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Towards a Framework for the Quality Assurance of

Practical Skill Ability

Akira Kurematsu*

Takashi Sakamoto*

Yoshito Shubiki**

*Accreditation Council for Practical Abilities

**Advisory Member of Accreditation Council for Practical Abilities

President & CEO, Shubiki Corporation

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Outline

• Background• Framework of Quality Assurance in the Practical

Education• Standard Skills Matrix• Skills Description• Quality Assurance by Certification and Accreditation• Conclusion

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Importance of Practical Capability in Higher Education

• The enhancement of competencies is essential for the attainment of a wide range of occupational abilities.

• It involves the combination of knowledge, skills and human behavior.

• The demand for competence in practical ability in higher education is increasing as a consequence of the mismatch in skills required in industries.

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Sustainable Tertiary Education

• In a rapidly changing knowledge-based age, workers also constantly need to acquire new skills.

• Tertiary education in the area of practical education contributes to building up an individual’s capacity to participate in a knowledge-based business environment.

• Education providers need to respond to the needs by creating education and training systems that equip people with new and appropriate skills.

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Need of Quality Assurance in Practical Education

• An increasing number of tertiary institutions are offering courses to meet the needs of learning practical abilities.

• Distant education is one method by which institutions or suppliers can offer more flexible learning opportunities.

• Mechanisms for certifying the courses, assessing the achievements of learners, investigating institutional and system performance.

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Skill Standards

• Skill standards will provide a common framework for communication of workplace expectations between business, education, workers, students.

• Competency-based standards will assure the employability of students who have completed programs based on those standards.

• Skill standards will close the qualification gap by linking industry expectations for knowledge, skills, and abilities to the education provided to students.

• Skill standards will provide workplace expectations, so students know what they need to be able to do to meet those expectations.

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Framework of Quality Assurance in the Practical Education at ACPA

• Standard Skill GuidesStandard Skill Matrix– Skill standard matrix describes the association with

job categories and skills in the form of a table showing which skills are required for each occupational category.

Standard Skill Description– Skill items description depicts details of the skills.

• Domain– ICT, Business and Management, Language

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Level 0

CategorySkillItem

IT Basic Internet ★★ ★★★ ★★★ ★★★ ★★ ★★ ★★BusinessTool

★★ ★★★ ★★★ ★★★ ★★★ ★★★ ★★★

ComputerFundamentals

★ ★★★ ★★★ ★★★ ★★ ★★ ★★

PersonalSkill

Communication★ ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★

Leadership ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★Negotiation ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★★ ★Management ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

System ＯＳ ★ ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ ★

FundamentalsSystem BasicTechnology

★

SystemConfigulation

★

RequirementDefinition

★

Platform Design ★IntroductionPlanning

★

Evaluation Method ★Server Application ★ServerImplementation ★

Level 1

GeneralSystemDevelopment

ITAdministration( )ＳＥ

OperationCustomerService

SalesAdministrationStaff

[Requisite achievement]…★ Having basic knowledge. …Having comprehensive knowledge. …Able to utilize obtained skills effectively.★★ ★★★

Skill 　 Matrix 　 (Extract)

Example of Standard Skills Matrix

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Standard Skills Matrix(1)

• PurposeAssociation of occupational category and skills

• Skill itemsSkill items of each category field are extracted.

• Occupational category/specialized field with competency level– Classification of jobs corresponding to professional

specialization• Level 0..: Preparation stage for finding job• Level 1..: Capable to undertake job under the

support of one’s supervisor. Job is broadly classified.

• Level 2..: Capable to undertake job by oneself in the specific field with one’s own specialized skill. Job is classified into specific field.

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Standard Skills Matrix(2)

• Skill ability rating levelFor each skill item associated occupational specification, the rating level of the skill ability is determined.

– ★★★ ・・・ The level of executing and applying skills in practical use.

– ★★ ・・・・・ The level of understanding detailed items. Can explain to others and can apply skills to the practical use.

– ★・・・・ The level of understanding the outline in general.

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■Advanced level

Ability measurement (interviews, essays, experience, aptitude, etc.)

■Advanced level

Ability measurement (interviews, essays, experience, aptitude, etc.)

■Intermediate levelCertification of a skill setCompletion of a course, Acquisition of qualifications,Ability measurement

■Intermediate levelCertification of a skill setCompletion of a course, Acquisition of qualifications,Ability measurement

■Entry levelCertification of a skillCompletion of a certified coursePassing of a certified qualification examination

■Entry levelCertification of a skillCompletion of a certified coursePassing of a certified qualification examination

Classification of Competency LevelFocus on experience and measurement of abilities of individuals

Focus on certification of courses and qualification tests,as well as development of abilities

Advanced level(High-achievers)

Entry level

Intermediate level

(University juniors and seniors, postgraduates, new workers in their first few years of service, etc.)

(Workers in mid-career, etc.)

