COMPETENCE IN TRANSITION Bob Mansfield Hammerton Associates Ltd Bobmansfield@macunlimited.net Abstract The former Soviet economies have, for the past twelve years, looked to the advanced economies in the west for help in reforming their systems of vocational education and training. These ‘transition’ economies still bear much of the legacy of the previous system and culture – academic in orientation, firmly supply led and implemented through vocational schools which are in economic crisis. They are offered the western ‘consensus’ – competence based training systems and the introduction of common or ‘core’ skills. But in introducing these methods, approaches and concepts, fundamental flaws appear, flaws which have not been seriously addressed in their countries and cultures of origin. This paper tries to address the problems in dealing with concepts like ‘competence’ and ‘core skills’, and suggests that we need a coherent, grounded concept of occupational competence to replace the relatively unquestioned ‘deficiency model’ which these concepts represent. The emergence of transition economies The development of human resources is both a global and local issue. At the global level, we know about the changes in the world economy which are summed up, rather simplistically, as the phenomenon of ‘globalisation’. Within each economy, this phenomenon impacts rather differently depending on the starting point of the particular economy, the history of the society and the local culture. In the past, we thought, again rather simplistically, of the ‘three worlds’. The ‘first world’, comprised the developed economies of Europe, the Americas and the Pacific rim. The ‘second world’ was represented by the Soviet block and its satellite states, and we also spoke, rather patronisingly, of the ‘third world’ – those countries of Africa, Asia and South America which were, and which remain, to put it bluntly – poor. The political turbulence of the late 1980s and the early 1990s put paid to that convenient analysis of the world economy. Suddenly, in historical terms, the Soviet Union, the ‘second world’, fell apart and in its place we found a confusing mixture of tiny states with populations smaller than a decent sized city, contrasted with vast countries with immense land masses. What they had in common was a culture and economy which had been dominated by 70 years of centralised Soviet control, with dependent infrastructures and economies, which were left fighting to survive in the brutish face of global capitalism. A criminal act – private enterprise – replaced, overnight, the centralised five year plan of the command economy and became the new driving force for economic development. We call these economies the ‘transition’ economies – countries which are trying to develop market based economies with very little culture, history, skills or competence to achieve the transition. And because they are a key market, and because they have strategic importance to the interests of the west, and, hopefully, because we care about the consequences of the disruption, the poverty, the savings and pensions wiped out by hyperinflation, the disintegrating infrastructure – we offer some help in the form of aid. Since 1992 I have been involved in the former Soviet states, the transition economies, helping to develop human resources which are able to meet this incredible challenge. Since Competence in Transition Page 1 1998, I have worked with the European Union agency, the European Training Foundation, which seeks to help the much need reforms with aid projects which aim to rebuild the systems of vocational education and training (VET) – the system which is designed to develop competence in the occupations which form the base of the economic pyramid and which are the drivers of economic growth. This paper, which makes no claim to be academic, is, rather, a story about the ways in which we are trying to help in this process, and the shortcomings of our own systems - which are thrown into sharp relief when we try to apply them outside of the relatively wealthy, stable and developed economies for which they were designed. The VET challenge – calculation or equation? All VET systems face the challenge of matching the skills, knowledge and competence which are developed in the VET system to the needs of employment - the labour market. This ‘squaring of the labour market circle’ is a familiar issue in the developed economies as we know from the constant claims that the skills of our workforces are inadequate to meet the needs of the new, knowledge based economies. But the challenge in the former Soviet states is much greater. In the centrally planned economies, VET planning was ‘mechanical’ - a simple calculation. Because production was forecast and controlled, the numbers of people required in sectors and even specific enterprises was easy to predict. As their economies move through the transition phase, the former Soviet states are facing the problems of meeting labour market demands within the logic of a market economy – with precious few resources. Many VET schools are crumbling from neglect and lack of funding. The equipment which was already out of date in 1990 is now a further 13 years old. Curriculum reform is slow and painstaking, often meeting resistance from VET teachers schooled in the former system and reluctant to let go of their absolute authority. Changing teaching methods is a mammoth challenge. But the fundamental basis of vocational education – that of identifying and meeting the real demands of the labour market – is the most pressing