Competence management system design in international multicultural environment: Registration, transfer, recognition and transparency

Introduction

A competence management system (CMS) was devised to assist the registration of competencies in the textile and clothing sector, starting in the four EU countries of Portugal, Slovenia, the UK and Denmark, further leading to the European network. This paper presents the design and development framework assisting international multicultural environments at the system, organisational and individual levels. Education and training providers are facing demands of the industry and labour markets internationally. The CMS is assisting the transparency, recognition, mobility and partnership between education and training providers, the industry and stakeholders at the international level. The main user groups consist of educational and training institutions, employers, industry, technological centres, job agencies, chambers, associations, policy makers, teachers, students and workers jobseekers. There is a constant demand to align the required (by employers) and acquired competencies (by jobseekers).

Organisations are using CMS as a diagnostic tool in identifying competencies in order to assess the assets and configure resources. Employers are defining competences and applying them to match availabilities and flexibilities within organisation and assessing their needs on the labour market. CMS assists dynamic nature of organisational external environment and its own internal processes enabling an organisation to maintain its capabilities and assets (Sanchez, 2004).

Vocational education and training providers respond to changing demands with competence-based curriculum as main competitive advantage (Sturing, Biemans, Mulder & Bruijn, 2011).

CMS design integrates the competence framework, e-mentoring system and vocational education and training courses defined by competences. Courses are offered in the case of low competence profile. E-mentoring is recognised as the main enabler in personalised competence profile design. Further e-mentoring facilitates the design of individualised study plan, leading to match the acquired versus required competences. For jobseekers, CMS supports competence profiles design and individualised study planning. E-mentoring system was designed as the leading feature of CMS for professional guidance devising CMS. Individuals are designing personalised study plans in order to select the appropriate training, leading them to match their acquired competences to required competences of the labour market.

Competencies are not a fixed set of skills, but rather represent a dynamic combination of abilities, skills and knowledge. Competencies are context-dependent and reflect a person's potential as realised in the different contexts. The expansion and application of knowledge in the work process and changing demands in the labour market impact the competence identification and registration (Istenic Starcic, 2011). There is constant mismatch between an individual and the environment (labour market, industry employers). Fast development of the textile and clothing sector demands the sustainable development of formal and informal competencies of employees. The initial education and further professional development are aligning processes of needs assessment and competence identification and registration, which provide a framework for education and training. The competence-based education had received criticism when its product orientation is neglecting process orientation in teaching and learning (Malone & Supri, 2010). The CMS supporting teaching and learning processes support the competence development from both the process and from the product-outcome level. CMS assists vocational education and training in responsive and efficient needs assessment providing competence registration, transfer and transparency in the international environment.

CMS provides connection between internal dimension of competencies (individual characteristics) and external dimension reflecting demands of working process (Witt & Lehman, 2001). Berio and Harzallah (2007) distinguish four classes of competences: identification, competence assessment, competence acquisition and competence usage. The CMS design developed within TC4ME project is presented in Figure 1. The presentation of Slovenian fashion designer profile is compared with UK fashion designer profile in Figure 2.

Method

The research questions include:

Instrument of evaluation was a questionnaire consisting of the Likert-type scale, a check list and of open questions, and was distributed among the participants in the period between February 2011 and October 2011. The 5-point Likert-type scale ranged from 5—strongly agree, 4—agree, 3—neutral, 2—disagree to 1—strongly disagree.

Seventy participants in total were involved in the evaluation: 35 students, 13 jobseekers, 10 industry professionals and 12 teachers.

Results

How does CMS support and improve the competence management in professional environment is presented in Figure 3. The evaluation presented consists of the following items: diagnosis of overall organisational competence, registration of employee's personal competences, e-tutoring provides clear guidance, matching acquired versus required competences is provided, CMS provides the design of personal profile, CMS assists individualised study planning.

In Figure 4, CMS navigation is evaluated by students, jobseekers, industry professionals and teachers. The overall evaluation of CMS navigation presented consists of the following items: registration of an employee's personal competences, e-tutoring, matching the acquired versus required competences, design of personal profile and design of individualised study planning.

In Figure 5, the findings of evaluation of different features of the CMS are presented. All the users marked on a scale from 5 (strongly agree) to 1 (strongly disagree), how they agree or disagree with the statement: Specific features of CMS are very useful for individuals and organisations. The users found the personal competence profile and matching the acquired versus required competences very useful. There followed the e-mentoring and course and training descriptions. Competence framework providing the basis for a system to operate for the different user groups was found less useful by the users.

Discussion and conclusion

Providing individuals with the CMS during the process of initial education and further professional development assists them in their planning and performance. For individual users, CMS has proven to be very effective in providing the overall status of competence profile and professional development needs. For jobseekers, the system provides a transparent process and the communication with the job agency and potential employers. The most important roles and functions of the CMS found by educational and training organisations include the improvement of planning and organisation of professional learning, and a more efficient and transparent individual student support. At the organisational level of employers, the identified functions include the improved overall knowledge management, and a more efficient competence needs assessment and transparent exchange within the larger environment and labour market. As regards the system level, the competence framework at the national level, and the transparency and recognition at the international level, had proven to be efficient at application in the labour market.