There is a lot of interest in skill and competency models bubbling up in Vancouver, BC. The innovation sector is growing rapidly and with this comes an interest in new skills and new ways to put skills to use. There is a growing community of competency model designers emerging and innovative ways to apply these models or frameworks are emerging.

At the same time, the impact of climate change is a major concern. Vancouver is vulnerable to climate change and many people in the region are interested in how we can mitigate and adapt at personal, business, community and societal levels. As a result, there is an emerging discipline around the skills needed to imagine, plan, prepare, design, set policy, communicate and implement climate change policies. A big part of this is how to develop shared community understanding of and commitment to these issues.

The Resilience by Design Lab and the Adaptation Learning Network at Royal Roads University in Victoria, BC has been leading the development of a competency model or framework for Adaptation to climate change. As part of this work, they have been sharing a wonderful set of podcasts in the Resilience by Design Podcast.

The two most recent podcasts are with people active in the design of competency models.

Dennis Green talks about his work on the eCampus Open Competency Toolkit, a set of resources for the design of competencies available under a Creative Commons license.

Listen to his podcast here.

Steven Forth talks about the design of competency models and the importance of thinking of them as systems that connect to other parts of the ecosystem and thus as complex adaptive systems.

Listen to his podcast here.

Dennis and Steven are both engaged in the IEEE 1484.20.2 work on defining competencies and there is a lot of participation in this group by people in Vancouver.

These competency models are different from the old, staid models that were like straight jackets for learning. They are skill and roles based, dynamic and open to evolve. See Three metaphors for skills and competencies.

Ibbaka Posts on Competency Models and Competency Frameworks

• Competency models as learning plans

• From user experience to competency model design - Margherita Bacigalupo and EntreComp

• Competency framework designers on competency framework design: Jeff Griffiths on transversal and vertical skills

• Competency framework designers on competency framework design: The chunkers and the slice and dicers

• Competency framework designers on competency framework design: Victoria Pazukha

• Two podcasts on competency model design from Vancouver (this post)

• The A in KSA is for Abilities or Attitudes or Attributes?

• Do competency frameworks need competency definitions?

• Should you have a personal competency model?

• Designing a skill competency model - the Ibbaka approach

• Design research - How do people approach the design of skill and competency models?

• Designing a blueprint for your competency model framework

• From competency model design to competency model generation

• The WEF on Building a Common Language for Skills at Work

• Aligning skill and competency models with microcredentials - a conversation between Don Presant and Kul Sharma

• Three Metaphors for Skills and Competencies

• The Skills for Career Mobility - Interview with Dennis Green

• Competencies or skills - what should you assess?

• Lessons Learned Launching and Scaling Capability Management Programs

• Designing a Competency Model for Innovation Coaches

• Talent Transformation - A Conversation with Eric Shepherd, Martin Belton and Steven Forth

• Who cares about skill and competency models

• Competency Model Definitions - the IEEE ups its game

• Simple (very simple) skill and competency models

• Individual - Team - Organizational use cases for skill and competency management

• Design decisions for developing a competency framework

• What is skill management?

• Competency models are living documents and need curation

• Some key use cases for competency model adoption

• Designing the Open Competency Model Architecture

• A third skillscape

• Building skill and competency models together

• Getting past competency model PTSD

• Co-creation of Competency Models for Customer Success and Pricing Excellence

• Competencies for Adaptation to Climate Change – An Interview with Dr. Robin Cox

• Architecting the Competencies for Adaptation to Climate Change Open Competency Model

• Introducing open competency models

• Integrating Skills and Competencies in the Talent Management Ecosystem

• Organizational values and competency models – survey results

• Why your job architecture needs a competency model

• Are values part of your competency model?

• How to build competency models

• A skill name is just a word, isn’t it?

• Current trends in skill and competency management

• Enabling internal mobility - a design thinking approach