General Issues about Assessment of Competence

ABSTRACT In simple terms, competency‐based assessment is the assessment of a person's competence against prescribed standards of performance. Thus, if an occupation has established a set of, say, entry‐level competency standards, then these prescribe the standards of performance required of all new entrants to that occupation. Competency‐based assessment is the process determining whether a candidate meets the prescribed standards of performance, i.e. whether they demonstrate competence. It is probably a truism that there is no such thing as a process of assessment that is without its critics. Whatever efforts are made to improve an instance of assessment, someone is bound to be unhappy with the process. Competency‐based assessment is therefore at a particular disadvantage since it is both new and unfamiliar to many people. This has meant that competency‐based assessment has aroused numerous and varied worries and objections from many quarters. In the process of researching assessment methods of professio...