Project 2

Project 2: Basic Competencies

 

Imagine yourself as the boss or the owner of a company. What basic skills would you look for in your employees? What are the characteristics of a valuable employee? Workplace skills and attributes are called Basic Competencies in Career and Technology Studies.

 

Practising and refining your basic competency skills on a daily basis will help you be more productive and successful in every task you undertake, whether at school, at work, or in your personal life. Basic competencies are the soft skills employers value in their employees, what group members value in their peers, and skills that give you a sense of pride and satisfaction in your work.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In this project you will examine the basic competencies and how they relate to your success in this course.

 

What is required to complete this project?

 

To complete this project, you will need the following:

• Basic Competencies Rubric
• a friend or family member to converse with
• materials (digital or non-digital) to create a brief presentation

What do I already know?

 

All people, to some degree, have basic competency skills. Existing skills can improve with time and experience, and you can always learn new skills that improve soft skills. People who are successful often possess a variety of soft skills in the workplace. It has been argued that the mastery of basic competency skills contributes to the degree of success individuals attain.

 

You may have already completed another CTS course where you learned about and practised applying basic competencies. If this is the case, now is a good time for you to review the Basic Competencies Rubric and set new goals for improving your skills in different areas. Check with your teacher about how to proceed for this part of the course.

 

What do I need to do?

• brainstorm with a partner (Your partner can be a friend or family member.)
• compare ideas
• provide real-world, personal examples
• apply and practise the skills

INF1030 Learn EveryWare © 2009 Alberta Education

Project 2: Basic Competencies

 

Time to Work

 

 

This project will take approximately 1.5 hours. The information and insights discovered in this project should be practised throughout the course.

 

Step 1: With a partner, in a small group, or on a discussion board, brainstorm a list of vital skills that relate to being successful. From the list you create, determine which skills are necessary for a variety of areas, like school (secondary or post-secondary), on the job, or in your personal life. You can document your list in a new word processing document on your computer. Be sure to save your list as Basic Competencies in your INF1030 WP1 folder.

 

Step 2: The following is a list of basic competencies deemed necessary for this course and other CTS courses:

• Fundamental Skills
  – communicating
  – managing information
  – using numbers
  – thinking and problem solving
  
  
• Personal Management Skills
  – demonstrating positive attitudes and behaviours
  – being responsible
  – being adaptable
  – learning continuously
  – working safely
  
  
•  Teamwork Skills
  – working with others
  – participating in projects and tasks

Compare your list to the basic competencies listed in Step 1; then answer the questions that follow in your Basic Competencies document.

1. Are there any skills under Fundamental, Personal Management, or Teamwork that you didn’t mention in your list?
   
   
2. Did you think of any skills that were not covered in the three groups listed above?

 

Step 3: Print a copy of the Basic Competencies Rubric. Complete a pre-course self-evaluation on your basic competency skills.

 

Step 4: Below the list you created in Step 1, write a short paragraph about a time in your life when you demonstrated basic competencies. Include work, school, or personal life experiences in your paragraph. It would be beneficial to discuss how the competency you identified impacted the example you provided. Save the changes to your Basic Competencies document.

 

Step 5: Choose one or two competency areas in which you can make improvements. Write an action statement of how you plan to practise the identified competencies. Identify the benefits of practising the competencies. Here is one example:

 

Basic Competency: Manage Information   Action Plan: Create and use suitable file names and organize files in appropriate folders.   Benefits: I save time when I can easily find my documents.

 

Save the changes to your Basic Competencies document.

 

Checking Your Work

 

Use the Basic Competencies Rubric as a self-check to ensure that you are routinely thinking about using the basic competencies as you work.

 

INF1030 Learn EveryWare © 2009 Alberta Education

Project 2: Basic Competencies

 

Project Summary

 

As a result of completing this project, you have determined the impact of any basic competency skills you have demonstrated in past experiences, as well as identified and developed an action plan for improving your basic competency skills.

 

INF1030 Learn EveryWare © 2009 Alberta Education