Competency-based identification of in-firm further educational innovators in small and medium-sized enterprises – a contribution to professionalism development in the area of in-company training

Due to the increasing need for in-company trainings in Germany and topical developments concerning self-guided learning in the context of work we present a developed, resource-saving concept of enhancing a work-process oriented in-company training culture using existing personnel. For that, in-firm further educational innovators (IFEI) should initiate, oversee and steer workplace-related further educational processes besides their respective subject expertise. To create a standardized, competency-based instrument in order to determine the most suitable personnel for the fulfillment of IFEI-specific tasks we implement two studies. In Study 1, already existing (inter-)national study results on relevant “competencies” of “further educational personnel,” “(in-firm) further educators”, “trainers” ( N =12) and “innovation promoters” ( N =7) are systematically integrated using the principles of content-structuring content analysis. The resulting category system appears reliable (κ=0.93 using three independent judges) and corresponds to the combination of relevant areas of competencies ( N =37) of innovative further educators. Out of these, in Study 2, two independent raters differentiate IFEI-specific areas of expertise according to concrete challenges of four small and medium-sized enterprises with the institutionalization of work-process-oriented in-company trainings, identified with a standardized survey ( N =74) and semi-standardized interviews ( N =4). The differentiation of four distinct niveaus within each area of IFEI-specific competence on principles of established qualification frames allows the determination of individual profiles of competencies that can be compared with a reference profile generated by an expert-survey ( N =5). Thereby IFEI-suitable personnel can be identified and further qualification needs can be adaptively determined. With the resulting competency matrix in-company training processes can be advanced universally, economically and with a work-process orientation. Therefore, the present study offers a significant contribution to professionalism development in the area of in-company training. Difficulties are discussed of systematic integration on the basis of different abstraction levels of study results, demands on organizational contexts in institutionalization, and adaptive qualification of IFEIs.