need. A supply led model still dominates – with the associated assumptions that new equipment, refurbished schools, retrained teachers – all supply side factors - will hasten in economic growth. In many former Soviet states, the reality of the market economy is still not properly understood. In a market economy, the motivation to produce products and services comes from the desire to generate surplus value by producing those goods and services which customers will buy - within an environment where other companies are competing for the same customers. As customer demand fluctuates, influenced by a number of social and economic factors, the demand for the quantity of labour and particular skills and knowledge will also change. The change will impact on the economy as a whole and on individual enterprises. VET planning cannot work from a mechanical model in these circumstances - within a marketplace which is in a state of continuous change. From a simple calculation, VET planning becomes a complex equation, balancing and taking account of many factors which vary considerably in their predictability. Responding to the VET challenge The experience of the western European economies in meeting this challenge has been to improve the clarity and accuracy of the information needed for both parts of this equation. Improvements have been made in the quality of the economic and statistical information which is used to describe and predict the labour market. Improvements have also been made to the ways in which the VET system describes the learning process and the learning outcomes - so that the skills, knowledge and competence which are developed can be clearly Competence in Transition Page 2 matched to labour market needs. An important feature of this change has been the development of vocational standards (Kunzmann, Laur-Erst and Hoene, 1998) - a move away from a concern with the structure of the curriculum, the ‘supply side’ model which asks ‘what should we teach?’ towards a demand focus which asks ‘in this economy, what does the student need to learn?’. Added to this we have seen the development of those fundamental skills – core skills and key skills – which underpin occupational competence and allow for flexibility in response to change. But what are these changes which have motivated our developed economies to reform their VET systems – reform models which we now offer to our partners in transition economies? Much has been written about globalisation and the knowledge economy – and much of what has been written is vague, riddled with incomprehensible jargon and of little use to support action. I believe that the new needs of employment, which emerged in the 1970s, and still continue throughout the world, can be described quite simply. Here is a summary of the main changes and their consequences for people at work. A decline in: An increase in: the manual control of manufacturing operations - using traditional ‘craft’ skills continuous ‘mass’ production - resulting in fragmented division of labour into small tasks externally imposed quality control systems designed to identify defects monitoring and managing complex manufacturing systems, usually with a high IT and knowledge content small batch and 'batch of one' production resulting in far less division of labour and increased responsibilities internally managed quality assurance systems designed to continuously improve products and processes manufacturing systems determined by the needs of the customer and the market (the ‘customer logic’) manufacturing systems determined by the needs of the product and the production process (the ‘engineering logic’) low-cost, marginal quality, low margin products limited product ranges to maximise cost effectiveness and ease system management slow response to change - long product life with long planning and lead times an economy based on product manufacture direct and control management hierarchy high-cost, high quality, high value added products large and constantly changing product ranges to maximise customer satisfaction - resulting in complex system management rapid response to change, anticipation of change, innovation to force change - short product life with decreasing lead times an economy based on service delivery ‘flatter’ organisational structures with fewer management levels and greater responsibility devolved to practitioners The consequences are: • more multi-skilled workers are needed - people who are capable of adapting quickly to new skills demands and changing methods of work organisation; Competence in Transition Page 3 • less low skilled manual labour is needed in industry - more highly skilled labour is required, particularly at technician levels; • with the decline in traditional manual skills, more knowledge and conceptual content is needed to manage automated, computer controlled systems – computer systems also affect the service sectors; • industries which continue to rely on mass production systems with semi and unskilled labour are ‘exported’ to developing, low labour cost economies; • people increasingly become directly responsible for quality assurance and improvement and the control of their own work activities; • there is more direct contact with customers and clients, and customer service standards continue to increase; • as systems become more complex, coordination of work activity is required at every occupational level - which increases the need for effective team working and cooperation. In response to these changes, many countries in Europe have reformed their VET systems. The type of reform varies, but