Skills and competencies

1. Skills and competencies MLEs for Lifelong Learning Birmingham 2005-02-22 Simon Grant & Janet Strivens TransPortALL, 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 Skills and competencies

3. 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 Skills and competencies

4. 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) Skills and competencies

5. 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) Skills and competencies

6. 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) Skills and competencies

7. 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 Skills and competencies

8. 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 Skills and competencies

9. The PDP haiku - for skills too Diverse practice! Shared (mutual recognition) representation Skills and competencies

10. 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 Skills and competencies

11. 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? Skills and competencies

12. 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. Skills and competencies

13. 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 Skills and competencies

14. 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 Skills and competencies

15. 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 Skills and competencies

16. 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 Skills and competencies

17. 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? Skills and competencies