Creating a skills profile

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Creating a skills profile

With the Bologna reform, competence orientation has become a central requirement in the development of degree programs.

On this page, we have therefore compiled a condensed list of knowledge and tips for creating a course-related competence profile.

A competence profile shows which subject-specific and interdisciplinary skills students have acquired by completing a specific degree program.

A competence profile is therefore created in relation to the degree program and thought of "from the end" (output orientation). It answers the question of which competencies students have acquired at the end of their studies.

A competence profile is the starting point for competence-oriented course development. In further steps of curriculum, module and course planning, the competencies to be achieved are then specified and formulated as learning objectives. Depending on the design level, a distinction is made between indicative, broad and detailed objectives. In line with constructive alignment, suitable forms of assessment and teaching and learning methods are defined to achieve the learning objectives.

To create and formulate learning outcomes at module level, please use the handout for the module tool.

"At the beginning of a competence-oriented degree program development should be the question of what a graduate should be able to do at the end of the degree program. It is therefore about the subject-specific and interdisciplinary skills that a student should acquire in the course of their studies in order to be able to cope with certain tasks and requirements after graduation, which includes in particular preparing graduates for possible professional fields of activity." (Schaper 2012: 39)

The framework conditions, requirements and content orientation of the degree program to be developed should be largely clarified when the working group begins to draw up the skills profile. The following approaches are suitable and are ideally combined with each other:

 

normative and deductive approaches:
Normative approaches refer to normatively set learning and educational objectives in the sense of framework specifications or similar, as well as to normative ideas of experts about the competences to be acquired in the degree program.

Deductive approaches refer to existing documents in the sense of competence models based on (learning and cognitive) theory.

Examples:

  • Framework specifications such as subject qualification frameworks, the German Qualifications Framework for Higher Education Qualifications, resolutions of the Accreditation Council or internal university documents are researched and relevant content for the degree programme is extracted and summarized in a structured manner.
  • Analysis of internal and external university curricula (environment analysis): Examination regulations, module handbooks etc. are examined and compared in terms of structure, content, competencies and learning objectives. On the one hand, several similar degree programs (in terms of subject content) can be examined and compared in order to obtain a current status. On the other hand, it makes sense to focus on one or a few particularly innovative degree programs (e.g. with regard to transdisciplinary degree program concepts).
  • Expert workshop: Desirable competence goals can be formulated in a workshop format. In this case, the term expert refers to subject experts as well as students, persons with expertise in degree programme development, etc.
    Normative ideas about the competences to be acquired are collected and discussed through the joint exchange.
    Alternative: Experts can also be involved in the process through oral or written interviews.
  • Evaluation of the state of research: Research literature can be consulted, particularly on the foundations and lines of various competence models.

 

Empirical and inductive approaches:
They usually include the analysis of requirements and needs (on the labor market) or learning processes.

Examples:

  • Requirement and needs analyses: There are various ways of recording the skills in demand on the labor markets. Job market research is used to collect job advertisements in a structured manner and evaluate them in terms of requirements. Interviewing potential employers as well as interviewing previous graduates of the degree program (if available) is particularly useful for specific (follow-up) questions. It saves time and money to use the results of surveys that have already been conducted (e.g. graduate study).
  • Retrospective recording of learning processes: Learning diaries are ideal for the retrospective recording of learning processes and subsequent evaluation to model the acquisition of skills. However, these resources are often not available or may not be evaluated. Alternatively, narrative interviews can be conducted with students or graduates.


The examples mentioned above require different amounts of time and resources. A generally valid recommendation is therefore not possible. The working group should therefore look together at the available resources and decide on an approach. A combination of different approaches is recommended in order to define overarching qualification goals for future graduates on a broad basis.

The text is largely based on the expert report by Niclas Schaper: