Job-Specific Competencies and Enabling Competencies
What are they?
Job-Specific Competencies
Job-specific competencies are the competencies you need to complete a specific job, whether it be welding, teaching, engineering, or soccer. These incorporate role specific competencies, for example, the competencies required to be an accountant. They also include industry specific competencies, for example, the competencies required to be an accountant in the oil & gas sector. Historically, job-specific competencies were the most valued by employers as they were essential to generating short-term economic value. For many professions, from accountants to skilled trades to engineering common currencies have emerged in the form of competency frameworks. These frameworks define both a common language and mechanisms to assess the competency.
The challenge is job-specific competencies are highly contextual and in today’s fast paced world possess an increasingly short lifespan. In the past, a trade learned as a teenager could be developed and refined through a lifetime of experience and maintain its value. Today, job-specific competencies often become dated and demand continual training to maintain their value.
The result is today, most employers are searching for people who can adapt and pivot in a constantly changing environment. For example:
By 2022, globally 75 million jobs will be displaced across the leading 20 economies, while 133 million new jobs will be created in emerging sectors.
It is estimated that in the next few years, 50 per cent of people globally will need to be reskilled or upskilled.
Calgary Economic Development forecasts that half of the jobs performed by Calgarians today could be at risk of automation over the next 20 years.
If there was a single competency that will define your future, it’s called adaptability.
Enabling Competencies
Enabling competencies (sometimes called soft-skills or transferable-skills) are what enable you to adapt and adopt new job-specific competencies. Enabling competencies are the competencies for life. Enabling competencies include dimensions such as problem solving, collaborating, communicating, reading and digital literacy. A study sponsored by Calgary Economic Development found that 2/3rds of all competencies for jobs ranging from engineering to social work were enabling competencies. Enabling competencies are the rocket fuel that will power every Calgarian in the new economy.
Fortunately, there’s a lot of research into which competencies are most valued by employers. We did some research to better understand what competencies employers look for specifically when hiring new graduates. Our results were very consistent. From those results emerged 25 enabling competencies, in six categories. We call these the Competencies for Life.
