Nope it does it to any new sim i make, no i am not using any mods at all. I have tested this about 6 times now every time it does this. As far as skills go i am not sure, my sims learnt handiness,logic and cooking fine but when i tried athletic it just wouldn't budge.
Try the factory reset described in this post: http://answers.ea.com/t5/The-Sims-3/FAQ-Troubleshooting-Steps/td-p/714/ then
There is a bug but it usually does not affect all Sims you try.
I didnt fancy doing either of them frankly the mod looked unsafe and i just ended up uninstalling it all and reinstalled it and low and behold the problem is STILL there! im starting to think its a patch problem... it didnt start until i was up to date on my patch and now won't disappear.
Did you do the factory reset ? Uninstalling does not rid you of bad user files.
