I stumbled upon the April 2016 issue of “Wirtschaft Weiterbildung.” The cover story of the issue is “All Power to the Learners” and presents the topics of competency development and self-directed learning. These learning concepts are becoming increasingly important in corporate training. You can access the issue here. I find the contributions very worthwhile.
Competency development, practical transfer, and current learning concepts (such as blended learning, mobile learning, social learning) also play a significant role for us. Our goal is to show you how to use these learning concepts with our blink.it app for your training topics. In this way, your participants learn more successfully and transfer what they have learned into practice. Konstantin presented our mission at LEARNTEC in a short interview:
If you can convince your clients (and participants) of how the step from “knowledge to competence” works in your training, then you have a significant advantage over your competitors. Additionally, your participants will be clear about the developmental process they will undergo until they acquire competence.
Word Salad - Competence and Competency Development
First, it is essential to clarify the terminology, as there is much discussion and writing about the term “competence.” Perhaps you can recall the speeches of a famous Bavarian politician. In one of his verbal slips (not a reference to Munich Central Station), he speaks of “competence competence.” The question “What are competences?” was answered by Prof. Werner Sauter in one of his blog posts:
“Competences are the abilities to navigate open and unpredictable, complex, and dynamic situations, for example, in corporate practice, in a self-organized and creative manner. Ultimately, competences are always about ways of acting. The aim of corporate training is therefore to achieve the employees' safety in actions at the workplace. It is not sufficient to train techniques with a few exercises or case studies. These are necessary prerequisites that employees need – but alone they do not lead to competence development. This can only happen in a self-organized manner while dealing with challenging tasks in the working process.”
This definition highlights the different stages in the process of competence development. At the lowest level is the transmission of information to the learners. Ideally, this transmission is optimized for the learner's needs and completed after training. The knowledge is therefore available. But is the ability to act also given? To be able to act in diverse, complex situations, the learner must consolidate their knowledge into abilities and test those abilities. A nice example: If you read in a book about the basketball free throw, you will know how to execute this free throw. However, the ability to repeatedly hit the free throw line will only be developed with practice. Now, however, you also need to learn a three-point shot.
Since you have already trained your free throw ability, your experience will help you transfer that knowledge to the three-point shot. Through practice and experience in the field, skills are sharpened. When learners reflect on these practice and action experiences, the knowledge content can be updated, and the skills can be improved. These reflection processes include, for example, recapitulating, identifying hurdles, or formulating “lessons learned.” Competences represent the generalization of skills aimed at solving problems in new situations. However, this development process does not happen overnight. The right support during this process can determine whether successful competence development occurs. Without support during the practical transfer, participants will only acquire new knowledge. This knowledge will not be practically applied for the development of new skills (the ability).
How to Promote Competency Acquisition in Your Training
You can support this competency development with online accompaniment. This online support can take place via a learning platform. You should consider that this platform is optimized for all devices that a learner could use, including smartphones, tablets, and desktop computers. Various conditions determine success. I would like to introduce these to you briefly.
Provide the opportunity for "Learning on demand.” Your content should be available on demand. A modular structure of the training content is suitable for this. You are the curator of the content here.
To accompany competency development and support changes, a continuous online accompaniment of participants is necessary. Regardless of whether knowledge is conveyed in your seminar or in an online course, the three to six months after learning are crucial for action and changes. Only the combination of knowledge and practical experience leads to competency gain. Therefore, it is essential to find out how well the participants have succeeded in implementing their intentions for action.
The more you promote problem-oriented learning in your training, the more the training contributes to competency development. This can happen, for example, through practical projects.
It is important to foster collaborative learning in your group. Encourage learning pairs or allow participants to form study groups that exchange ideas in person or via video conferences.
Introduce participants to various methods that support learning and action (e.g., learning journals, project diaries). You can initiate your participants' reflection processes through these methods or integrate them concretely into your training. This can happen through weekly reflection questions that also serve as reminders.
New Roles and Responsibilities for Trainers, Coaches, and Human Resource Developers
New roles and responsibilities await trainers, coaches, and other stakeholders in continuing education. These changes are already evident in the trend toward reduced face-to-face training times. Knowledge transfer is increasingly taking place through webinars or asynchronous learning content. During this learning phase, the trainer takes on the role of a learning planner and facilitator. They compile the content for the participants. Often, they coordinate with human resource developers in the company. They clarify the path of competence development. Along this way, the trainer supports the learning processes of individual participants and encourages them to practice. They create learning pairs or groups and provide practical tasks. If there are questions about the learning content between face-to-face appointments, participants have the opportunity to reach out to the trainer.
Participants learn what they need to apply in their practical work and compile information sources that they can refer to when needed. Whether this happens in a seminar, with the help of books, via webinars, or through e-learning is basically irrelevant, as long as the learner builds up knowledge. It is about the ideal mix of information and support for the learner. Providing this ideal mix is particularly important to us. In the blink.it app, you can quickly and easily compile content for your participants and stay in touch between face-to-face meetings. Face-to-face meetings remain important for competence development. During these face-to-face sessions, knowledge should not be imparted. Instead, discussions should revolve around the participants' experiences during implementation. What experiences did the participants have during their practical projects? In what work situations was it successful or unsuccessful to apply the methods and exercises?
Have you ever experienced or actively used one of the methods mentioned above for competency acquisition in a training session? Then leave us a comment and let us know what you experienced. You can also feel free to exchange ideas directly with us - for example, via phone or email.
