Publish at May 21 2017 Updated February 23 2023
With respect to what a competency is, one may question the validity of programs that have put forward forms of instruction that claim to develop competencies.
Knowledge acquisition, whether conducted under the guidance of socioconstructivism or not, is far from meeting the criteria of competence. Developing know-how, that is, competent action, seems to apply only to actions taken in different contexts and professional situations.
The alternation between reflection on the action and the action itself poses the challenge of being able to analyze the practice and reinvest the fruit of the analysis in a subsequent practice. This whole process requires a lucid look at the methods of professional training and the process of socialization they involve.
The know-how of professionals, their skills, their capacities for induction and deduction are what we might call their competences. These are recognized and sanctioned by their peers and are based on a frame of reference developed on the basis of evaluation. Their competent action is the result of training spread over several years and produced on the basis of an alternation between reflective analysis of practice and practice itself.
We cannot, therefore, expect to develop competence through theoretical lectures and schoolwork, where only particular criteria are measurable. Yet competence is only developed in a real work situation, and in a context where the actor (also the novice, the beginner) exercises his skills in the production of a result that is more or less affected by the evaluation.
Most, if not all, professions now base their training on a process of professional insertion. During internship periods, prior to their official entry into the profession, students are welcomed into their future practice setting.
From this moment on, a process of observation and reflection begins that should lead the student to perform actions directly related to professional tasks. The following graphic illustrates a process of becoming aware of the issues of professional practice:
This is a reflective process for the induction student, as much as for the experienced professional, where action becomes a source of learning.
The set of acts performed in connection with one's profession, whether reflected or not, constitutes a material that the future professional "internalizes" as a fabric from which to abstract meaning. This is how the dynamic linking action, meaning and consciousness is constructed. An indistinct space is created where the actor will legitimately take actions sanctioned by his profession (externalization), actions for which he will have to account to his peers.
But where does competence lie in this dynamic? It is found in the quality of the gestures performed resulting not only from awareness but also from the sanction of the environment. The training course is therefore an accompanied course.
The training course is an accompanied course.
Beyond the initial training constituted by theoretical courses that deliver to the student a baggage of essential knowledge, it is the internships in the professional environment that will offer the student the opportunity to develop skills. The internships are recognized by the professional environment that welcomes and advises, are supervised most of the time by academics, and allow the practice to beginners by accompanying them more closely, often by digital mediatization.
.An important part of the internship activity is given to reflexivity, thus to the analysis of lived practices in order to identify the exact nature of the stakes of the professional action. It is on this basis that the knowledge-action is developed, over a more or less long period of time during which the professional will go back and forth between his practice and his reflection.
This article has focused on reflexivity among professionals or future professionals as an essential skill for practice. In the broader sense of competency, and with respect to all occupations, the Canadian government publishes essential skills profiles; over 350 profiles are described based on chosen careers.
This site is rich in information on the essential skills of professionals and future professionals.
This site is rich in information for anyone wishing to not only direct a career but also initiate appropriate training. The levels of task complexity are described to clearly distinguish the appreciable differences between occupations (or trades).
The site is rich in information for anyone wishing not only to orient a career but also to initiate appropriate training.
Online tools to accelerate the transition from training to coaching - Denis Cristol - Thot Cursus
http://cursus.edu/dossiers-articles/articles/27715/les-outils-ligne-pour-accelerer-passage
Exploring careers by occupational skills - Job Bank - Canada
https://www.guichetemplois.gc.ca/ce_tous-fra.do?lang=fra
Gerald B. The competency-based approach in education: a paradigmatic amalgam. Connections 2004/1 (no. 81), pp. 25-41.
http://www.cairn.info/revue-connexions-2004-1-page-25.htm
Nonaka I., Takeuchi H. 1997. Creative knowledge - The dynamics of the learning enterprise, Brussels: De Boek.
Wittorski, R. 2007. From the making of competencies. From: http://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/docs/00/17/26/96/PDF/art-edpte-135.pdf
Wittorski, T. 2008.Professionalizing training: Issues, modalities, difficulties. Formation emploi : Revue française de sciences sociales, no.101.
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