Parsing data from XML using Ruby and Nokogiri
Notes:


Use functional Enumerable#map instead of imperative pattern obj = [] +  Enumerable#each + Array#&lt;&lt;.
Use Kernel#Hash to build a hash from its pairs. Note that this method is very ugly and some prefer a more OOP approach, in that case check Enumerable#mash from Facets.
Use nokogiri_node.text.
Arguments in blocks can be unpacked.


I'd write:

require 'nokogiri'
require 'facets'

def get_training_queue(xml_data)
  xml_data.xpath("//row").map do |skill_in_queue|
    skill_in_queue.attributes.mash do |name, attribute|
      [name.to_sym, attribute.text]
    end
  end
end


All those eachs and in-place updates show that you think in imperative terms instead of functional, check this wiki page.