This CEN Workshop Agreement (CWA) addresses the European e-Competence Framework developed by the CEN/ISSS Workshop on ICT Skills. After the preparation of the work in 2006, the content of the CWA was developed in 2007 and 2008 by six CEN-nominated experts, supported by the participants of the expert working group of the European e-Competence Framework, coming from Airbus, Bayer Business Services, Bitkom, Breyer. Publico, Cap Gemini, CIGREF, Cisco Systems, Deutsche Telekom, e-skills UK, EMSI Grenoble, EXIN International, Fondazione Politecnico di Milano, IG Metall, Institut PI, Michelin, PSA Peugeot Citroen, Syntec Informatique, UK Cabinet Office. The final draft of the CWA was made available in early July 2008 for a 60-day public comment period that ended on September 7, 2008.
The final draft of the CWA, revised in light of the comments received, was then sent to 17 registered workshop participants (paying members only) on 22 September 2008, inviting them to express their views by 2 October 2008. Expressions of support from experts from the following were received by the following organizations: AICA, Združenje Pasc@line, CEPIS, CIGREF, DEKRA, ECDL. These guidelines are intended to support the understanding, adoption and use of the European e-Competence Framework (e-CF).
This CEN Workshop Agreement is publicly available as a reference document of CEN National Members: AENOR, AFNOR, ASRO, BDS, BSI, CSNI, CYS, DIN, DS, ELOT, EVS, IBN, IPQ, IST, LVS, LST, MSA, MSZT , NEN, NSAI, ON, PKN, SEE, SIS, SIST, SFS, SN, SNV, SUTN and UNI. Comments or suggestions from users of the CEN Workshop Agreement are welcome and should be addressed to the CEN Management Center.
Executive overview
- Short presentation and background of the framework
- European e-Competence Framework focus and purposes
- Main principles of the European e-Competence Framework
- The user guidelines on hand: purposes and target groups
Accordingly, the e-Competence Framework does not take into account competences related to fundamental/scientific research in the ICT field. In addition, the purpose of the e-Competence Framework is to provide general and comprehensive e-Competences that can then be adapted and adapted in different business contexts such as e-commerce, e-health, e-banking, etc. The European e-Competence Framework v.1.0 provides a fundamental, clear and solid orientation for companies that need to make decisions about recruitment, career paths, training, assessment, etc.
The European e-Competence Framework has been developed from an employer perspective to serve the needs of the European community of ICT professionals and managers. The main focus of the European e-competence framework is the connection with the employer's career path structures. This trend towards simplifying career paths is reflected in the European e-Competence Framework by adopting a two-dimensional framework consisting of five.
The European e-Competence Framework is intended for guidance and is designed to provide a common shared reference tool that can be implemented, adapted or used in accordance with ICT player requirements. These guidelines provide some basic guidelines for understanding, adopting and using the "European e-Competence Framework version 1.0" according to individual need.
Some Definitions
- The “e-“ from a European perspective
- Competence, knowledge, skill, attitude
- The basic concept of e-Competence proficiency levels
- Embedding skills, knowledge and attitudes into the competence descriptions
In the EQF a competence is "the proven ability to use knowledge, skills and personal, social and/or methodological abilities in work or study situations and in professional and personal development" 1. In the e-CF a competence is " a demonstrated ability to apply knowledge, skills and attitudes to the achievement of observable results." If the meaning of the two definitions is similar, then why was the e-CF competency definition created?
The definitions in e-CF are aligned with the needs and views of the company and are expressed in their language. The e-CF reflects the company's requirements and expectations for workplace performance, which is different from the EQF, although comparable. e-CF is designed to relate to specific knowledge and job profile frameworks (eg AITTS, Cigref, Eucip, SFIA, etc.) drawn from different cultures and experiences across Europe.
Competence is defined as "a demonstrated ability to apply knowledge, skills and attitudes to achieve observable results". If skills and knowledge are the components, attitudes are the glue that holds them together. Knowledge represents the "set of know-what" (e.g. programming language, design tools..) and can be described by operational descriptions.
In the e-CF, this concept refers to “skill levels” rather than “learning levels” in the EQF. This is another reason why the e-CF levels differ from the EQF levels, even though some relationships can be found. Behavior here represents an observable outcome of attitude and varies between “ability to apply” and “ability to conceive”.
Embedding of skills, knowledge and attitudes in the competence descriptions The e-CF competence definitions of skills, knowledge and attitudes are embedded in the e-CF competence definitions of skills, knowledge and attitudes are embedded in. 2 "personal autonomy", i.e. the ability to perform without the need for instructions is a necessary component for defining skill levels and therefore needs to be embedded in the definitions of dimension 3. On the contrary, "Responsibility", if understood as "personal sense of responsibility", is not related to skill levels, indeed, even a very young employee at level 1 in e-CF could/should have a high sense of personal responsibility.
