It's now a lot easier to make your own templates for personal use or adding to the repository.
How to use:
- Heading text is editable
- Click and drag to move the tiles
- Right click a tile to edit the text
- Save will download an SVG of the skill tree
- Left click to edit credit at the base to add your own name, or remove my name if you're just using for personal use (or don't want me to proof read/edit it).
- Individual goal tracking and upskilling, identifying skill gaps #skilltreechallenge
- For makerspace members to upskill on a variety of tools
- For training new staff members on skills
- For school students working on self-directed activities (See Kids STEAM Skills tree)
- For recruitment / competency checking
It's encouraged to customize these base skill trees around your own interests and goals. You may edit these PDFs to suit or use tile stickers to cover the boxes on a printed template. You can cut your own tile stickers with a vinyl cutter using the Tile Stickers Template SVG (in the templates folder).
I'm working on a book with a range of skill trees, plus great tools to track your progress, earn achievement badges and calculate your Maker XP score. Coming soon! Get notified when the book is available.
There's been a lot of great interest in translating the trees into different languages. To save re-edits, a skill tree must progress through two rounds of expert peer review before translation. You can contribute to this repository by reviewing skill trees as an expert peer reviewer, contributing ideas, submitting completed skill trees or contributing language translations after peer review. See below for more info on how to submit a peer review.
| Skill Area | Completed | Peer Review 1 | Peer Review 2 | Language |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Automotive | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ☐ |
| Blacksmithing | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ |
| Boating & Fishing | ✅ | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ |
| Ceramics | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ |
| Crafting | ✅ | ✅ | ☐ | ☐ |
| Crochet | ✅ | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ |
| Dance | ✅ | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ |
| Embroidery | ✅ | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ |
| House Building | ✅ | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ |
| Jewelry Making | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ |
| Knitting | ✅ | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ |
| Metalworking | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ☐ |
| Moulding and Casting | ✅ | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ |
| Music | ✅ | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ |
| Photography & Videography | ✅ | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ |
| Reading & Writing | ✅ | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ |
| Renovation & Repair | ✅ | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ |
| Sewing | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ☐ |
| Visual Arts | ✅ | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ |
| Woodworking | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ☐ |
| Skill Area | Completed | Peer Review 1 | Peer Review 2 | Language |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3D Modeling | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ French |
| 3D Printing | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ French |
| AI & Machine Learning | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ |
| Amateur Radio | ✅ | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ |
| CNC & CAM | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ☐ |
| Coding | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ☐ |
| Computing | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ☐ |
| Dev Boards | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ☐ |
| Electronics | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ☐ |
| Embedded Systems | ✅ | ✅ | ☐ | ☐ |
| Game Dev | ✅ | ✅ | ☐ | ☐ |
| Gaming | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ |
| IT Security | ✅ | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ |
| Laser Cutting | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ French |
| Linux | ✅ | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ |
| PCB Design | ✅ | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ |
| Mobile App Dev | ✅ | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ |
| Research Skills | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ |
| Robotics | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ☐ |
| Website Building | ✅ | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ |
| Skill Area | Completed | Peer Review 1 | Peer Review 2 | Language |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Adventure | ✅ | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ |
| Animal Care | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ |
| Backyard Science | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ |
| Baking | ✅ | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ |
| Civics & Community | ✅ | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ |
| Cleaning | ✅ | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ |
| Cooking | ✅ | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ |
| Drinks (Non Alcoholic) | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ |
| Entrepreneurship | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ☐ |
| Environmentalist | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ |
| Finance | 🟧 In Progress | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ |
| Fermenting & Preservation | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ |
| Gardening | ✅ | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ |
| Language | ✅ | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ |
| Life Admin | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ |
| Self Care | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ |
| Sports & Fitness | ✅ | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ |
| Survivalist | ✅ | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ |
| Travel | ✅ | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ |
| Volunteering | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ |
✅ STEAM Skills
✅ Explore a Makerspace
✅ Makerspace w/ 3D Printer, 3D scanner, Vinyl Cutter and Electronics Bench
✅ Makerspace w/ 3D Printer, 3D scanner, Vinyl Cutter, Laser Cutter and Electronics Bench
✅ 3D Printing and 3D Modelling (Now split to individual areas)
✅ Roller Derby
✅ Dungeons and Dragons
✅ Comic Artist
✅ Cocktails
✅ Kubernetes
✅ Scratch
✅ Astronomy (x1 Peer Reviewed)
☐ Tabletop Games
☐ Video Games
☐ Leatherworking
☐ Bushcraft
☐ Foraging
☐ Biology Experiments
☐ Vintage Computing
☐ Social Skills
🟧 Climbing (In Progress)
☐ Weaving
☐ Cooking Skills: National Cuisines
☐ Mushroom Cultivation
☐ Insect Breeding
☐ Urban Gardening
☐ School Summer Camp Planning
☐ School Event Organization
☐ Australian Professional Standards for Teachers (https://www.aitsl.edu.au/standards/graduate)
☐ Minecraft
☐ Microsoft Excel
☐ Mechanical Aptitude - Simple systems (Gearing, levers, pullies) up to complex machines
☐ Bicycles - Riding, Repair, Maintenance commuting, bikepacking, etc
Got a suggestion for a new skill tree, or feedback on an existing tree? Use the suggestion box form. None of the info in these was compiled by AI, but rather through working with experts. These trees are currently not final and I'm actively seeking feedback and peer review to polish and refine the content.
