Competency Based Learning - NFP
Increasingly, employers recognise the importance of enabling employees to perform better in their jobs by providing job-specific, practical competency-based training rather than just theoretical knowledge. This shift in focus demands new concepts in education and training methods. Competency-based learning focuses on what competencies are needed for the professional to perform at the optimum level, how to define these competencies and how to adapt the curriculum accordingly. This course will explore this instructional system for vocational and university education in which a performance-based learning process is applied.
Participants
You are teaching at university level or at a vocational school or training centre. You are a manager or an adviser in an educational institution, a policy-maker developing educational policies or you are currently leading innovation and the integration of competency-based learning within all types of education and training systems.
Course objectives
This course will provide you with an in-depth understanding of the principles and practice of a competency-based learning approach. At the end of the course you will be able to explore and debate the consequences of a CBL approach in your own work context. You will learn to identify competencies and design a competency-based curriculum. You will be able to develop competency-based assessments, and to coach and to evaluate learning processes. Finally, you will be able to put active and experiential learning methods into practice.
Course contents
This two-week programme provides you with a broad overview of the various elements of a competency-based curriculum and how to become a competency-oriented educational or training institute. The course is a first step towards becoming a CBL expert and helps you to reflect on the educational changes needed in your institute or organisation. This course uses the characteristic CBL active learning, coaching and assessment approaches and methodologies. It teaches how to connect the demands and trends in the labour market and in society to the design of your educational programmes. During the course the participants will work in small groups on real-life cases to apply what has been learned. At the end of the course you will be able to reflect your newly acquired skills, ideas and experiences in an action plan to be implemented on your return. Finally, you will have individual coaching to discuss your plan and how to master this plan in your work place.
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Its amazing how much we still continue learning in life and that learning does not end. I have been training for about two years now in earth moving equipment but my focus had always been to teach tell students what I know and what I think they should learn. I gave students room to ask question and was happy to end my lesson with an assignment. After the CBL training, my eyes opened and I knew had to do much more than that. Now as I prepare for the course next week, my focus is on participative learning and I remind myself as I prepare my lesson plan of what competencies my students need to have. I will be teaching on general safety and my focus is no longer on what a student needs to know about safety but that by the end of the day the student should be able to observe safety rules not because they have to but because they see the need to and understand the important of safe operations of the machine and safety of the environment. Thank you MDF, my mind is opened to new ways of teaching. Mary-Bridget Hanzala CBL – 2010 Zambia |
Course Outline
| Week 1 | Week 2 | |
| Monday | Change agent: Education, labour market and society | Learning outcomes and content specification |
| Tuesday | Labour market analyses and identification of competencies | Evaluation, use of portfolio and quality management |
| Wednesday | Active learning principles, methods and the use of ICT in educaction | Field visit |
| Thursday | Field visit | The coaching of educational innovation processes and the use of ICT |
| Friday | Competence based assessment evaluation of competencies and course design | Personal action plan and evaluation of the course |
Funding
There is funding available for this course in 2010 and 2011 through the Nuffic Fellowship Programme (NFP).
For the rules and regulations governing fellowships from the NFP and application forms, go to the Nuffic website: www.nuffic.nl/nfp or contact the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands of your country. Please note that you should allow sufficient time for processing your application, well in advance of the programme.
Application deadline
1 May 2012 - for the course taking place from 12 till 23 November 2012
