Abstract
This chapter surveys the history of the development of competence-based assessment, and suggests that its positivist, behaviourist origins render it inappropriate for accessing the higher order domains of beliefs, attitudes and values that are fundamental to modern work environments. Vocational education and training will be limited by the adoption of technical mechanisms of assessment and accreditation; parallels with the UK National Vocational Qualification (NVQ) accreditation within the workplace, and credit accumulation schemes are drawn. The prevalence of competence-based approaches is attributed in part to the influence gained within vocational education and training by the National Open College Network. The paper suggests that in order to capture the range and complexity of modern work environments, it will be necessary to adopt an alternative, holistic approach to assessment and accreditation, which constructs the worker as a reflective practitioner; this will help to highlight the differentiation of the roles and tasks which characterise a multi-skilled workforce.
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Elliott, G. (2001). An Alternative Model of Competence-Based Assessment. In: Velde, C. (eds) International Perspectives on Competence in the Workplace. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-0742-9_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-0742-9_6
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