Talent badge

Talent Badges, first introduced in The Sims 2: Open for Business, represent a Sim's experience in a given field. There are four discrete levels of experience: no badge, bronze, silver, and gold. All Sims start with no badges at all, except for Servos, who start with a random gold badge when they are activated, and Bigfoot, who has gold in all talent badges.

Gaining badges
To gain a higher-level talent badge, a Sim must spend time performing a related activity. For example, to gain a bronze Robotics badge, a Sim should use the Robot Crafting Station to create some toy robots. As the Sim works, you will see the badge points being added, until eventually you will be notified that they have gained a Bronze Robotics badge.

Gaining higher talent badges usually grants Sims more options of what to create (in the case of the crafting benches), and lowers the likelihood of failure, as well as increasing the speed at which the activity is done (very important in the case of cashiering).

Open for Business
The initial talent badges that appeared in Open for Business were (in alphabetical order):
 * Cosmetology
 * Flower Arranging
 * Register (more commonly known as Cashiering)
 * Restocking
 * Robotics
 * Sales
 * Toy Making

Seasons
The expansion pack, The Sims 2: Seasons, added two more badges:
 * Fishing
 * Gardening

Each of these can be earned by performing the related activities (i.e. growing plants or fishing in a pond).

Free Time
The Sims 2: Free Time added two more badges:
 * Pottery
 * Sewing