Competence development ‐ some background thoughts1

Abstract

During the last decade the issue of competence development has again been receiving a great deal of attention. Many, particularly larger organisations (e.g. in agribusiness) are using competencies to manage and implement change in their organisations. But also in other contexts increasing use is being made of competencies. In short the competence concept is aimed at shifting attention from knowledge (especially declarative knowledge) to the application of skills. In this article, the theme competence development, which forms the core of life-long learning and which from this perspective is of great importance for organisations in general and for the agricultural and market-gardening sector in particular, will be discussed. The main aim is to create structure in the enormous diversity of notions concerning the concept of competence, to outline its advantages and disadvantages and finally, to consider the consequences of using competencies in organisations in the agri-food system. The structure of this article is as follows. First of all an outline is given of the contexts in which the concept of competence is used. It will then become evident that competence is used in many different contexts. Hence, the use of competence will be dealt with, creating an outline of the functions of the concept of competence in organisations. This is followed by a reflection on the background of the popularity of working with the concept of competence: core-competence. The strategic power of core-competence has been the decisive factor for renewed interest in competence development. Then attention will be paid to the fact that there is a myriad of definitions for the terms competence and competencies. Dimensions, which can be differentiated by these definitions, are presented. On the basis of these definitions a working definition of the terms competence and competencies is introduced which can be used in the context of policy for organisations in the agri-food system, but also in edu