there are common patterns which can be identified. Here are examples of the changes that have been made in many countries (Mansfield, 2000). The change Examples Broader descriptions of occupations. There is a tendency for occupations to be grouped into broader occupational groupings or ‘families’ for training purposes - rather than narrow occupations and jobs. Because the content of jobs and work tasks change so rapidly, there is a trend for work activities to be expressed as functions or outcomes, which allows for changes in technology and work organisation. The UK method, ‘functional analysis’, was designed for this purpose. Germany describes ‘work tasks and functions’ in its training curricula. Core skills are the general requirements of employment and include the use of number, communication, problem solving, decision making and learning to learn skills. They are specified as part of the vocational curriculum to prepare people for future change and adaptability. Examples – the UK ‘Key Skills’, ‘Compétences Transversales’ in France, ‘Schlüsselqualifikationen’ (Key Qualifications) in Germany. Curricula and qualifications are broken into ‘modules’ or ‘units’ which can be combined in different ways to give flexibility in learning design. Combinations of modules can be developed to meet local, company, sector or national needs. Open and distance learning is encouraged by the development of computer technology. Work based learning, combining vocational education with on job training, becomes more important as technologies change so rapidly that vocational schools and colleges Broader descriptions of work activity. Core skills. Flexible learning design – modules. Flexible learning delivery open/distance learning and work based Competence in Transition Page 4 learning. Flexibility in the development of VET Standards. Analysis of labour market needs in terms of the content of occupations. are unable to keep pace with the rate of change. VET Standards have, in the past, been inflexible and slow to respond to changes in labour market requirements. However, there are approaches and methods which are designed to allow standards to be updated quickly. For example, German employers and trade unions, assisted by VET researchers of the Federal VET Institute (BIBB), designed four new VET Standards in less than one year in the field of Information and Communication. Although accurate statistical information is critical to VET planners, it is important to review and update the content of occupations to inform VET curriculum design. The traditional processes of VET design, focusing on the curriculum, may be too slow for periods of rapid change. This overview of economic change and the VET reforms of developed countries act as models for our colleagues in the transition economies. The modes and types of support and help vary in detail – some counties eagerly adopt the German dual system, many are inclined towards the UK NVQ model – but the common feature is that the transition economies, like the developed economies are realising that they need to move towards a competence based system of vocational education – a demand driven model to replace the school based systems modelled on traditional (general) educational practice. Let’s take a moment to think about what a competence based system of VET looks like. If we take a number of features found in all VET systems we can map them against two ‘ideal types’ – traditional, school-based systems and competence based systems. Here is a list of key features identified recently by colleagues working on a VET reform project in the Russian Federation. These features were selected for analysis as targets for reform. Vocational standards Assessment Certification Length of training programme Syllabus/curriculum model Delivery of training Methods of training Now we can characterise them against the ideal types: Vocational Standards (major content) Assessment Certification Length of training programme Syllabus/curriculum model Delivery of training Methods of training Competence in Transition Competence Based VET Needs of employment (performance based) Can/do – Can’t do yet (Go – No Go system) Modular accreditation Flexible – depends on needs Traditional VET Educational requirements, procedures and regulations Grading, scales, pass, fail Modular Courses – whole programmes within defined occupations Institution based Traditional, lectures, show/tell, Multiple methods and locations Active, learner centred, self Diploma Fixed period Page 5 managed and project based demonstrations In competence based systems, the focus is on students, learners and employment needs. In the traditional model, the focus is on institutions, civil servants and teachers. The chart is also a good example of the difference between demand and supply led training. So what have we got so far? We know that the global economy is changing – and we know that transition economies have to ‘leapfrog’ the 30 years of painstaking development in developed economies to meet international standards and economic demands. That’s hard enough! We also know that there are a number of consistent responses in VET systems to global economic change. Finally, we can sum all this up in the attractive sounding term ‘competence based training’. Introducing competence based systems in transition economies – a legacy of confusion Since 1998 I have been involved in reform projects in a number of transition economies where the competence based message has underpinned our work. In 1999 I worked with ETF on the ‘Standards 2000 project’ in which eight former