Guest posting to voced-coord email list. Item 7 of 10:

Date: Tue, 7 Apr 1998 17:32:19 +1100
To: voced-coord@owl.qut.edu.au
From: Richard_Laidlaw@astf.com.au
Subject: Key Competencies

Hi Jacqui

Key competencies are popular o.s, at least in the countries I visited, and they nearly even have the same names!! In England they are called the "Key Skills", and the history, developmental process and level of acceptance is quite similar. They have even had a name change from the Core Skills not so long ago.

The Key Skills are assessed as a part of formal qualifications, on student evaluations and reports and on evaluations prepared by employers in many cases. There are differing levels of employer ownership, They are widely accepted by the schools and Further Education Colleges but not by the Higher Education Institutions - how uncanny.

They have 5 levels, and the upper levels are included in Modern Apprenticeships, similar to the Key Competencies being included in entry level vocational curriculum.

About two years ago I was reading some research undertaken into education-business partnerships in Australia for a course at Uni. The CEO's of some of the top 500 companies were involved in research looking at what students should gain from an education process that includes work with employers.

The respondents highlighted the importance of developing in all of the key competencies, the need to understand business and the workings of the world outside school. AND after all the rhetoric, they were asked what they individually looked for in a young person they might be hiring, to which the response was overwhelmingly quite scary - good Maths and English Marks from a University was really all they were interested in because they could teach them the rest in a short time anyway.

So near - and yet so far to go.

Richard

Richard