OTAN News
A Renewed Interest in Competency-Based Education
Competency-based education, or CBE, has been around for a while in adult education, but a new report from the California EDGE Coalition suggests renewed interest in CBE as a way to help low-skilled and low-wage earning workers get the education and training they need to move up the economic ladder. The report, Competency-Based Education: A Strategy for Skills Upgrading in California, states:
One quarter of California’s workforce – almost 5 million workers – earned an average of $13 per hour in 2018. Even more working adults are searching for ways to improve their skills and family incomes. As California struggles with ways to address this major concern for both residents and our business community, competency-based education has the potential to be one very useful tool in the state’s toolkit.
The report urges legislative officials to take several actions to move the development of CBE forward in California, by removing policy impediments, supporting responsible innovation, incentivizing accredited and non-accredited agencies to partner, and educating stakeholders and the general public about the value and benefits of CBE.
One reason for the renewed interest in CBE has to do with the advances in education technology that make CBE possible. As one reads the report, the uses of technology are varied in many facets of CBE. For example:
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First and foremost, adult students (and by extension, educators and administrative staff) must develop skills and experience with online learning and navigating related technology to be successful.
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Online instruction is one way to deliver education and training, either entirely online or in a blended learning setting which combines online with face-to-face classes, on-the-job training, apprenticeships, fieldwork, work, and other settings.
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Instructors needs to adjust their teaching styles to facilitator and coaching roles, and this may include working with students via technology outside of the fixed academic schedule. This would also include using technology to personalize student learning, depending on what students already bring to the learning and where individual gaps exist.
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Technology can be used to better integrate student support services with education and training.
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Electronic portfolios and credentials can be developed so students can easily show competency and skills, no matter the time or place they are asked to show mastery.
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Many CBE efforts are in the employment areas of information technology, cybersecurity, and the applications of technology in a wide variety of industry sectors.
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Technology can help lower the costs of delivering education and training by providing a better and documented return-on-investment.
The California EDGE Coalition report is certainly worth a read in thinking about how to deliver more effective instruction for our adult students and provide them the education and training they need for more economic success.
Article: California EDGE Coalition Releases Policy Brief on New Educational Approach to Serving Low-Skill Adult Learners from California EDGE Coalition