2. Basic Competencies

Objectives

Upon completing this section, you should have determined the impact of any basic competency skills you have demonstrated in past experiences, as well as identified and developed an action plan for improving your basic competency skills. This section will take approximately 1.5 hours.

Background

Imagine yourself as the boss or the owner of a company. What basic skills would you look for in your employees? What are the characteristics of a valuable employee? Workplace skills and attributes are called "Basic Competencies" in Career and Technology Studies.

All people, to some degree, have basic competency skills. Existing skills can improve with time and experience, and you can always learn new skills that improve soft skills. People who are successful often possess a variety of soft skills in the workplace. It has been argued that the mastery of basic competency skills contributes to the degree of success individuals attain.

Practicing and refining your basic competency skills on a daily basis will help you be more productive and successful in every task you undertake, whether at school, at work, or in your personal life. Basic competencies are the soft skills employers value in their employees, what group members value in their peers, and skills that give you a sense of pride and satisfaction in your work.

soft skill: a person’s personality, social refinement, language skills, or personal and/or work habits that contributes to efficient and successful productivity

© Ryan McVay/Photodisc/ Getty Images

In this project you will examine the basic competencies and how they relate to your success in this course.

Instructions

Workplace Skills (/12)

Step 1: Create a new word processing document (still just Google Docs) on your computer called “Workplace Skills - Firstname Lastname” in your Tech 10 folder. (3 marks)

• 1. With a partner or a small group, brainstorm a list of vital skills that relate to being successful. What does success look like?

  2. From the list you create, highlight or change the font colour for the skills that are necessary for a variety of areas, like school (secondary or post-secondary), on the job, or in your personal life.

Step 2: The following is a list of skills deemed necessary for this course:

Fundamental Skills:

– communicating

– managing information

– using numbers

– thinking and problem solving

Personal Management Skills:

– demonstrating positive attitudes and behaviours

– being responsible

– being adaptable

– learning continuously

– working safely

Teamwork Skills:

– working with others

– participating in projects and tasks

Compare this list to the skills you listed in Step 1, then answer the questions that follow in your Workplace Skills document: (2 marks)

• 1. Are there any skills under Fundamental, Personal Management, or Teamwork that you didn’t mention in your list?

  2. Did you think of any skills that were not covered in the three groups listed above?

Step 3: Below the list you created in Step 1, write a short paragraph about a time in your life when you demonstrated one or more of the workplace skills and the impact that it had. Include work, school, or personal life experiences in your paragraph. This is similar to what you would do in a paragraph of a cover letter for a job application. (3 marks)

Step 4: Choose 2 of the above skills/ basic competency areas in which you can make improvements. For each one, write an action statement of how you plan to practice the identified skill and identify the benefits of practicing the skill. Here is one example: (4 marks)

Basic Competencies (/7)

Step 1: Open the Basic Competencies Rubric. Save a copy to your drive in your Technology 10 folder with your name added to the title - e.g., Basic Competencies Rubric - Tony Stark.

Step 2: Using the Basic Competencies Rubric, complete the Tech 10 Initial Check to identify areas that you may need to work on throughout the Tech 10 course. Using a colour of your choice, fill the cells with the descriptions that best describe your skills. You will evaluate your progress in exhibiting basic competencies three more times in this course. (7 marks)

Step 3: Upload and submit to the Basic Competencies assignment on Classroom your:

• • Workplace Skills document  

  • Basic Competencies Rubric