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Professional
competence The idea of
‘competence’ is sometimes coloured in the UK by the legacy of occupational
standards and NVQs from the 1990s and early 2000s. I have been involved since the late 1990s
in researching and developing alternative conceptions and representations
suited to complex work, working with a variety of professions including
heritage conservation, law, personnel and development, family mediation,
vocational rehabilitation, architecture, landscape architecture and most
recently procurement and supply. My approach is
generally to start by looking at good practice - ‘the ability to do something
effectively or successfully’ (OED) as well as ethically and using good
judgement - as opposed to attributes of the person such as skills and
attitudes or behaviours. I then ask
how this applies across an entire profession or field regardless of job roles
or work contexts. Finally a good
description of competent practice should be able to cope with changes in
legislation, technology and preferred methods, avoiding the need for frequent
updating. Where professions
are using a competence framework or set of practising standards as an
assessment tool, they also need to consider the level of proficiency needed
for sign-off. The Dreyfus novice-to-expert model provides a useful
yardstick for this. Typically a
newly-qualified practitioner might be expected to be at the ‘competent’
level, although where sign-off is for a closely supervised role the upper end
of ‘advanced beginner’ may be acceptable.
The ‘proficient’ level is more appropriate for practising fully
independently. How do UK
professions describe competence? This study was
partly a follow-up to the ‘entry routes and requirements’ report that I
produced for PARN in 2007/8. It
explores how 40 UK professional bodies describe competence or practice
standards. The first paper reports on
the study, while the second two explore particular aspects of it in more
depth. ► Professional competence standards and frameworks in the
UK (AEHE 2014) ► Professional standards, competence and capability (HESWBL 2014) ► Professional versus
occupational perspectives on work competence (RPCE 2014). ComProCom: Communicating
Professional Competence Following the UK
professions study I worked with organisations in Greece and Poland, joined by
partners from Germany, Austria and Ireland, to further develop and trial the
concepts in different occupational fields and different national systems. The result was an Erasmus+ Strategic
Partnership Project that ran from 2015 to 2017. ComProCom agreed a definition and produced
a model of professional competence which has potential for improving clarity
across Europe without requiring any particular approach to VET, professional
formation or qualifications. A summary paper
outlines the resulting model and discusses why it is needed, and the project
poster explains more about the model itself.
The developer’s manual explores concepts and processes in more depth,
providing guidance on methods for developing professional competence or
practising standards. ► Competence: a definition and a
model As well as the final report the
project also produced three academic papers exploring various aspects in more
depth. The HESWBL paper continues the
discussion of professional competence from the 2014 papers above. ► Reconciling activity-based descriptions of
competence with professional work (HESWBL 2017) ► ’Competence’ and occupational standards:
observations from six European countries (Education + Training 2017) ► ComProCom: a revised model of occupational
competence (Education +
Training 2018). Examples
of frameworks based on standards
of practice Two frameworks are illustrated
below that reflect the principles discussed in ComProCom. The IDEAL Digital Education
Competence Framework was developed as part of another Erasmus+ project geared
to improving the quality of digital learning.
It is designed for all educators and trainers who are using digital
technology to deliver and support learning.
The framework was structured using the principles from ComProCom. ► The
IDEAL Digital Education Competence Framework. The Institute of Conservation
Professional Standards were developed by the UK conservation community,
initially in the late 1990s. They have
followed similar principles to those discussed in ComProCom. The current version was revised in 2019-20. ► The Icon Professional
Standards (external link). ©
Stan Lester 2024 |
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