COMPETENCY BASED INSTRUCTION

I’ve been associated with “industrial skills training” since 1974, having shot and produced the first b&w videotape aimed at improving worker skills in the nuclear power industry.  And, I have shot or produced several hundred such products since that time in ever-evolving media:  Interactive Laser Videodisc (IVD), CD-ROM, DVD and e-Learning.

They were all competency based.  The materials were tested on competencies required and developed in association with actual customers who provided a list of the necessary competencies.

A few corporations worked with their local community colleges but, generally, most of them did the training on their own.

Actually, the manufacturing and process organizations didn’t have a lot of faith in a community college education back then — because it was, often, the antithesis of competency based learning.

That was more than four decades ago!

So, imagine my surprise this week when I read the following in IndustryWeek Daily:

“ With growing pressure to build and sustain a 21st century, real-time pipeline of qualified workers, the manufacturing industry and its education partners are reevaluating the traditional training model — and seeing positive results with a career-relevant approach: competency-based education (CBE).

 For years, learning — whether in a community college, vocational school or workplace — has been based on classroom hours. Students attend class, pass tests, and move on to their next course of study. Missing from that time-based and “letter grade” learning model is validation that the necessary knowledge and skills have actually been transferred in a meaningful, actionable and measurable way.  .  .  . “

If the assumptions proffered by that quote are accurate, our community colleges haven’t progressed very far in the past fifty years — and that would be a shame.

More on Wednesday  –  –  –

                                   — Bill Walton, co-Founder, ITC Learning

February 12, 2018

      www.itclearning.com/blog/  (Mondays & Wednesdays)

 “THE WORLD RELIES ON THE HANDS OF ITS MEN AND WOMEN”

 (This is a personal blog.  Any views or opinions represented in this blog are personal and belong solely to the blog owner, jhbillwalton@gmail.com, an independent consultant.  They do not represent those of people, institutions or organizations that the owner may or may not be associated with in a professional or personal capacity.)