I am curious, if not this should be addressed... For example a character that depends on sneaking really needs a follower with good sneaking as well.

Yeah, I think so to. But I think you can get the general jist of what playstyle the character is by looking at her/his equiptment, what they say about themselves, how you pick them up and where.

If you're on PC, you can check them pretty easily via the console. Hit the ~ to enter the console, then click on your follower, an 8 digit hex number should show up if you successfully selected them. Then type one of the following:

getav health
getav stamina
getav onehanded
getav twohanded
getav block
etc.

I don't know all of the actor values off the top of my head, but you should be able to guess them by their in game descriptions. If you get it right, a value will be displayed. If not, you'll get an error message (if there's no value displayed, and no error message, then you don't have your follower selected properly, try clicking them again.) If you feel like cheating you can also use modav to adjust their stats (I used it to boost my horse's stamina regen rate so that I could get around quicker, sprinting on a horse, without having to fast travel - modav staminarate 3000.)

On a related note: can followers gain skills as they fight alongside you or are they locked? I've been using that merc in the drunken huntsman or whatever it's called for awhile; she dual wields blades but her one handed skill is horrible. She seems to favor a bow but I can't seem to check her archery skill; getav archery doesn't work.

bump

Do followers gain skills over time or are they locked?

Good thread i would also like to know this and if they level up which i very much doubt but would be a cool feature.