This presentation explores the UNESCO Transversal Competencies and how they relate to the General Capabilities form the Australian Curriculum.

2. Aims of Session
• To establish our own
understanding and definition of
Transversal Competencies
• To clarify our understanding of
Transversal Competencies
• To establish links to the Australian
Curriculum
• To identify the role of the library in
developing Transversal
Competencies
• To begin the process of creating a
statement from AISWA Libraries
Inc. regarding Transversal
Competencies

3. Key Drivers
What are the drivers for Transversal Competencies
and where have they come from?

4. Key Competencies for Lifelong learning -
a European Reference Framework
Key competences are those which all individuals need for personal
fulfilment and development, active citizenship, social inclusion and
employment.
The Reference Framework sets out eight key competences:
• Communication in the mother tongue;
• Communication in foreign languages;
• Mathematical competence and basic competences in science and
technology;
• Digital competence;
• Learning to learn;
• Social and civic competences;
• Sense of initiative and entrepreneurship; and
• Cultural awareness and expression.

5. DECISION (EU) 2018/646 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE
COUNCIL of 18 April 2018
on a common framework for the provision of better services for skills and qualifications
(Europass) and repealing Decision No 2241/2004/EC
For the purposes of this Decision, skills are understood in a broad sense covering
what a person knows, understands and can do. Skills refer to different types of
learning outcomes, including knowledge and competences as well as ability to apply
knowledge and to use knowhow in order to complete tasks and solve problems. In
addition to the acknowledged importance of professional skills, there is an
acknowledgement that transversal or soft skills, such as critical thinking, team
work, problem solving and creativity, digital or language skills, are increasingly
important and are essential prerequisites for personal and professional fulfilment
and can be applied in different fields. Individuals could benefit from tools and
guidance on assessing and describing those and other skills.

6. EuroPass
Decision No 2241/2004/EC of the European Parliament and of the
Council established a framework to address the challenges relating to job
seeking, engaging in learning and career management. The aim of that
Decision was to achieve better transparency of qualifications and
competences through a portfolio of documents known as ‘Europass’,
which individuals can use on a voluntary basis. That Decision also
established national bodies, known as National Europass Centres, in order
to implement the Europass framework.

7. What is a transversal
competence?

8. United States
21st century skills
necessary skills
employability skills
workplace know-how
The Question
of Definition
Australia
key competencies
soft skills
employability skills
work smarts
United Kingdom
key skills
core skills
New Zealand
essential skills

9. Skills vs
CompetenciesCompetences are defined as a combination of knowledge, skills and
attitudes appropriate to the context.
Competency denotes something the learner must master. It therefore
does not reflect what the teacher must do.
A competency does not refer to an activity carried out by the learner
in the course of learning: A competency denotes a quality acquired by
the learner, a potential for reflection and action that he or she keeps
and maintains.

10. A competency is more than just knowledge
and skills. It involves the ability to meet
complex demands, by drawing on and
mobilising psychological resources
(including skills and attitudes) in a particular
context. For example, the ability to
communicate effectively is a competency
that may draw in an individual’s knowledge
of language, practical IT skills and attitudes
towards those with whom he is
communicating.
“The Definition and Selection of key Competencies” Executive Summary 2005
oecd.org/pisa/35070367.pdf

11. SKILLS
KNOWLEDGEEATTTUDES
Competency development is an evolving process

12. Types of
competenciescompetency = potential to act + educational/technical content: this
involves cognitive, gestural and technical know-how (in technical or
professional training), such as recognising a triangle, comparing two modes
of germination, fitting a door frame, etc.
competency = potential to act + context: what are involved here are
generic competencies- the competency of being open, assertive and
creative, of seeking information, of paying attention to detail, of having
scientific rigour, etc.
competency = potential to act + educational/technical content +
situation: these are situational competencies, which are only meaningful
if characterised by a family of situations to be handled, this family of
situations being delimited by a set of contents supposedly acquired by the
learner and that he or she must reinvest in situations.