The European e-Competence Framework – look and basic principles
- Framework purposes
- The competence focus of the framework
- A framework structured from 4 dimensions
- The 5 e-Competence levels e-1 to e-5 and their relationship to EQF levels 3 to 8
- Role of dimension 4 (knowledge and skills) and connection to the e-skills
The European e-CF is not based on job profiles, but rather on competencies, as this approach is more flexible. ICT business environments are complex and constantly changing; complexity and constant change make job-related structures too fixed and rigid and therefore ineffective in describing tasks and activities in an international environment. The purpose of the European e-Competence Framework is to provide general and comprehensive e-competences, which can then be adapted and adapted to different ICT business contexts.
While definitions of competences are explicitly set in dimensions 2 and 3 and references to knowledge and skills appear in dimension 4 of the framework, attitude is included in all three dimensions. These e-competence areas reflect the ICT business process and its main sub-processes, from a very general perspective. PLAN, BUILD and RUN are the core areas while ENABLE and MANAGE are cross-cutting issues referenced and linked to the former.
These sets of e-competences are not exhaustive; nevertheless, they provide basic, clear and reliable guidance for companies that need to make decisions about recruitment, career paths, training, assessment, etc.; and also for people to understand the competence needs of companies. However, e-CF, as an industry-targeted competence framework, uses descriptors for ICT competence rather than qualifications. These skill levels e-1 to e-5 are linked to EQF qualification levels 3 to 8; EQF Levels 1 and 2 are not relevant in this context.
However, he or she is not automatically able to apply knowledge, skills and attitudes in a work situation at e-Competence level 5. In this context, skills and knowledge can represent both e-competences and the learning outcomes to be achieved through learning/training pathways. In general, ways to describe e-competencies and apply them to specific environments are choices based on an organization's vision and strategy.
The choices made in the delineation of qualifications in skills and knowledge and therefore in learning outcomes establish differentiation between one education and training program and another. Organizational choices related to skill and knowledge developments provide a competitive key to addressing business success. The European e-CF therefore cannot and should not replace an organisation's decision-making process, but can provide a foundation to work from.
Framework use by ICT sector players as a shared European reference: How to
- Plan, develop and manage competences in a broader environment: companies and
- Framework benefits for small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs)
- A European dimension of competence description
- Added value to existing frameworks – examples
- A European inspiration for forthcoming national/ local ICT frameworks
- Input for qualifications and training courses conception, description and promotion
- Developing own ICT career: ICT practitioners
- Adopting the framework to work and staff planning: How to build job profiles
- Use of the framework for recruiting processes
- Guidance and orientation to choose learning paths and training offer
- Anticipate, evaluate and plan ICT skills and competence needs in a long-term
In the first instance, the European e-competence framework establishes a European common language for ICT competences. Before comparing the European e-Competence Framework with other ICT frameworks, ICT qualification systems or anything else that may be like a framework (referred to below as a framework), it may be useful to answer some questions:. The answers can be compared with the characteristics of the European e-competence framework, as explained in this document, thus enabling linkage.
Links between the European e-Competence Framework and the CIGREF framework can be established by using dimension 2 to describe activities and by using dimension 3 to describe the competences needed to do the job properly. Three examples from the national contexts of the UK, France and Germany show that it is possible to link different types of frameworks to European e-competence. For new national or local ICT frameworks, the European e-Competence Framework could provide a standard, directly adopted or adapted to meet specific cultural contexts and needs.
Before using the European e-Competence Framework as a standard for the development of a local ICT framework, it may be useful to answer a few questions. Using the European e-Competence Framework to link formal and informally acquired qualifications is straightforward if they are competence-oriented. The European e-Competence Framework can be used as a reference model for the recognition of competences that ICT practitioners and professionals have acquired informally during their careers.
In addition, the European e-Competence Framework provides a consistent link with the European Qualifications Framework (EQF) because the e-competence descriptions are consistent with the language based on the learning outcomes of the EQF. The figure below highlights the potential role of the European E-CF to support and inspire new training processes. The European e-Competence Framework provides a pragmatic overview of the European ICT labor market from the perspective of industry and the public sector and its competence requirements.
The competences provided by the European e-Competence Framework can be used as building blocks to build job profiles according to specific company and workplace needs. Using the European e-skills framework as a core reference for ICT recruitment processes could facilitate an improved and effective link between skills demand from recruitment companies and skills supply from job seekers. Using the European e-skills framework for skills profiling in online job portals will also benefit employers, recruitment agencies and job seekers by sharing a common language.
If the European e-CF can guide the education system, it can also be a useful reference for young people, employees and job seekers. The European e-Competence Framework provides for the first time a European standard reference for communicating competence needs in a transnational and European ICT environment.
Acknowledgements
Annex
