Yes, the competency system is broken. Throw it out! I was in the education system when it came in and I have watched it progress from a system which held great hope to a system which is holding back required revolutionary change. It is a system designed for the industrial age to manufacture industry ready robots who are competent to perform a range of tasks. This doesn’t and will not work as we move into the information/digital age. I was originally very supportive of the system but all I see now is registered training organisations more concerned about paperwork, audits and ticking the boxes than how to teach and assess effectively. We have created a system that rewards a provider by being able to provide a shorter more flexible program regardless of whether it achieves any real useful learning. If you have half brain it is almost impossible to fail a competency program provided you try and retry enough times. What do you remember one year after receiving your piece of paper? Very little that is useful. What you learn is how to fit the system, answer the questions, interpret the case study using a narrow base of knowledge and write up a report which maybe completely fictional.
I don’t know what the new system is but the point of any training and learning is not to pass the assessment. It is to learn, gain experience, test your assumptions, construct a capability that will enable you to respond flexibly to a range of situations, learn how to learn and importantly let you understand what you do not know. Knowing what you don’t know is the path to development.
The competency system in operation.
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