Journal of Computer Assisted Learning (1995) 11,63

€ditoriu/ - chunging competences? The debate is not new: the relationship between what is taught (and assessed) and the social and economic value of what is learnt has been a central theme of educational controversy for decades. In the UK, enormous resources have been, and still are, devoted to the development of the National Curriculum (with its focus on 'breadth and balance' and its contribution to 'moral, spiritual, cultural and physical development'), and to National Vocational Qualifications (NVQ) with the emphasis on employable skills. Many other countries have equivalent programmes.

The basic question of the long-term social relevance of qualifications is at the heart of the matter. There is a tension between the strong evidence supporting learning as fundamentally context-specific and a 'real-world' requirement for the transferability of skills, including 'learning to learn'. Institutional education emphasises basic principles with the expectation that these can be applied in a variety of contexts. However, employers often complain that new recruits from schools and universities have to be retrained to perform useful tasks. Yet, if the educational system reacted to satisfy such demands, the situation-specific skills developed would only have short-term value in the rapidly changing social and economic world.

The paradox of furnishing general skills and of acquiring contextual competences cannot be easily resolved. A major pedagogic debate has been going on for some time about learning in context as an critical feature of children's development. However, the current focus on so-called 'vocational qualifications' assessed out of context often by traditional methods must surely be flawed.

A start in resolving the paradox could be made by limiting the emphasis on formal qualifications by giving greater recognition to contextual competences based upon work experiences. In the changing environment of work at all levels, such an approach appears to be essential. However, competences are not easy to make explicit or objective and new forms of competence representation are required which take account of changing circumstances. At low NVQ levels the criticism is that the competences are largely behavioural and have little currency amongst employers. At professional levels, the very idea of 'competence' can trivialise the qualities of insight, sensibility, imagination, integrity which are central to teaching, law, medicine, etc.

An interesting exploration of changing competences in education due to the influence of IT on learning is being undertaken by CNRS (the French research council). At a European level, the mobility of workers is a key objective; this can only be achieved if it is possible to make the competences of individuals transparent, building upon the variety of experiences that are acquired from working in various social and cultural settings. This objective is nowhere more important than in the mobility of researchers, not only between countries but across the academic and commercial sectors.

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