Soviet states developed VET standards which were more closely linked to the labour market. In many projects our partners have recognised the importance of core/key skills – I have just completed some work in Kazakhstan in which we identified a list of core ‘learning outcomes’ which have been incorporated into work related activities which develop core skills within the context of technical training. There are many success stories, but most, if not all, have been achieved through a fog of cultural clashes and sheer misunderstanding. And that misunderstanding is down to us, not them. Just consider for a moment two of the key terms which drive VET reform – competence and core skills. Lets’ start with ‘competence’ – and beware, for we are about to open Pandora’s box! First of all, we are still beset with debates over narrow and broad views of competence. A narrow view of competence is based on the idea that efficiency and effectiveness involves little more than following rules and procedures and performing limited and routine tasks. It is typical of mass production industries and highly bureaucratised administrative systems. It is also typical of a very limited and narrow view of people. This view of competence prevailed in industries which were dominated by mass production, engineered production systems, piece rates, short job cycles. It was favoured in de-skilled administrative and retail environments as well. Competent people were those who followed rules and procedures without question – competence meant compliance. The focus in VET was on developing specific occupational skills and instruction in isolated tasks which were identified and standardised through task analysis. This approach has recently reemerged in the blossoming call centres where customer service has now been placed on a production line. A broad view of competence co-existed with the narrow model. The broad view suggests that people need to take more responsibility within the work environment - variously described as ‘flexibility’, ‘adaptability’, ‘multi-skilling’ and ‘versatility’ – the characteristics I have previously ascribed to changes in the economy and which is reflected in the general trend to develop occupational breadth. It is the concept which those involved in the VET business assume to be the basis of a competence based system. The problem is that nobody told the training instructors, the traditional curriculum designers and the existing VET schools and colleges about this shift in meaning and intention. Well into the 1980s, VET students and apprentices were still being trained and educated using methods which were entirely appropriate for the economic realities of the Competence in Transition Page 6 1960s – a narrow view of competence involving instruction in routine tasks and isolated technical skills. But the realities of economic change could no longer be delivered through instruction in manual tasks. As economies changed, attention turned to ‘higher level’ work roles – those involving greater responsibility and accountability and which could not be described adequately using the narrow model. This led to the view that there needed to be two ways of describing competence - one for narrow and routine jobs and the other for broader and more responsible jobs. The ‘competency’ (personal characteristics) approach quickly filled the gap by claiming ownership of managerial and professional occupations. Various attempts have been made to broaden the description of competence. The Job Competence Model (Mansfield and Mitchell, 1996) is one, as are the various versions of core and key skills which are added to the routine technical skills to account for the deficit implicit in the narrow view of competence. But the problem lies deeper. The fact is that the very term ‘competent’ creates confusion. In the UK, for example, it is used in five different ways: Competent (adjective): As in ‘a competent person’. In this context, competent means the ability to perform to the requirements of employment. Particular sectors and industries often have an implicit concept of what competent performance means for particular occupational groups. Consequently, ‘competent’ is often taken to imply a minimum level of performance across a very narrow range of activities, such as in the use of the terms ‘barely competent’ or ‘threshold competence’. By contrast the concept can also mean the ability to meet ‘best practice’ requirements. Competence (noun): the state of being competent - in English usage, can only be used as part of a noun phrase - eg ‘management competence’, ‘the competence of a manager’. Competence/s (noun): a task which someone performs (US usage). Competence/ies (noun): An underlying characteristic of a person which results in effective or superior performance. This refers to specific behaviour and may be expressed as a motive, trait, skill, aspect of self image, social role or body of knowledge which is applied. Widely used in American and UK literature on management training. Competence/s (noun): The term originally used to describe an element of competence (a competence ...) in the UK. Superseded by the terms ‘outcome’, ‘standard’ and ‘element of competence’ - but still used (even by the UK VET agency, QCA!). So we have five terms are trying to describe, using the same grammatical root, three quite different things. A hotch potch of behavioural, holistic and psycho/social models which are essentially contradictory which are expressing (Mansfield, 1999): outcomes - or vocational standards which describe what people need to do in employment tasks