The C-Stick project: innovative practices for assessing key competencies

• Background or context

JES is a plural non-profit organisation. Its mission is to create equal opportunities for young people to

actively participate in society. JES is based in three Belgian cities: Brussels, Antwerp and Ghent. Its

main activities include training and guidance, training for youth work volunteers, outreach work,

support for youth clubs and youth work initiatives, … These activities focus on young people, living in

large cities, between 6 and 30 years old, of whom a lot are low-skilled and with migrant background.

In 2006-2007 JES carried out the C-stick project. One of the main objectives of this project was to

develop a competence framework and tools for self-, peer and expert assessment of key competencies.

An important criterion for this framework was accessibility for a low-skilled target group, so very

simple and straightforward vocabulary was used. A second criterion was that it should be usable in

different settings (leisure time activities, training, job counselling), regardless professions or sectors.

• Objectives

It’s often stated that it is impossible to measure or assess competencies regardless a specific profession

or sector. In the actual debate the focus of attention is put on the context in which a competency is

developed. Nevertheless, transferability from one setting to another is one of the preliminaries of the

competency concept and underpins the idea of lifelong and life wide learning.

Since we wanted to make a framework that would be usable in all our activities (leisure time, training

and job counselling), we tried to create tools that would make it possible to assess competencies in a

‘neutral’ context, regardless a specific profession or sector.

In our presentation we want to present our framework and assessment tools, comment on their

strengths and weaknesses and feed the ongoing debate on the importance of context versus

transferability with some practical experiences.

• Summary of results

The competence framework we developed consists of a set of 16 key competencies that was selected

on the basis of a small survey with employers. The selected competencies were:

1. Cooperating

2. Speaking

3. Listening

4. Flexibility

5. Planning and

organising

6. Learning

7. Giving feedback

8. Handle feedback

9. Self-reflection

10. Networking

11. Handle authority

12. Respect rules

13. Handle clients

14. Taking initiative

15. Act independently

16. Empathizing

For these competencies observable performance indicators were defined and tested. The performance

indicators consist of very simple and straightforward statements on behaviour that is shown during a

practical exercise and indicates the level of development of a competency. See examples below.

Are you good at cooperating? - Are you able to obtain a good result together with others, for example in an organisation or a team. Are you also able to do so if you don’t

get any personal advantages?

Yes Only if they ask

me to No

I tell what I’m good at and what I would like to do � � �

I ask the others what they’re good at and what they would like to do � �

I take into account what others are good at and would like to do � � �

I do my work without disturbing others � � �

I do my work in such a way that others benefit from it � � �

I do what we agreed to do � � �

Yes Only if they ask

me to No

I tell about my progress and the problems I meet � � �

I ask the others how they progress and what problems they meet � �

I adapt my way of working if others meet problems or finish their work sooner or later � � �

I give clues to the others � � �

I ask clues from the others � �

If I get a clue, I try to apply it in my work � � �

Yes Only if they ask

me to No

I help the others, even if it’s not my job � � �

I tell what goes right or wrong to improve our cooperation � �

I tell the others if they did a good job � �

Are you good at listening? - Do you understand most of the time what others tell you?

- Do you then know what to do?

Yes No

I turn myself to the speaker � �

I look the speaker in the eyes � �

Yes No

I ask for an explanation if I don’t understand something � �

I show that I understood the explanation (fe. I nod or say mmmm) � �

I understand what I have to do after an explanation � �

Yes No

I let the speaker finish his explanation � �

I listen to the speaker, even if I totally disagree � �

I only ask questions if I really don’t understand something � �

I only ask questions that are related to the explanation � �

We use group dynamic exercises to assess the key competencies, because these exercises don’t have a

link with a specific sector or profession and are very attractive and funny for young people. In the

mean time they provide a lot of observation material on certain key competencies. While young people

participate in these exercises, they are observed by an assessor, who notes down everything he

observes. Afterwards the assessor uses the set of performance indicators to assess the level of

development of a certain competency using his notes.

Some illustrations and an example of exercises:

Exercise: blind meeting

The group has to wait outside. Tables and chairs are randomly placed in the room.

The participants may enter the room once they are blindfolded. During the exercise they are

not allowed to withdraw the blindfold.

CHALLENGE: Enter the room and make a square out of tables in the middle of the room.

Place all the chairs around the tables. If you think you are ready, you all sit down on the

chairs.

This exercise is a very interesting exercise to assess ‘cooperating’.

These competency assessments were used in different settings: in leisure time activities and training at

JES and in job counselling at the Flemish Employment service (VDAB). Some schools also used it for

a competency screening at the start of the school year.

Of course the exercises that are used and the way feedback is given, differs from one setting to

another.

• Conclusions and recommendations

We think key competency assessment regardless a specific sector or profession is indeed possible and

might have several advantages that are crucial to lifelong and life wide learning:

- Enhance social orientation

- Create a link between different settings (leisure time activities, training, job counselling)

through a shared terminology and by doing so encourage APEL (Accreditation of prior

experiential learning)

- Create an integrated learning experience (people realise that they develop the same

competencies in different contexts)

We therefore think the ongoing debate should not only focus on the importance of context, but should

also clarify the idea of transferability. Concrete experiments will be needed to do so. We think it

would be beneficial to develop a shared terminology with shared performance indicators. It would be

an interesting exercise to agree on a set of ‘neutral’ performance indicators (regardless sector or

profession) and see whether it is possible to ‘translate’ this common set to the specific context and

needs of sectors and professions. Such a framework would improve transferability of competencies

from one setting to another and therefore enhance accreditation of prior experiential learning and

facilitate career transitions.

At JES, we made a start to test this hypothesis: we set up a cooperation with the Flemish Employment

Service (VDAB) and tried to agree on a competence framework. VDAB uses specific frameworks for

each sector (taking into account specific sectors). We are now trying to integrate the different

frameworks, but this exercise is still in an experimental stage. We hope to be able to set up future

experiments to provide an answer to the following questions:

− Is it useful to assess key competencies as such or is this only useful in view of a specific

profession?

− Do our assessments (based on group dynamic exercises) have a predictive value for performance

on key competencies in work settings?

− Do our assessments proof that someone ‘meets the standards’ of a specific profession or do they

only reveal strengths and talents of people (indicative value)?