1.3.1 International approaches to competency development of managers and leaders
Research shows that competency-based approaches to training, assessment and human resource activities (i.e. recruitment, selection, etc.) have been in evidence within organisations since the early 1970s. They are no less prevalent today. While the approaches to implementing competencies usually vary depending on the consultants and the organisational needs, in the 1990s the emergence of formal, national strategies to implement competency-based systems began to have a profound influence on the field of research.
Beginning in the mid-1980s England and Wales started what became codified into the United Kingdom 's National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs) system. After examining development in the UK and Europe, New Zealand established a competency-based training agenda under the National Qualifications Framework. After its 1998-1990 European fact-finding taskforce missions returned (TAMOMS-DEET, 1991) Australia also establish a blueprint for a vocational education and training framework based on competency standards. In the same 1989-1992 period the Secretary's Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills (see SCANS at http://wdr.doleta.gov/SCANS/ ) and the National Skills Standards were advanced in the United States . The appearance of the agendas varied from identifying less than a dozen core or key competencies that all entrants to the labour market should hold, to a complete competency-based framework for reforming education, vocational training and industrial productivity.
Wide-ranging advances were made in Australia , New Zealand and the UK by tying competency development to qualifications, workforce mobility, industrial reform and economic growth. Subsequently, a number of other countries began to drive national training reforms based on a competency approach. Table 1 indicates some of these countries.
Table 1 Countries adopting national competency-based training systems (2000)
| Major Imperative | Evolving Imperative |
England and Wales/United Kingdom |
The European Union |
The approaches to competencies at a national level did enforce some reconsideration of how competencies were framed, grouped and managed. While the literature from the relevant countries on how their approaches are undertaken abounds, the focus for this section is on the foundations of competence that can inform a concept of capability.
Advocates for competency-based approaches to training and HR classically embrace it because it sets a defined standard for both learning and performance outcomes. This outcome is independent of the person, job and situation. As such, there is clarity as to what individuals need to know and do. The consistency of the descriptions and their classification (job families, levels of performance, or such like) also permits mobility between jobs, locations and courses that use competencies. Once a standard of competence has been set this standard becomes the consistent basis for assessment.
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