Both Planners and Helpers can be specified to have "Skills" in WP. The list making up possible skills a person can have is actually the list of Roles created by your church. So, to add more skills to the list, you will actually add those skills as roles, either for your specific team (if you are a team leader) or for your entire church (if you are security level 2 or higher).
People can be assigned skills on the "Add Helper/Planner" pages and the "Edit Helper/Planner" pages. A list of checkboxes appears below at the bottom of those pages. People cannot change their own skill settings in the Account Settings page.
Skills are used by WP when you use the "find-a-sub" and "fill-a-role" features. Among other things, WP will look for people with skills that match the role for which you are trying to find a substitute or fill a role.
category: People