EnterTech Project Update
February 1999

Competency Matrix Development Process

The flow diagram below graphically displays the process taken to create the competency matrix for the EnterTech Project curriculum.

The green line shows the process to date.

Upon receiving project funding in June 1998, the first step involved review of previously established national standards of employability skills and manufacturing technology industries. The SCANS (Secretary's Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills) standard was selected as a foundation, or baseline skills listing, appropriate to organize the EnterTech curriculum, as it addressed both "process" and "people" skills areas.  At the same time, employer coalition members submitted job descriptions of their entry-level positions. More information about the selection process of skills and entry-level jobs is described in the KSA Report.

The job skills described by the employers were integrated with SCANS to form an initial competency matrix.

Next, Work Keys job profiles were conducted by Dr. Jane Tait at coalition organizations such as IBM, Dell, Siemens, and Raytheon. Other organizations submitted previously completed job profiles to augment the skills collection. Combining all research, the competency matrix grew to more than 160 objectives.

Now it was time to reduce and synthesize the matrix into a more manageable grouping of competency objectives. First, tasks which appeared across the core job functions of the profiles were prioritized. The criticality sorting of tasks, which is a process within Work Keys job profiling and is performed by the subject matter experts (incumbent workers), were utilized in selecting other priority tasks. And finally, the entire matrix was sent to all EnterTech Project employer coalition members to rank tasks on a likert scale (a scale of 1 to 5 to indicate which tasks were most often necessary for their entry-level jobs).

Based on this cumulative analysis, a new matrix emerged, organized into the following skills categories:

• Employee Awareness
• Personal/Interpersonal
• Manage and Allocate Resources
• Oral Communications
• Reading and Writing
• Arithmetic and Mathematics
• Problem-solving
• On-going Learning

Within each category, learning goals, competencies, performance objectives and subskill sets were detailed. A synopsis of these follows:

Employee Awareness

• Understand employer's needs and expectations
• Understand policies and procedures
• Demonstrate use of appropriate attire for the job
• Follow all safety requirements
• Follow employee handbook guidelines
• Follow ISO requirements
• Understand workplace ethics
• Demonstrate workplace ethics in interaction with company resources and people
• Understand position in organization
• Identify job responsibilities
• Understand relationship to customers

Personal/Interpersonal

• Exhibit responsibility and appropriate personal skills
• Demonstrate good work habits
• Assume and demonstrate required on-the-job behaviors
• Identify and leverage personal strengths
• Develop and convey positive attitude
• Manage personal stress
• Exhibit teamwork
• Effectively communicate and interact with others
• Effectively communicate messages, ideas and opinions
• Give and receive criticism and suggestions
• Work cooperatively
• Work with diverse group of supervisors, co-workers and customers
• Communicate effectively with internal and external customers

Manage and Allocate Resources

• Utilize resources
• Locate information and resources
• Identify, evaluate, process and/or store information
• Use organizational systems for information
• Manage time and schedule
• Self-management
• Coordinate with others
• Use office tools
• Understand selection and use of business tools

Oral Communications

• Communicate with others by listening well and speaking clearly
• Speaking
• Speak clearly and concisely to convey information
• Answer questions concisely
• Listening
• Listen for understanding
• Follow spoken directions
• Complete tasks accurately as verbally instructed

Reading and Writing (Written Communications)

• Use or produce written materials for information gathering and sharing
• Reading for information
• Obtain information from written materials
• Interpret meaning of written materials
• Writing
• Organize and compose information
• Record information
• Interpreting visual information
• Interpret graphics
• Obtain information from visual inspection

Arithmetic and Mathematics

• Use mathematical reasoning to perform calculations and solve problems
• Use basic math concepts
• Understand numbers, arithmetic operations and numerical concepts
• Perform calculations
• Apply math concepts to problem solving
• Use mathematics in solving problems
• Apply concepts of measurement
• Locate information and input data

Problem-Solving and Systems Thinking

• Utilize problem-solving strategies and understanding of systems to anticipate, identify and correct problems
• Problem solving
• Define problem and apply problem-solving techniques
• Generate solutions
• Evaluate effectiveness of solution
• Systems Thinking
• Understand systems
• Apply understanding of systems to process improvement

On-going Learning

• Engage in continuous learning and skill improvement
• Acquire new skills and information
• Manage on-going learning
• Learn from a variety of sources
• Know how to learn
• Share learning with others
• Use learning strategies

• simple to complex cognitions
• directed to self-directed behaviors
• conceptual to manipulative to interpretive knowledge.

These integrated interactive instructional modules will allow flexibility in generating tasks appropriate to individual learner needs while also providing a real-world context of developing and applying skills within the virtual company environment, as simulated on the computer through the combined generation of database and multimedia assets.

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