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Skill Category

ICT Skills

Business Skills

Language

English

・ System Fundamentals・ Database・ Network・ Information Security・ Program Development・ System Development・ Multi-Media Development・ Project Management・ Information and Management

・ Enterprise Planning･ Personnel/Labor/ Human Resource Development 　・ Legal/General/ Public Relations 　　　　　　・ Finance/Accounting　・ Marketing 　　･Manufacturing Management・ Logistics・ International Business・ Sales

Basic ･ Personal Skill 　･ IT Basic

Business Specific Professional Skills

・ Productive Activities・ Receptive Activities・ Interactive Activities･ Linguistic Competence・ Sociolinguistic Competence・ Pragmatic Competence

・ Beginning･ Basic･ Pre-intermediate･ Intermediate･ Pre-advanced･ Advanced

･ Personal Skills 　・ Conduct Guideline

・ IT Usage 　　　　　　･ IT Application

Common Business

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Example of Skills Description

Category Skill Sub-category

Skill Item Skill Component Skill Description

SystemFundamentals

OperatingSystem

Installation ofWindowsXP

Can install the XP P ofessional and confirm the action.ｒ

Configuration ofdesktopenvironment

Can provide and manage the desktop user environment in the usualbusiness use.

Use andmanagement ofuser account

Can create and configure user accounts, make user profiles, creategroup accounts, and allocate user priorities.

Use of network Understands the fundamentals of TCP/ IP protocol and theconfiguration of TCP/ IP. Can connect the PC to a network.

Operation in Micｒosoft network

Understands the network configuration (work group and domain).Understands the outline of an active directory and can enter thedomain and logon the domain. Can use an active directory.

Disk management Can make the partitioning of a hard disk. Can make formatting of ahard disk space.

Use andmanagement ofdisk

Can manage the NTFS access permission, the resource sharing andthe connection to sharing resources.

Use of printer Can use a local printer and a network printer.Trouble shooting Can perform a trouble shooting by the bootstrapping process and find

problems of other systems.

Windows XPProfessionalBasic（ ）

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Standard Skill Inventory

• Skill inventory is itemized to describe the detailed components in the knowledge and practical skills.

• ACPA describes skill inventory and skill items in the three domains of ICT, Business and Language.

• The following is the numbers of skill items and components.

Category Skill Items Skill Components

ICT 343 1137

Business 220 1141

Language 108 234

Total 671 2512

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ACPA Skill Training Model 　　　

Corporation to build up skill competencies

Private Enterprises

(recruiting division)

Educational institutionsAccredited institutions

(universities, companies’training divisions, etc.)

Accreditation Council for Practical Abilities

Individual

Certificate of skills

Apply for certificate

of skills

Company employees to take courses, tests and provide information

Match job requirements and

individual capabilities

Build-up work-ready

skills

Provide and implement corses and tests

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Human Resource Development Model

• ACPA performs certification and accreditation of courses, tests, course providers, educational institutions based on the criteria established by the ACPA.

• ACPA functions as an intermediary to promote collaboration between three parties—companies (human resources and training departments), educational institutions (e.g. universities, companies), and individuals.

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Quality Assurance by Certification and Accreditation

• ACPA certifies training courses, educational institutions, and qualification tests.

• The evaluation criteria is based on the aim of appearing human resources capable of executing tasks professionally (practical abilities).

• ACPA also certificates individuals who complete a certified course or pass a certified test as possessing the knowledge and skills required for their assignment.

• Individuals register for an ACPA Mate and receive the certificate, as well as continual information service.

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Course Certification

• ACPA certifies the quality and effectiveness of individual course.

• Experts in the related field examine various elements of the course (course materials, curricula, drills and practices, tests, etc.) based on the criteria established by ACPA.

• It clarifies to what extent learners can acquire the skills defined as necessary on the course.

• If the results are satisfactory, the ACPA certifies the course as having the standard quality and effectiveness.

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Institution Certification

• ACPA certifies the standard quality of educational institutions.

• Certification for course-providing institutions– the institution is recognized as capable of

continuously providing an ACPA-certified course. • Certification for course-executing institutions.

– the institution is recognized as capable of executing courses and cooperating with ACPA for the certification of practical abilities of individuals.

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Lessons from the ACPA Approach

• Standard skill guide has been useful for identifying the skill items required in the individual courses and tests.

• The need for high quality of courses and tests linked to the skill items of the standard skill description has been identified.

• The institutions supplying courses and test have made efforts to develop the high quality materials and resources.

• Learners who obtained the certificate of skills are expected to use this to the job application.

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Conclusion

• A framework for quality assurance in practical education based on skill standards is described.

• The quality assurance using skill standards in the practical education undertaken by ACPA is introduced.

• We believe that INQAAHE will play an important role in tertiary education in the future.

• We expect to make a significant contribution to the establishment of the global framework for tertiary education in the 21st century.

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Thank you for your attention,

• More information:– http://www.acpa.jp/ – E-mail: inqg@acpa.jp