Explore

Prepare to have your world changed by skills

If you think you know skills, think again! Discover the tools that are building our world. Meet the pioneers who are shaping our societies. And learn how skills are helping our people, places and planet thrive.

A symbol of our community

Atrium installation

Before you begin, explore the spectacular design of the wheel in the Museum’s ground floor atrium.

Chip Clark, Human Origins Program, Smithsonian Institution

Tools and our world

Zone 1

See how tools have evolved, from Stone Age communities to space explorers.

A page from Karl Heinz Trott’s scrapbook, Karl Heinz Trott’s sons, Germany

Celebrating a Successful Global Movement

Zone 2

Uncover decades of stories and souvenirs and hear from the pioneering people who turned a powerful idea into a global movement.

Zone 3 gallery view.

Skills Development and China

Zone 3

Immerse yourself in one of the oldest living civilizations in human history and see how China’s innovations have dramatically changed the world.

Skills Across the World volunteers in Makwe, Zimbabwe in 1998.

Building a Better World With Skills

Zone 4

See how we’re using skills to solve our most significant global challenges, from climate change to economic inequality.

Skills and STEM

Zone 5

See how Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics are essential to the skills that build our world.

Science Museum / Science & Society Picture Library

Skills and the Industrial Revolution

Zone 6

Take a journey through centuries of technological advances, born out of the Industrial Revolution.