The contradiction of competency based education

Authors

  • Jordi Planas Coll Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.22201/iisue.20072872e.2013.10.92

Keywords:

competency based education, work, productive capacities, and labor market

Abstract

The usage of the term “competency” in managing human resources and in social research emerged decades ago with the purpose of dissociating the productive capacity of persons from their formal education. In Competency Based Education (CBE) we take a step back, attempting to link competencies to formal education and its certificates, thus contradicting the meaning for which this notion was created. The purpose of this paper is to show that with CBE the actual competencies of the persons are confused with, often long, listings of competencies intentions that are linked to education cycles. Far from being useful to clarify the information on the person’s competencies, CBE artificially standardizes them, thus generating de facto misleading information in the labor market and in the education system.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biography

Jordi Planas Coll, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona

PhD in Sociology from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain. He is a professor of Sociology at Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and a visiting professor at the University of Guadalajara, in the University Center for Economic Administrative Sciences (CUCEA), Mexico. Research topics: analysis of the relationship between education, training and work; effects of the education expansion in the labor market; the models that produce competencies: the contribution of education and formal and informal training for the production of competencies for work; youth, education and work, professional and social insertion; the impact of public policies on education, training and work on the initial and permanent training of the active population; needs analysis of competencies and enterprise training, territories and productive sectors.

Downloads

Published

2013-05-31

How to Cite

Planas Coll, J. (2013). The contradiction of competency based education. Revista Iberoamericana De Educación Superior, 4(10). https://doi.org/10.22201/iisue.20072872e.2013.10.92

Issue

Vol. 4 Núm. 10 (2013)

Section

Outlines