4. What is the procedure followed to apply the labour competency approach?

When referring to the labour competency approach it is convenient to distinguish between the different stages of its application. Clearly, the concept and its theoretical basis underlie all its applications; it can be found in labour training as well as in human talent management. The stages that will be described are: identification of competencies, standardisation of competencies, competency-based training and certification of competencies.

Many of the questions included in this text will refer to each of these dimensions. Nevertheless, some conceptual specifications of each of them will be advanced.

Identification of competencies: It is the method or process followed to establish, from the basis of a labour activity, the competencies that are involved while performing such activity satisfactorily. Competencies are usually identified on the basis of the job’s reality;(1) this implies that workers’ participation during analysis workshops should be facilitated. Identification coverage can go from the job position to a broader and much more convenient concept: occupational area or job environment. There are different and varied methodologies to identify competencies. Among the most frequently used ones we may find: functional analysis, “develop a curriculum” method (DACUM), as well as its variant methods SCID and AMOD and the behaviourist methodologies that focus on the identification of competencies.

Standardisation of competencies: Once competencies have been identified, its description may be very useful to clear up the transactions between employers, workers and educational entities. Usually, when standardised systems are organised, a standardisation procedure is developed so that the competency –identified and described with a common procedure– becomes a standard, i.e. a valid point of reference for educational institutions, workers and employers. This institutionally built and formalised procedure standardises competencies and turns them into an agreed standard level (at the enterprise, sector, country).

Competency-based training: Once the competency has been described and standardised, the design of training curricula for work should be much more efficient if they are oriented towards the standard. This means that when training is geared to generate competencies that clearly correspond to existing standards, it will be much more efficient and will have a stronger impact than training that is totally unaware of the needs of the entrepreneurial sector.

It is not only necessary that training programmes are oriented to generate competencies by taking standards as a basis, but also that educational strategies are much more flexible than the traditionally employed ones. In this way, competency-based training also faces the challenge of facilitating entrance and re-entrance, thus turning the ideal of continuing training into a reality. Likewise, it is necessary that a greater involvement of the participant in his training process is allowed so that he may decide on what he needs from training, the pace and the didactic materials he will use, together with the required contents.

Some of the key competencies, those which are more required in the view of human resources management, are not generated by knowledge passed on with teaching materials but rather through the ways and challenges that the learning process may foster. Paradoxically, the generation of attitudes oriented towards initiative, problem-solving, abstract thinking, interpreting and anticipation is very often promoted within educational contexts where the basic unit is the group, where everybody works at the same pace, has the same quantity and quality of means and plays a totally passive role.

Certification of competencies: It refers to the formal recognition of the proved competency (thus, assessed) of an individual in order for him to carry out a standardised labour activity.

The issue of a certificate implies that there has been a prior process of competency assessment. In a standardised system, the certificate is not a diploma that certifies prior studies. It is rather a proof of a verified competency, and it is obviously based on a well-defined standard. This offers much more transparency to standardised certification systems since it allows workers to know what is expected from them, employers to be aware of the competencies that are being required by their enterprise and training entities to be aided in their curriculum design process. The certificate is a guarantee of quality concerning what the worker is capable of doing and the competencies he has to do so.

 

 

 

 

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1 Some human resources management models employ catalogues of competencies. They are lists that contain the statement and definition of several competencies. In these cases the enterprise chooses the ones to give more priority in accordance with their objectives and characteristics.

 

 

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