Skills and competencies 1

Skills and competencies

MLEs for Lifelong LearningBirmingham 2005-02-22

Simon Grant & Janet StrivensTransPortALL, Liverpool

CRA - CETIS - LIPSIG

Skills and competencies 2

Origins

• 1920s US: behavioural objectives• 1960s US: emergence of competency-based education

and training (CBET) esp. in teacher education:

‘the precise specification of competences or behaviours to be learned, the modularisation of instruction, evaluation and feedback, personalisation and field experience’ – requirements of the US Office of Education for model training programmes for elementary school teachers, 1968

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National Consortium of Competency Based Education Centres (US)

Competency statements/specifications:• Based on analysis of professional role• Describe outcomes expected from performance, or

knowledge/skills/ attitudes essential to performance of professional functions

• Facilitate criterion-referenced assessment• Specified and made public prior to instruction• Validly related to competency measures which are

also specified and made public prior to instruction

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CBET in the UK

• Callaghan’s Ruskin College speech (October 1976)• A New Training Initiative (ED 1981)• Training for Jobs (ED/DES 1984)• Employment for the 1990’s (ED 1988) • Development of Assessable Standards for National

Certification Note 3: The Definition of Competences and Performance Criteria (MSC 1988)

• National Vocational Qualifications: Criteria and Procedures (NCVQ 1989)

• Towards a Skills Revolution (CBI Task Force 1989)

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Characteristics of National Vocational Qualifications

• Performance criteria explicitly related to standards• Underpinning knowledge/understanding• Range statements• Sufficient sample on which to base an inference• Assessments based on collection of evidence that competence

has been demonstrated:- direct observation of performance (ideally in real work setting, or simulation)- witness statements- attested products/artefacts

• ‘Attitudes/values’ expressed as observable behaviours (see Care Sector Consortium Values Base Unit)

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Characteristics of NVQs (contd)

• Assessment ‘on demand’: little concern for how long the learner takes or how many times assessed (cf. rejection of ‘time-serving’)

• Method of ‘curriculum delivery’ immaterial:

not institutionally bounded, no ‘syllabus’

• Unitised certification (to reflect functional analysis for standard)

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Some issues for RDCEO

• Skills ‘level’: eg Dreyfus model-Novice- Advanced Beginner- Competent- Proficient- Expert

• Relationship of theory (knowledge/understanding) to performance (esp. should it be assessed directly or ‘observed in use’?)

• Capturing capability, curiosity, criticality, creativity etc. in skills/competences language

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Approaches to representation• Analogy of measurement

• “Imperial”– Every different context has a different measure

• Consider size or length or distance– height; depth; along land/sea; horses; type; wire; screws

– No obvious interrelationships

• “Metric” or “SI”– Try to have one set of measures to reuse

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The PDP haiku - for skills too

Diverse practice! Shared

(mutual recognition)

representation

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The problem• Learner builds up evidence of skills

– within skills framework from 1st institution

• Learner moves to other institution or job– but they have a different skills framework

• Does evidence connect to new skills?– impossible to tell!

• http://www.inst.co.uk/clients/jisc/skillsinteroperability.html

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What could be happening?• e.g. “Communication skills” might mean

different things in the different contexts

• Different terms may be used for same skill– or indeed different languages

• There may be overlap between two skills in different frameworks (or indeed the same)– but who knows how much?

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Favoured approach to solution• Break down skills into smaller parts until

they are no longer disagreed on– “IT skills” may differ– but “setting margins in MS Word” is same

• or in the medical domain– “hand-washing” is probably the same– “control of infection” may depend on role, etc.

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The RDCEO dimension• IMS specification: “Reusable Definition of

Competency or Educational Objective”

• A possible way to lay open skill definitions– and provide building blocks for frameworks

• But gives no guidance on structure or actual content

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The C and the EO of RDCEO• Even if competencies are agreed (“C”)

• even then, the ways in which to teach (“EO”) exercise and assess them will differ– at least in HE, where there are a lot of

opinionated people… – schools, along with national qualifications, are

only controlled by national governments• so will differ internationally

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Recipe for consensus• Factor out the “EO” side of the picture,

recognising that teaching and assessment will inevitably differ, but that we need agreement for transferability

• Break down high-level “C” concepts until they are agreeable

• Publish the consensus on the web

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Exercise option 1 (by interest)• Join with others into same skills

• How do you define them?

• What “authorities” might have frameworks?– SSCs; regulatory bodies; consortia; etc.

• Can you agree what is agreeable, and what is a matter of viewpoint and context?

• Compare views on this; record; reflect

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Exercise option 2 (institution)• What skills are significant to us

– as whole institution or company– as part of an institution

• How to establish a skills framework for our institution / company / body?

• How to ensure it relates to others …

• … and benefits the learners?