I disagree with the arguments against "inheriting" skills from parents. I think the idea is wonderful.
Whereas we, the "modern" men, know that memory is not transfered via genetics, this was an accepted notion in the roughly analogous time period on Earth.
Secondly, as has been mentioned, the parents could teach the child (you're gonna be a pump operator, just like yer old dad!), and in the absence of parents (oops your folks mandated crystal glass...sorry kid) the community could push the child towards the trade.
An intelligence stat which reduces experience costs is not feasible, I believe. The stat would of course be gained via experience (like Might, agility and Toughness) leading your truly legendary dwarves into a ridiculous skill surge.
What I'd suggest is this:
*Importantly : this should be toggle-able on/off in the init file.
*When a dwarf child attains adulthood it gains a few (2-4)skills it's parents had developed.
*It should be somewhat random, but with a higher chance that it is also their higher skills.
*The skill list used should be the average of the two parents.
*There should be a max exp cap overall (I'd suggest 2500, that's one attribute increase and the possibility of 4 novice, 2 No Label, 1 no Label + 2 Novice, or 1 Competent + 1 Novice...plus some dabblings). This puts Homegrown Dwarves just slightly ahead of immigrants.
*When picking skills, the system should determine how high the highest skill is (1-3 Novice to Competent) and buy said skill, then determine the next highest (1-2, but no higher than the first). These two picks are exclusive of social skills. If there is enough xp left over to buy a novice it does so (even from a social skill), until it has less than 500 exp left. The remainder is divided evenly across ALL the skills the parents had.
*No labors start enabled.
The average dwarf would then have:
*a 1 in 3 chance of having a noticeable skill greater than an immigrant.
*Skills that likely do NOT match (dad was a jeweler, mom a fishwerdwarf - kid is No-label fisher and novice gem cutter)
*If both parents were of the same trade, the child will surely have at least some skill in it.
* A whole mess of dabbling skills, just like any other member of the community.
* A real lucky rolling might yield a competent useful dwarf
* A normal roll would be a pile of kobold droppings menacing with spikes of elf snot
BTW - I'd never use this option - All my children are doomed to be peasent haulers ...but I like working game mechanics... and telling everyone what I think they should do.