There is great interest in europe at present in the potential for recognizing competences which may not be included in formal certification etc. There are a number of different projects looking at this including the Self Evaluation project. I received the following email form Lizbeth Hoejdals who although she says she is only thinking out loud - I think raises a number of important issues.

"If we are to develop a tool that can meet the requirements that we put up ourselves - assist people in the process of discovering possible competences,  "discover" tacit knowledge and competences we are not aware of.........We need a different approach than simply ask for a set of specific competencies - can you do that, do you have this or that skill....The whole point is - in my opinion - that people are often not aware of their competencies...........



The tools that I have developed are based on that assumption and I, therefore, use a different approach.
"My tool" is inspired more by constructivist thinking, the socio-dynamic approach and developmental theory. Among others, I draw from Vance Peavy (Constructivist Counselling: Theory and Practice/SocioDynamic counselling) and Donald Super (The Life-span, Life-space Approach to Careers).

Therefore the tool I'm working with is different (I wil translate them into English ASAP) -  based on a narrative and contextual approach.

This implicates, that I'm not (in the tool) on the look-out for specific competences, but it encourages the counsellor to help the trainee to explore ALL possible competencies.

The self-evaluation process is in 7 phases, being:

1) My life-story (e.g. life-span, relations and learning experiences)
2) My present situation (e.g. life space, context and tasks for personal development)
3) My "future-scenario" (possible, thinkable and prefereable futures)
4) How do I moove ahead (e.g. visualizing steps needed to be taken - e.g. to get formal accreditation)
5) My professional and personal competencies (collected from life-story and additinal narratives)
6) My options and barriers (e.g. how to overcome personal and structural barriers)
7) My personal goals and sub-goals (short and longterm goals and action plan/what do I want to accomplish)
 
A number of Career researchers has stressed, that an individual's perception of competencies (self-concept/self-efficacy beliefs) is a context specific concept. My self-beliefs can be influenced by many factors.I think that these work in concert and operates through experiences, conceptions and expectations evolving around the past, the present and the future (I also measure myself according to my Outcomeexpectations, according to e.g. Albert Bandura/Self-efficacy and outcome expectations)."