Assessing Tomorrow’s Potential: A Competence Measuring Approach in Vocational Education and Training

Abstract

Adequate measurement of action competence remains a central target of vocational education and training research; adequate measurement approaches in the vocational domain clearly are a prerequisite for accountable systems to authorize access to professional activities, as well as for future large-scale assessments. For the German Chamber of Commerce and Industry, competence assessments in the area of business and commerce rely mainly on final examinations that attempt to measure not just knowledge but also action competence. To evaluate and improve a test instrument, this chapter considers two questions: (1) how valid and reliable was the original test-format, and (2) how valid and reliable are the corresponding assessment results of a recently developed prototype? The study relies on statistical procedures (e.g., IRT scaling), applied empirically to a sample of 1768 final examinations of industrial managers in the original format, and to 479 industrial managers taking a prototype new format. The advanced prototype version appears as a more valid and accurate instrument to capture action competence. We conclude that several practical steps can be undertaken to improve current assessment practices in the area of business and commerce.