Guest posting to voced-coord list June 16 - 28, 1997

Item 9 of 10: Are competencies the key?

Date: Sat, 28 Jun 1997 03:45:37 +1100
To: voced-coord@owl.qut.edu.au
From: Richard Sweet
Subject: VocEd: Richard Sweet (guest) - Are competencies the key?

The 1991 Finn Committee believed that key competencies were "essential things which all young people need to learn in their preparation for employment" and were "related to a young person's initial and lifelong employability". The Mayer Commitee's 1992 report concluded that there were "seven key competencies that all young people need to enable them to participate effectively in the emerging forms of work and work organisation". You might be familiar with them: Collecting, analysing and organising information; Communicating ideas and information; Planning and organising activities; Working with others and in teams; Using mathematical ideas and techniques; Solving problems; and Using technology.

Have you ever stopped to wonder why, if they are so important, they seem to have had so little impact on schools, TAFE and firms?

Part of the problem was that the Finn Committee drew up the key competencies on the back of an envelope, without any direct consultation with employers, and on this basis sold them as the answer to young peoples' employability. It forgot to ask any real employers what they thought determined young peoples' employability, and the Mayer Committee didn't seem to think it important to do so either.

If you do ask employers what they think (particularly the smaller firms that employ the bulk of youth, rather than the large firms with "emerging" forms of work organisation envisaged by Mayer that employ relatively few), you get quite a different picture. Take for example a recent research report for DEET and Business in the Community Ltd on "Small Business Owners, Their Employment Practices and the Key Competencies" by Dave Goddard and Ken Ferguson. They found that small business owners thought the key competencies a bit divorced from what was really imnportant to them. Not to be dismissed mind you, but nowhere near as important as young people having the right attitudes and good people skills.

Late last year the Dusseldorp Skills Forum engaged in an exercise of asking employers, in a set of focus groups, what they saw as the most important attributes of young people in determining employability. We started with a blank sheet of paper, rather than giving them the key competencies and asking them what they thought. As a result of that exercise we have developed an instrument called Key Work Skills that allows young people to be rated on 15 key employability attributes. These are:

* Attendance and punctuality * Time management * Appearance and presentation * Attitude to the job * Use of English * Following directions and instructions * Honesty and trustworthiness * Initiative * Safety and equipment use * Ability to learn * Working with others * Positive self attitude * Communication and interpersonal skills* Quality of work * Supervision/reliability

They have something in common with the key competencies, but are much more practical and basic. Each item is rated on a 5 point scale with the behaviour that describe each point on the scale being defined. For example the bottom point on Attendance and punctuality is defined as "Comes late and leaves early; Late from breaks;Absent without reason" and the top point as "Always punctual;Excellent attendance;Will arrive early and stay late to get a task done". Feedback from the employers who took part in the focus groups has been very positive, and one school-industry program in NSW is currently trying key Work Skills out in the field.

If you think that this scale might be useful in your school-industry program, or perhaps in career education classes, let me know and I will send you a copy.

And what is your experience on the key to employability? Is it the Key Competencies as defined by government committees, or are there other attributes that we have forgotten to emphasise to young people as they try to find a secure spot in the labour market?

Richard Sweet
Research Coordinator
Dusseldorp Skills Forum
210 Clarence St
SYDNEY NSW 2000
Tel: (02) 267 9222
Fax: (02) 267 7882
e-mail: richard@dsf.org.au