Career Development or Collecting Competencies Career Competencies a

Career Development or Collecting Competencies? Career Competencies, a new approach to sustainable career development Sandra Haase, Jan Francis-Smythe University of Worcester 11. 05. 07

Synopsis • • Context New Career Realities Competencies in Career Development Introduction Career Competency Concept Re-definition of Career Competencies Career Competency Indicator & Applications Summary

Context – Issues in the Police Force • Workforce modernisation - career development responsibility of individuals • National Competency Framework (NCF) standards and guidelines to improve quality & consistency of performance and behaviour • Human resource processes based on NCF

New Career Realities • Dramatic transformations in organisations and context of employment • Definition of career changing - Careers are boundaryless • Individuals required to take ownership of their careers

Individual Career Development • “do-it-yourself career management” • Transferable skills • Individual career development needs to be supported • Organisations increase self-development features in interventions

Competencies in Career Development • Increased use in Personal Development and Career Planning predicted • Form basis of most career-related processes • Problems: – Definition – Main focus on job performance

Career Competency Concept (Arthur, Claman & De. Fillipi, 1995) • Introduced idea of career competencies (knowing-why, knowing-how, knowing-whom) • Operationalised in Intelligent Career Card Sort • Problems: – Lack of empirical support for three-fold structure – Definition: term relabelled

Career Competencies Redefined Career Competencies are: • behavioural repertoires and knowledge instrumental in the delivery of desired careerrelated results and outcomes • assessable & trainable

Career Competency Indicator • • Goal setting and career planning (5) Self-knowledge (5) Job-performance (5) Career-skills (7) Knowlege of (office) politics (5) Networking and mentoring (8) Feedback seeking and self-presentation (8)

Application • As basis of career development interventions: – Address organisational needs of developing qualified & self-reliant workforce – Address individual needs of developing career management skills to ensure employability • Pilot study (N=21) using career competencies as framework for guided career discussions

Summary • Competencies as presently used not adequate to support individuals in developing the skills necessary to effectively manage their careers • More holistic approach required: Career development through the use of career competencies

Any questions? Thank you Sandra Haase University of Worcester Centre for People @ Work Worcester, WR 2 6 AJ, UK s. haase@worc. ac. uk