MANAGERIAL COMPETENCES

Abstract

National Vocational Qualifications are currently being drawn up across all sectors of industry for both craft and operative workers and for managers and supervisors. At managerial and supervisory level a central concern for this initiative has been the recognition and identification of core transferable managerial skills that are common across industries. Responsibility for identifying these “generic competences” has lain with the Management Charter Initiative (MCI). In Industrial and Commercial Training Vol. 22 No. 5 Roy Canning criticised what he termed “the MCI approach”, and argued that the search for generic competences would not benefit industry. This article explains the rationale behind the competence approach and answers Canning′s criticisms, pointing out that what Canning has taken issue with bears no resemblance to the competence model currently being developed by the MCI and other lead bodies.