Competencies in training and competencies in human talent management.
Convergences and challenges

 

2. WORK BY COMPETENCIES IN TRAINING

The activity of vocational training, oriented to developing teaching and learning processes so as to provide qualified workers who can meet the human resources requirements of business, has recently been oriented to the incorporation of a labor competency focus. Normally, training based on work competency is oriented to developing knowledge, skills, capacities and attitudes through the training process, so as to complete a series of stages which are described below:

The cycle: identification of needs, structuring of the response, execution and evaluation

Latin America has an unusual characteristic which stems from the organizational arrangements for worker training which were made 50 years ago. In almost all the countries of the region there are national training institutions which have given the lead in adopting a competency focus in the identification of training needs, in the preparation of curriculums, in the execution of training, and in its evaluation and certification. Unlike North America or even Europe, the Latin American region has an institutional structure usually based on tripartite participation (workers, employers, government) on their councils and directing boards. The diagram below shows the broad outlines of the work cycle of vocational training.

These functions are carried out with a high degree of social legitimization which stems from the participation of the actors in the leadership, and frequently in the needs identification and in the evaluation and certification phases. In many cases, the planning areas of the institutions have methods for identifying needs based on competencies, other areas deal with the design of training programs, and thus, as a characteristic feature of the institutions that learn, they apply the capacity to generate knowledge: pedagogic materials, teaching aids and means of learning, evaluation materials, and spaces for training in the form of schools or specialized centers.

The phases of work by competencies: Identification, Standardization, Training, Evaluation-Certification

The cycle which the institutions that give vocational training take the lead in resemble those which have been called "phases of work by competencies", which is described below:

Identification of competencies: This is the method or process which is followed in order to establish, through an examination of work activity, the competencies which are brought into play so as to satisfactorily perform that activity.

In aim in this stage is to establish the competencies connected to a defined work context, whether this is an occupation or a group of occupations. Different methodologies can be used such as functional analysis, the DACUM, or any other which is used to make explicit the work goals that are expected. In general the orientation is to identify the competencies which can be reached by capable (that is to say competent) people.

Standardization of competencies: This is the formalization of the competency through the establishment of standards which make it a valid reference point for a defined group. In fact, the reference point is a norm of work competency.

When working with functional analysis(1) there is a breakdown of functions and sub-functions which are discharged so as to meet the needs of the sector or company in which the competencies are identified.

 

Summarized definitions of functional analysis: Competency unit: Group of elements of competency which have a clear significance in the work process, and therefore are of value in the exercise of the work. The unit does not only refer to the functions directly connected to the objective of the job, they include any requirement connected to health and safety, quality and work relations. Competency element: A description of a realization which has to be attained by a person in the ambit of his occupation. Therefore, it refers to action, behaviour, or a result which the worker has to demonstrate, and is therefore a function carried out by an individual. Performance criteria: A description of the quality requirements for the result obtained in labor performance. These are used to decide whether or not the worker has achieved the result described in the competency element. Range of application: A description of the circumstances, ambient, materials, machines and instruments in relation to which the performance described in the competency element is carried out. Evidence of performance and of knowledge: Descriptions of variables or conditions whose state governs the inference that performance was effectively carried out with management of the knowledge necessary to achieve this.

 

The elements of competency are the basis for standardization. A number of similar elements which signify some concrete result in the productive process can be grouped together; these groups of elements are called competency units.

Competency units already constitute modules with a clear significance and value in the job. The grouping of different competency units form the occupational qualifications.

Occupational qualifications are not names of work posts, they are groups of competencies which can serve as a reference for the performance of the work posts in the organization. For each work post it will be clearly specified which competency units must be certified for its competent exercise. One qualification of competencies can have units applicable to more than one post (transversal or transferable competencies), thus making a start in facilitating labor mobility.

To sum up, for each labor qualification there are different competency units. The competency units are made up of competency elements, and these in turn are specified in performance criteria, range of application, evidence of knowledge and evidence of performance.(2)

Training based on competencies: This can be understood as an open and flexible process of developing work competencies, which, based on the competencies identified, offer curricular design, pedagogic processes, didactic materials and activities and work practices aimed at developing the participants' capacities for integrating into society as citizens and as workers.

Evaluation and certification of competencies

In this stage the aim is to establish which competencies the workers really possess as against those which were identified and included in the norm. The evaluation refers to a determination of the form and the quantity of evidence of performance to be gathered so as to be able to judge whether or not an individual is competent.

The evidence necessary to establish competency can be collected by different methods, such as:

• Evidence of performance by observation in the workplace
• Evidence with simulated exercises
• Evidence obtained though surveys
• Evidence obtained through written tests
• Evidence from reports of previous attainments

The evidence of performance which the workers gradually accumulate should be associated with the qualifications it belongs to and kept in a register(3). In this way, each worker will know which competency units he has certified, which qualifications they belong to, and which work posts demand these units for their performance.

Certification is a formal and temporary recognition of the competencies possessed and demonstrated by workers in relation to a previously-recognized norm. Certainly, this is not recognition of academic achievements, nor is it attending and passing a training course. The certificate of competency specifies the work capacities which the worker has.

The process of certification centers on the competencies available, not on the way in which they were acquired. Therefore, it is not obligatory to have done training programs to be able to take part in the training process.

In practice, a certificate of competency is a kind of common coin; the social actors assign a certain value to it in function of its transparency and legitimacy, and the capacity of the certifying bodies.

A certification system, then, supposes an explicit agreement between the social actors (companies, workers, government) to identify, evaluate and certify the workers' competencies.

 

 

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(1) Further information on methodologies is available on the Cinterfor web page, in the Tools section: www.cinterfor.org.uy
(2) A better illustration and definitions of these concepts are to be found in www.cinterfor.org.uy "The 40 most frequently-asked questions about labor competency".
(3) In the English system "portfolios of evidence" are used, true registers of the competencies accumulated by workers. In the USA a project is being developed to register in a magnetic card the competencies evaluated.

 

 

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