Competency-based education has become a hot topic in higher education circles these days -- it is becoming increasingly popular as the country searches f...
May 24th 2018 - In my research in learning more about adult education, I came across something that really spoke to me: Competency-based education. Moving away from the traditional teaching methods, competency-based education supports a structure that is more flexible by allowing the learner to demonstrate mastery at that specific topic before moving on to the next level, all at their own pace (Mendenhall 2012).
As a student myself, flexibility is often one of the main deciding factors in whether or not I will take a program at a place. If an institution takes my previous education into consideration, I’m more likely to do a program with them as it allows me to save extra time and money. My situation is most likely similar to many people around me; they can utilize their previous experiences and life skills and challenge certain courses and move on to other courses that is of use to them to gain a higher earning potential and better life (Mendenhall 2012).
Looking at this from the perspective of an organizational trainer, competency-based education serves many benefits for employers. Not only is it productive and cost effective, but it is efficient as trainers enables employees to achieve the required competency required to do the task. I remember sitting in training classes before where I can clearly see a peer is lost and confused with the coursework and is being dragged through the training. When it came time for the application or testing this person did not do well.
In traditional training environments, an instructor may teach a class covering the job tasks that a staff is required to do in a certain role. For example, I remember when I first started my job at the airport; it was a three week long program that covered everything from how to use the program to check in someone, to make flight changes and then also learning how to do a gate. Some people barely understood the check in process, let alone the different buttons and steps and rules required to do a flight change. As an instructor utilizing competency-based education, this would have been rolled out in different steps where students would have to demonstrate mastery and understanding before moving on. For example, they would need to demonstrate they know how to check in a guest first before they would move on to the more advance and technical aspects of changing flights and such.
What this means to me as a trainer is that you are providing a unique personalized experience for the student. While it may be easier to teach the whole program in one go to the class, it is neither effective nor productive. A trainer utilizing competency based education needs to be transparent with the expectation, the evaluation that will be done and the progressions of the next steps. Feedback and communication will be important as we set the direction for employees in what they need to learn the skills required for the job. By using competency based education, we also give people the opportunity to be in control of their future, for example, those who want to advance we can also provide the next set of competencies to advance in their careers.
