Imparting knowledge is important - but it is not enough for successful further training in the company. Your employees may have understood a topic and passed a knowledge test, yet still struggle to apply what they have learned in a new work situation.
This is exactly where competence development begins: employees must try out knowledge, gain experience, identify mistakes, and reflect on their actions. Only then does the ability to independently master new and complex situations increasingly develop.
For your further training, this means: Do not only plan what knowledge you want to convey, but also how your employees can develop actual skills from it.
What does competence development mean?
Competency involves more than available knowledge. The decisive factor is whether your employees can use this knowledge to overcome specific challenges and remain capable of acting even in new situations.
The educational researcher Werner Sauter describes competencies accordingly as abilities with which people can find their way in complex and dynamic situations in a self-organized and creative manner.
For company further training, this results in an important difference:
Information → Knowledge → Application → Experience → Competency
An example: Imagine that an employee learns various methods for difficult employee appraisals in a leadership training course. After the training, they can explain the methods and perhaps also answer questions about them correctly.
Whether they can handle it competently, however, only becomes apparent in everyday work: Can they select the appropriate method for a specific situation? Can they react if the conversation goes differently than expected? And can they then use their experience to act better during the next conversation?
Competence therefore does not arise solely through the absorption of information, but your employees need opportunities to apply, practice, and reflect.
How to support competence development in further training
When you plan further training, the transfer of knowledge should only be one part of the learning process. Additionally, create opportunities with which your employees can apply and further develop what they have learned.
1. Make knowledge available as needed
Not all knowledge needs to be stored in the head. Provide relevant learning content in such a way that your employees can access it during a specific task. Short, clearly structured digital learning units, for example, are suitable as support directly in everyday work.
2. Integrate application into the learning process
Give your employees specific tasks where they apply new knowledge in their actual work. Practical projects, case studies, or small transfer tasks bridge the gap between learning and acting.
3. Enable exchange with others
Competence development does not have to take place alone: Colleagues can share experiences, develop solutions together, and learn from each other. Learning groups, tandems, or digital exchange opportunities support this social learning.
4. Encourage reflection in a targeted manner
Experience alone does not automatically lead to competence. It is also important to think about your own application: What worked? Where were there difficulties? What would I do differently next time?
You can support such reflection processes, for example, with regular questions, feedback sessions, or short learning diaries.
5. Accompany learning over a longer period of time
Competence development does not end with the completion of a course. If employees are to develop new behavior, they need time for application, experience, and repetition.
Therefore, even after the actual knowledge transfer, plan learning impulses, practical phases, and opportunities for feedback.
What role do L&D and managers play?
When further training aims at competence development, the role of L&D also changes. It is not enough to provide learning content and then document course completion.
Instead, consider how the entire learning process supports your employees in their actions. This includes suitable learning content as well as practical tasks, exchange, feedback, and reflection.
Managers can also play an important role here. They can give employees the opportunity to try out new skills in everyday work, provide feedback, and reflect together on the experiences they have made.
A learning platform or a Learning Management System can support this process by making learning content available over a longer period, connecting different learning activities with one another, and integrating further training into everyday work.
Crucial remains, however: The learning platform enables competence development. It does not automatically generate it. For that, employees must actually apply what they have learned.
Why competence development needs more than knowledge transfer
Especially digital further training makes it easy today to make knowledge available to many employees. Videos, learning modules, quizzes, and other formats can efficiently convey information and test understanding.
But a passed knowledge test does not yet answer the question of whether an employee can apply what they have learned in a real situation. If your learning goal is genuine active competency, you should therefore think further during the design stage:
Where can your employees try out what they have learned?
What experiences should they gather?
Where do they receive feedback?
And how do they reflect on their application?
In this way, further training evolves from pure knowledge transfer to a learning process that supports changes in everyday work.
Conclusion
Competence development turns knowledge into the ability to act: employees must apply what they have learned, gain experience, and reflect on their actions to be able to independently handle new situations as well.
Therefore, do not plan further training only around content and course completions. Specifically create opportunities for practice, exchange, feedback, and reflection, and accompany learning beyond the actual knowledge transfer.
The goal of successful competence development is not that employees know more, but that they can act better with their knowledge in real and new situations.
Frequently Asked Questions and Answers
What does competence development mean?
Competence development describes the process in which employees do not just absorb knowledge, but apply it, gain experience, and further develop their ability to act as a result. The goal is to be able to independently handle new and complex situations as well.
What is the difference between knowledge and competence?
Knowledge means knowing and understanding information and contexts. Competence, on the other hand, is demonstrated by being able to use this knowledge appropriately in specific situations and transfer it to new challenges.
How can companies promote the competence development of their employees?
Companies can promote competence development by combining knowledge transfer with practical tasks, exchange, feedback, and reflection. It is also important to give employees the opportunity to actually apply new skills in everyday work.
What role does a learning platform play in competence development?
A learning platform can provide knowledge tailored to needs, accompany learning activities over a longer period, and combine practical phases with digital impulses, exchange, or reflection. However, the actual competence only arises through the application of what has been learned.