13. Which Framework?

16. Ways of thinking
Creativity and innovation
Critical thinking, problem
solving
Learning to learn,
metacognition
Ways of working
Communication
Collaboration
responsibility
Tools for working
Information Literacy
ICT Literacy
Living in the world
Citizenship local and global
Life and career
Personal and social
ATC2020

19. Everyone requires Transversal
Competencies to successfully adapt
to change and to lead meaningful and
productive lives.
They are talents and abilities that can
be transferred from one life situation
to another and from one occupation
to another.
TCs are not specific to one particular
career path but are generic across all
employment sectors.
They also support independent
functioning and coping with practical
problems or choices as a worker or
citizen, learning from personal
experiences in diverse formal and
informal settings.
UNESCO identifies 5 domains for
TCs:
1.Critical and innovative thinking
2.Interpersonal skills
3.Intra-personal skills
4.Global citizenship

21. Zest For Living
Japan
General Capabilities
Australia

25. Ability to
• locate and access information through ICT,
media, libraries and archives
• express and communicate ideas through ICT
• Use media and ICT to participate in democratic
processes
• analyse and evaluate media content

28. ACARA Curriculum Activity Report
June 2016
Assessment of transversal competencies
ACARA represents Australia in the Network on Education
Quality Monitoring the Asia Pacific project. The UNESCO
comparative study explores approaches and practices
adopted in assessing transversal competencies or general
capabilities in the Asia-Pacific region. The Australian
report has been developed and submitted. It involves
national level information and school case studies. Each
participating country’s report will be synthesised to form
the regional report.
http://ais.act.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/ACARA-Curriculum-Directors-Activity-Report-
June-2016.pdf

30. Assessment of Transversal Skills 2020 (ATS2020) is an innovative
policy experimentation project co-funded by the European Commission.
The ATS2020 project is comprised of 17 partners from 11 EU countries.
ATS2020 provides a comprehensive learning model for the
enhancement of student indispensable transversal skills within curricula
and offers new approaches and innovative tools to teachers for the
development and assessment of these skills.
www.ats2020.eu

38. Challenges for Integrating Transversal
Competencies into the Curriculum

40. Competencies in the
Curriculum
• The ‘United Nations’ Approach - focus on “life skills’ and
“living together in society”
• The “Interdisciplinarity” / cross- cutting capacities approach -
the development of generic competencies (e.g. learning to
learn)
• The Standards Approach - focuses on the introduction and
assessment of minimum ‘know-how’ and competencies at
each level - with employability as an end-point (e.g Australian
Qualifications Framework)
• Interaction of Achievements and Terminal Competencies
Approach - also known as ‘basic competencies approach” or
“integration pedagogy” - provides cognitive, gestural and
emotional capability, enabling him or her to act in complex
situations as a responsible citizen.

41. Questions for Decision
Makers1. Link with the learner’s exit profile
What type of learner exit profile is sought? A general profile
(knowledge, know-how, culture, etc.)? A set of standards with an eye to
employability? A potential for handling complex situations of everyday
and professional life?
2. The assessable character of competencies
Do we want to be able to assess these competencies, or do they just
serve as a guide lending colour to the learning processes? Are
competencies a goal to be reached by each learner or do they
represent a framework describing the spirit in which the learning
processes should take place?
3. Link between competencies and programme content
Do we consider that competencies must encompass educational
content, or rather that they should develop alongside this content?
4. Importance of the socio-emotional/emotional dimension
How far is the system actually ready to introduce the socio-emotional
dimension in the curriculum, or even in the emotional dimension?

42. Assessing competencies
Assessment of know-how
Since the introduction of teaching by objectives in education, the types of know-
how are assessed at school in accordance with systematic procedures, whether
through questionnaires, exercises or practice.
Assessing generic competencies
The assessment of generic competencies in teaching is today the subject of very
few instrumented devices. They are still often assessed through a subjective
appreciation given by the teacher.
Assessing situational competencies
Apart from technical and professional training, where these assessments are
common practice, there is not, in the world of primary or secondary general
education, any deep-rooted tradition of assessing situational competencies. In
recent years, however, particularly in a number of French- speaking countries,
they are beginning to be assessed by means of complex situations presented to
the learner — situations of producing a complex written submission, solving a
problem, etc. Furthermore, such complex situations are increasingly making their
appearance on international standardised tests.

43. PISA Collaborative Problem Solving Test

44. https://transversalcompetencies.weebly.com

45. ActionsDevelop a position paper from AISWA Libraries Inc.
that includes:
• Our own definition of Transversal Competencies
• What we believe are the most important
competencies (with a focus on Information
Literacy)
• A statement about how the library program can
support the development of Transversal
Competencies
• Proposed strategies of how this could be done
• Curated list of support resources