A Competency-Based Model to Bridge the Gap between Academic Trainings and Industrial Trades

Abstract

Within today's European socioeconomic context, supporting careers choices and occupational integration has become a major challenge. Education has to fit the changes of industry and job market, but this process requires a unified representation of professions and training programs. The competency concept appears to be a common vector, since it has turned to be a pervasive idea. Although industry has started specifying trades through competencies, similar attempts are not initiated for education yet. In this paper, we present a unifying model for training programs, professions and learners, built around competencies. Based on this model, several tools have been developed to help (1) educational teams to make sure that conceptions of curriculum fit the targeted learning objectives, (2) learners to make their careers choices through life easier, (3) industrial actors to identify training programs matching with their needs.