- Types of specific competencies
- What are specific competencies for?
- Specific skills in the world of work
- Examples
- References
Specific competencies are all those skills, knowledge, values and thoughts required to adequately develop a task or a job. Unlike the basic and general ones, they are only useful for a specific field, and to develop them it is necessary to carry out a learning designed for them.
On the other hand, specific competencies also differ from the other two types in that none of them is necessary for a person to function normally in their daily life. On the contrary, they are only necessary to carry out a specific task, so they are not transferable from one area to another.
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Due to its nature, it is impossible to create a list of all the specific competencies that exist. On the contrary, even within the same field, or in the same company, each person will have to develop different ones in order to carry out their work correctly.
Even so, a series of characteristics shared by all the specific competencies can be defined. In this article we tell you which are the most important.
Types of specific competencies
We have already seen that specific competencies are those necessary to perform a certain job, activity or function correctly, but which cannot be applied to other areas. Each person, depending on their occupation and lifestyle, must develop a specific set of them.
Generally, a distinction is made between two different types of specific competencies. The first are the functional ones: those that allow the tasks of a specific job to be performed more efficiently. They have to do mostly with mental abilities, attitudes and personality traits.
Sometimes, it is difficult to distinguish between specific functional competencies and general competences, since depending on each author, the same ability or characteristic belongs to one group or the other. Some examples would be flexibility, leadership, or tolerance for frustration.
On the other hand, specific technical competencies are all those directly related to the tasks that need to be performed in a job. Among others, we could find skills such as programming, web page design, database analysis or mastery of a second language.
What are specific competencies for?
Each of the three types of competencies that exist (basic, general and specific) fulfill a different function in people's lives. The basic and general ones allow an individual to function correctly in all areas of their existence, both on a personal and professional level.
On the contrary, specific competencies are only useful in a specific aspect of a person's life. This means that they are not as flexible as the general and basic ones; And when someone changes their personal or professional trajectory, they will have to acquire new ones that adapt to their new situation.
In return, specific skills are generally much easier to acquire than basic and general skills. This is because they deal with smaller aspects of reality, since in general they have to do with procedures and ways of doing things, something easier to acquire than beliefs and attitudes.
Specific competencies are therefore only useful for a specific area. Within the space for which they are designed, they serve to achieve excellence and obtain the desired results. For this reason, they are often as important as basic or general skills.
Usually, within the educational system and formal training, only specific competencies are worked on. However, it is often necessary for a person to acquire them themselves, especially if they are in a field where they have to perform unusual tasks.
Specific skills in the world of work
When choosing the best candidate for a given job, one of the most important factors is precisely the difference in specific skills that different people display. In this field, they are known as hard skills or hard skills.
Traditionally, hard skills or specific competencies were the only thing that was valued when choosing a person to fill a specific job. Thus, someone who was to be an accountant only had to know numbers; and a computer scientist only needed to have computer-related skills.
Nowadays, however, the interconnectedness that exists between the different jobs and the existence of a large number of qualified people have caused employers to also look at soft skills. These are nothing more than the set of basic and general competencies of a person.
In this way, today it is generally not enough to know numbers to be able to access a job as an accountant. In addition to this, it is also necessary to have people skills, be assertive, be proactive and generally show a series of characteristics that employers consider are positive for the position.
Examples
As we have already seen, because each area of human occupation requires a different set of specific competencies, it is impossible to make a complete list of all that exist. However, below we will see a series of examples that can help clarify what this concept consists of.
- Specific competences for a psychologist: Know different theories about the functioning of the mind, know how to apply different therapy tools, be able to listen actively, show empathy, understand the problems of patients and present solutions clearly.
- Specific skills for a classical musician: Know how to play an instrument competently, be able to read musical scores fluently, know the basic principles of harmony.
- Specific competences for a web designer: Be able to program in different languages, have notions of graphic design, writing for web pages and marketing, have basic computer skills.
- Specific competences for a general practitioner: Know how the human body works, know how to recognize symptoms of different diseases, and be able to prescribe the appropriate treatment for each health problem.
References
- "Basic, generic and specific competences" in: Utel Blog. Retrieved on: April 18, 2019 from Utel Blog: utel.edu.mx.
- "Generic competences and specific competences" in: Management. Retrieved on: April 18, 2019 from Management: gestion.org.
- "Specific competences" in: Tuning AL. Retrieved on: April 18, 2019 from Tuning AL: tuningal.org.
- "What are the specific competencies?" in: Web and Companies. Retrieved on: April 18, 2019 from Web and Companies: webyempresas.com.
- "Core competencies" in: Wikijob. Retrieved on: April 18, 2019 from Wikijob: wikijob.co.uk.