Hi everyone welcome back. So, so far we have discussed critical tasks, why they are important and remember we're using written communication as an example of a extremely highly desired critical competency. So just keep that in mind as we move forward. Now we're going to look at standards and benchmarks and competency models to see how competencies are rated and organized. And again we're doing this so that you really understand how standards and benchmarks work from the perspective of an evaluator. We're using the word evaluator to sort be a stand in for an employer or maybe someone in human resources someone outside of you assessing you. So first, let's think a little bit about the definition of a competency standard. And according to the researcher Trender, who developed this definition in 2008, competency standards are increasing being used by professions and governments to define qualifications and that's the key piece. These qualifications required for professionals to practice in a discipline or in a particular area. Remember they define a range of levels of competency and the capabilities that are assumed to be achieved at these levels. So, they're really sort of these leveling their standards. They can be general and they're usually recognized, expected by many industries or professionals. So, they're translatable. They, move across boundaries, and standards are associated with competencies in written communication. Especially in a digital format, right? Because we do email, we send communication digitally now. That's one such common standard. So no matter the industry, no matter the job, you will be expected to cogently write and thoughtfully and professionally write in that digital space. Benchmarks is our second definition for this lesson. They're simply standards against which competencies can be assessed or compared. So there is sort of almost a leveling, and standards can be compared among and between one another to really get a sense of what that standard is for a given competency. So one of the examples is a revised competency benchmark from the American Psychological Association. And it gives a sense of when practitioners are in a sort of the early stages of their practice, then a middle stage, and then really when they've reached a specific, and a very high benchmark standard such that they can go out and practice on their own. And benchmarks signal a standard of behavior, right? Against which the competence is measured. So this is a great example, because we know psychologists behave in particular ways and certain standards before they can go out and practice in the world. Another piece of this puzzle, is a competency model. So according to Career One Stop, which we explored this area, this site, in our last course. These are a collection of competencies that, together, define successful performance in a particular work setting. So it's a little more narrow, it's a little more focused. And competency models also though, do presume standards, and they do presume benchmarks for the required competencies. So they take into account those standards and benchmarks about which we just spoke. So let's take an example from the hospitality industry, from Career One Stop. The hospitality industry is a really high growth, high needs area so I thought it would be helpful to consider this. So in this competency model there are several levels of competencies based on their importance for this particular industry. So if you look up the model on the Career One Stop website,you will also be able to closely examine each competency within that model, and then what those competencies entail, so you can drill down into the model. Another tool, another example of what we're talking about are frameworks. And frameworks are, they're usually visual images and tools that integrate several competencies together, so sort of a holistic way of looking at competencies. And they bring together two descriptions and levels of desired behaviors. So one example can actually be found on my home campus, the website of my home campus, which is Empire State College. And on our website, you can find an example of a framework that's called the global learning qualifications framework. It evaluates learning domains and competencies, and again, looking at that framework will help you get a better idea of what it entails. So why is it important to understand the ways evaluators rate and organize competencies? Well we should think about it in terms of key words. The US Department of State notes that resumes are often digitally scanned before even being read by human beings. So it's important to understand the ways in which these key words are being looked for by these technologies, scanning resumes, scanning cover letters, etc. So If we're not in how evaluators use those keywords you won't be in on the secret of how to best position yourself for a job. So what have we learned? Discussing competency standards, we've been looking at benchmarks. We've been looking at competency models. And we've also looked at frameworks. And all of these add up to best ways to understand what experts look for. In the next lesson we'll be discussing rubrics. A little bit of a different concept, so we hope you join us. Thanks so much.