that people do - they describe what happens - now personal traits or characteristics which describe what people are like Small wonder there is confusion! And this confusion, unexplored, unresolved, even in our own systems, is then exported to transition economies as the basis for country wide reform programmes. Competence in Transition Page 7 Now let us consider the second icon of VET reform in developed economies – core skills. Here I will nail my colours to the mast and risk charges of heresy. My belief is that the concept of core skills comes from a profoundly reactionary, deficiency model of competence. The deficiency model of occupational competence argues that merely describing specific occupational skills and the performance of tasks is inadequate to meet the demands of broader, changing work roles – in short, it is deficient. What is needed are the occupational skills plus ‘something else’. The exact nature of the ‘something else’ was a key topic for educational research during the 1970s and 80s. The search was on for additional skills to ‘bolt on’ to the occupational skills. The solution, common to almost all VET systems is the concept of core skills. This model is attractive, particularly to our partners in transition economies. The concept of core skills seems to offer almost a holy grail, a single ‘magic bullet’ which will immediately transform VET systems. Now if you thought that the term ‘competence’ was a Pandora’s box, then meet the can of worms! What, our partners might reasonably ask, are these ‘core skills’ on which so many hopes and ambitions are based? Let’s start with the statement that core skills are all the skills which are not specific technical or occupational skills. Then we can look at the different ways in which such skills are described and categorised – here are some of them: Basic skills Broad skills Common learning outcomes Common skills Core skills Employment (or employability) skills Enterprise skills Entrepreneurial skills Extra functional skills Generic skills Key qualifications Key skills Life skills Non technical skills Personal competences Personal effectiveness Personal skills Process skills Process independent skills Soft skills Social competence Social and life skills Transferable skills Transversal competences To make life even more complicated each category can vary depending on who developed it – ie there are different version of core skills, personal effectiveness etc. There is considerable consensus – but there is also enough variation to cause confusion. For example, the UK developed a list of core skills in the early 1980s to support a national training programme. Core skills were developed by consulting with employers in the five areas of: Competence in Transition Page 8 Application of Number Communications Problem Solving and Decision Making Practical Skills Information Technology. Thirty five sub categories were developed containing a total of 103 core skills – phrased as learning outcomes – eg ‘plan the order in which work is to be carried out’. This list was used in foundation training programmes up until the early 1990s. The UK agency, QCA, also has a list of core skills – but they are different. There are six sub categories; Application of Number Communications Problem Solving Working with others Improving learning and performance Information Technology … and they are at four different levels – with 216 core skill statements in all. They are also phrased as learning outcomes – eg ‘listen and respond appropriately to what others say’. In 1997, QCA changed the title from ‘core skills’ to ‘key skills’ – but Scotland (part of the UK) changed the categories slightly and kept the term ‘core skills’. So in one country there are three official versions of core skills with two different titles! But the plethora of different categories is only part of the problem. If we look at the lists of skills which have been developed we find that, as with the concept of ‘competence’, they mix up different things. Here, for example, is an extract from a list which is described as ‘skills for self employment’ (Shaw, 1998): Communication Information processing Adaptability Languages Initiative and creativity Critical ability (reasoning) Rights and duties of a citizen and consumer These are different things. Communicating, information processing and speaking a foreign language are things that people are able to do. Adaptability could be a skill or an aspect of personality. Initiative and creativity are personal qualities. Critical ability (reasoning) is an intellectual ability. Rights and duties of a citizen and consumer is knowledge. This list also shows another problem with many core skill lists – the descriptions are extremely vague and generalised. What, for example, does ‘communication’ mean? Communicate with whom, using what methods, for what purpose? So we have two fundamental concepts – ‘competence’ and ‘core skills’ which are ambiguous and cause confusion because they are used to describe quite different aspects of behaviour. Now translate these innocent sounding terms into Russian – and then try to Competence in Transition Page 9 convince your partners that these are clear and unambiguous concepts which will be used as the foundation for a VET reform programme! Back to basics These difficulties and ambiguities in the language we use to describe VET systems are not unknown. But it is in the application of these concepts in transition economies that they are thrown into sharp relief. Our partners in the transition economies need our help, and what they expect is a degree of