Symposium on Competence Management, Potsdam

Right after the ECTEL conference I went to the Symposium on Competence Management (Fachtagung Kompetenzmanagement) at Potsdam on October 5 – together with Christine Kunzmann. We presented our concepts and experiences with systematic human resource development and the relationship to competency-oriented workplace learning support (see our ECTEL contribution).
Although the number of participants was lower than expected, there were some interesting presentations and discussions.

• The knowledge balance (Wissensbilanz) for incorporating intangible assets into the corporate financial balance sheet provided some interesting, although also highly debatable perspective for individually-centered competence management.
• There was a debate on whether competence management is a part of or rather a next generation knowledge management. I took the position that competencies are a better abstraction and metaphor than knowledge is because competence acquisition and development is always seen as a complex activity while knowledge storage, transfer and acquisition is often oversimplified.