Interested in helping put one of these together? Or even something that's not on the list? Send through your draft and I can put it in the template, or we can do a brainstorm hour to fill it in. If you're an expert and help me put something together a skill tree for the repository, or can assist in translating the sheets into different languages I'd love to hear from you. Let me know if you're interested, email: steph@makerqueen.com.au
Use the template pack in the files, including PNG / PDF and AI files to fill in with your software of choice. If you've filled it in, I'm happy to polish it with custom icons and release it in this repository.
My aim with these skill trees is:
- Modern, relevant and ordered correctly from basics at the base to advanced at the top
- flexible with goals rather than too specific, everyone's journey is different
- Inspiring to try new things rather than completionist
- Include options for tools that aren't cost / availability restrictive
- Ideally, globally applicable - I am not based in the USA
With a total of 73 skill tiles, there's a lot of boxes to fill in! To help prompt ideas, I usually include the following:
- What's the first few things you do in this skill?
- What materials might you use at a basic / intermediate / advanced level?
- What tools might you use at a basic / intermediate / advanced level?
- What techniques might you use at a basic / intermediate / advanced level?
- What might go wrong and how would you fix it?
- What safety considerations do new users need to learn about?
- Where might you visit to learn more / get involved in a community?
- What interskill / interdisciplinary techniques could you try? Eg. Electronics + Textiles = Wearable Tech
- Gifting a friend something made from x skill
- Teaching a class or friend on x skill
- Releasing an online tutorial on x skill
Header font used: Hansief
Other fonts used:
- Uniform Condensed Regular
- Open Sans
- Icons from Icons8, and some self-made
If you've spotted something that could be improved in a Skill Tree, I'd love to send you a holographic ｒａｒｅ contributor sticker in the mail to say thanks. We've each got our own great unique experiences and perspectives in our skill areas and I'd love to draw on our collective knowledge to polish these skill trees into their best versions. Bug Feedback form: https://forms.office.com/r/eemK9VhJFm
Peer reviewers must be an expert in the skill area and contribute detailed feedback, including making sure that:
- The trees are modern, relevant and technically correct
- Tiles are not too specific and include more broad options for flexible interpretation (for example, rather than 'build a clock' it could be 'add electronics to a project'.
- Ordered correctly from basics at the base to advanced at the top
- Weaker tiles that could be swapped for stronger tiles
If a skill tree has been peer reviewed twice, it is now ready for translation and indicates a high level of confidence in the content. Peer reviewers may contribute this feedback as an issue in Github with 'Peer review' in the title, and can recieve a contributor sticker in the mail if they wish by completing the bug feedback form above.
Were these made with AI?
No, these were made in collaboration with experts or using my own expertise, without any AI usage. You can see the author credits at the base of each tree. Every expert has different experiences and I'm hoping to build a community on here and get many experts to proofread and peer review these trees to polish them into their best versions.
Will you keep the 'Skill Trees' name when they aren't really traditional skill trees?
While these templates are skill tree inspired, I realise they are not made up of connected nodes like traditional skill trees. However, many games, like Borderlands, Starfield and others also have skill systems without connected nodes that still use the skill tree name. I have decided to keep the name 'Skill Trees' to make the concept easier to understand at a glance.
Get skill tree poster digital downloads on my website for free or on the MakerQueen Shop if you wish to support the project.
Advertise the project in your makerspace or school with this poster (in Makerspace Skill Trees folder)
Watch my talk on the Skill Trees Project
Hackaday Article - Maker Skill Trees Help You Level Up Your Craft
Adafruit Blog - The Maker Skill Trees Project
Skill Tree Web App by the talented @amalmathewtech