certainty in the processes and systems which we offer them. Imagine if the same degree of confusion and ambiguity were to exist in other areas in which we offer aid and support. Can we imagine working in the financial management sector and having to admit that fundamental terms like ‘balance sheet’ and ‘cash flow’ had five different meanings, or that there were twenty different approaches to auditing. In our worthy attempt to develop a system of VET which is based on the real needs of employment, what we have done is to take a model based on past practices and try to modify it to meet new economic circumstances. We have taken the assumptions of task based instruction, a model suited to the ‘Taylorist’ notions of division of labour, and ‘bolted on’ some additional skills – the core skills – to correct the deficit. My proposition is that we revisit the notion of competence. In essence, we know what we mean by a competence based system of education and training – it is one which is geared to meeting the current and future needs of the labour market. I have already suggested some ways to characterise those needs – what we now need is to translate those needs into a model of competence. Some years ago, I, together with my colleague Lindsay Mitchell, proposed an approach called the Job Competence Model (Mansfield and Mathews, 1985, Mansfield and Mitchell, 1996). This approach side-steps the ‘additional skills’ debate by simply asking ‘what is the competent person expected to be able to do in the modern work environment?’. Based on an analysis of economic and social change, the Job Competence Model proposes that there are four interrelated aspects of occupational competence, all of which are present in all work activity - the components are described as: 1 Technical expectations - achieving the expectations of the work role which characterise the occupation (eg producing manufactured items, processing information, promoting health, treating illness). 2 Managing contingencies - recognising and resolving potential and actual breakdowns in processes and procedures (this may include coping with emergencies). 3 Managing different work activities - achieving balance and coordinating a number of different and potentially conflicting activities to lead to the successful conclusion of aims and goals. 4 Managing the interface with the work environment - achieving the expectations which arise from natural constraints, the quality measures which are applied, the nature of work organisation and the nature of working relationships. This is a much simplified version of the full model - but the intent is clear. The Job Competence Model applies to all work roles - the significance of each component may vary but managing contingency and coordinating different work activities is as important to a garment assembler as it is to a factory manager. It is also based firmly on a view of what work roles should be like. When first developed, some people complained that it was far in Competence in Transition Page 10 excess of what was expected for many industrial and service workers - who were not expected to resolve breakdowns or balance different activities. The Job Competence Model proposes that this is inadequate for a modern economy - that this is precisely what it means to be flexible and adaptable. There are other models available – in Germany for example, there is a ‘holistic’ model of a skilled worker which describes work roles in terms of an entire activity cycle, from planning, through resource allocation, execution of the activity, evaluation, review and monitoring. To meet the competitive demands of our economy, our view of competence needs to be firmly based on a broad and strategic view of the competent workforce, one which can be converted in into practical approaches which will lead to improvement and development - not a replication of a former world and outdated concepts which we already know to be inadequate. And it is this kind of approach which we need to offer to our colleagues and partners in the transition economies. They are struggling with vast reform programmes which overturn the entire base of their educational systems, they are fighting against entrenched attitudes and values, they are starved of funding and resources. They want to move forward into the twenty-first century – and they need the tools to do it. They need the best we have to offer – not our outdated goods. They deserve no less. References De Grip, A. (1998) ‘Labour market forecasts on behalf of the vocational education and training system’, Linking Labour Market Analysis and Vocational Training, European Training Foundation, Turin, 1998. Kunzmann, M., Laur-Erst, U. and Hoene H (1998) Development of standards in vocational education and training, European Training Foundation, Turin,1998. Mansfield, B. and Mathews, D, (1985) The Components of Job Competence, Further Education Staff College, Blagdon,1985. Mansfield, B. and Mitchell, L. (1996) Towards a Competent Workforce, Gower, Aldershot, 1996. Mansfield, B. (2000) ‘The Impact of Labour Market Information on VET Standards’ Qualification and Training Methods – Manual Volume 3 - The Labour Market and VET Standards, European Training Foundation, Turin, June 2000. Mansfield, B. (1999a) ‘What is Competence all About’, Competency: The Quarterly Journal, Spring 1999 Mansfield, B. (1999b) ‘What Competence is all About’, Competency: The Quarterly Journal, Summer 1999. Shaw, S. (1998) Development of Core Skills Training in Partner Countries, European Training Foundation, Turin, 1998. Competence in Transition Page 11