Establishing competency-based standards in the professions
Generate an AI Snapshot to get a quick, structured summary of this paper.
A concise AI-generated summary of the paper will appear here once you click Generate AI Snapshot.
Abstract
This paper aims to provide an introduction to the concept of competency-based standards and to explain how they may be developed by the professions. It provides working definitions of ‘competence’, ‘competency standards’, and related terminology, explains the relationship between this and other systems of occupational analysis and description, and discusses various examples of professions and para-professions adopting this system. Due to the major differences between the actual nature of the work in various professions and para-professions, the paper also discusses several ways of conceptualising and identifying competencies and of setting standards. The range of examples considered will assist professional bodies to identify the sort of approach that is most likely to suit their own needs.