The C-Stick project: innovative practices for assessing key
competencies
• Background or context
JES is a plural non-profit organisation. Its mission is to create equal opportunities for young people to
actively participate in society. JES is based in three Belgian cities: Brussels, Antwerp and Ghent. Its
main activities include training and guidance, training for youth work volunteers, outreach work,
support for youth clubs and youth work initiatives, … These activities focus on young people, living in
large cities, between 6 and 30 years old, of whom a lot are low-skilled and with migrant background.
In 2006-2007 JES carried out the C-stick project. One of the main objectives of this project was to
develop a competence framework and tools for self-, peer and expert assessment of key competencies.
An important criterion for this framework was accessibility for a low-skilled target group, so very
simple and straightforward vocabulary was used. A second criterion was that it should be usable in
different settings (leisure time activities, training, job counselling), regardless professions or sectors.
• Objectives
It’s often stated that it is impossible to measure or assess competencies regardless a specific profession
or sector. In the actual debate the focus of attention is put on the context in which a competency is
developed. Nevertheless, transferability from one setting to another is one of the preliminaries of the
competency concept and underpins the idea of lifelong and life wide learning.
Since we wanted to make a framework that would be usable in all our activities (leisure time, training
and job counselling), we tried to create tools that would make it possible to assess competencies in a
‘neutral’ context, regardless a specific profession or sector.
In our presentation we want to present our framework and assessment tools, comment on their
strengths and weaknesses and feed the ongoing debate on the importance of context versus
transferability with some practical experiences.
• Summary of results
The competence framework we developed consists of a set of 16 key competencies that was selected
on the basis of a small survey with employers. The selected competencies were:
1. Cooperating 6. Learning 12. Respect rules
2. Speaking 7. Giving feedback 13. Handle clients
3. Listening 8. Handle feedback 14. Taking initiative
4. Flexibility 9. Self-reflection 15. Act independently
5. Planning and 10. Networking 16. Empathizing
organising 11. Handle authority
For these competencies observable performance indicators were defined and tested. The performance
indicators consist of very simple and straightforward statements on behaviour that is shown during a
practical exercise and indicates the level of development of a competency. See examples below.

Are you good at cooperating?
- Are you able to obtain a good result together with others, for example in an organisation or a team. Are you also able to do so if you don’t
get any personal advantages?
Yes Only if they ask No
me to
I tell what I’m good at and what I would like to do
I ask the others what they’re good at and what they would like to do
I take into account what others are good at and would like to do
I do my work without disturbing others
I do my work in such a way that others benefit from it
I do what we agreed to do
Yes Only if they ask No
me to
I tell about my progress and the problems I meet
I ask the others how they progress and what problems they meet
I adapt my way of working if others meet problems or finish their work sooner or later
I give clues to the others
I ask clues from the others
If I get a clue, I try to apply it in my work
Yes Only if they ask No
me to
I help the others, even if it’s not my job
I tell what goes right or wrong to improve our cooperation
I tell the others if they did a good job

Are you good at listening?
- Do you understand most of the time what others tell you?
- Do you then know what to do?
Yes No
I turn myself to the speaker
I look the speaker in the eyes
Yes No
I ask for an explanation if I don’t understand something
I show that I understood the explanation (fe. I nod or say mmmm)
I understand what I have to do after an explanation
Yes No
I let the speaker finish his explanation
I listen to the speaker, even if I totally disagree
I only ask questions if I really don’t understand something
I only ask questions that are related to the explanation

We use group dynamic exercises to assess the key competencies, because these exercises don’t have a
link with a specific sector or profession and are very attractive and funny for young people. In the
mean time they provide a lot of observation material on certain key competencies. While young people
participate in these exercises, they are observed by an assessor, who notes down everything he
observes. Afterwards the assessor uses the set of performance indicators to assess the level of
development of a certain competency using his notes.
Some illustrations and an example of exercises:
Exercise: blind meeting
The group has to wait outside. Tables and chairs are randomly placed in the room.
The participants may enter the room once they are blindfolded. During the exercise they are
not allowed to withdraw the blindfold.
CHALLENGE: Enter the room and make a square out of tables in the middle of the room.
Place all the chairs around the tables. If you think you are ready, you all sit down on the
chairs.
This exercise is a very interesting exercise to assess ‘cooperating’.
These competency assessments were used in different settings: in leisure time activities and training at
JES and in job counselling at the Flemish Employment service (VDAB). Some schools also used it for
a competency screening at the start of the school year.
Of course the exercises that are used and the way feedback is given, differs from one setting to
another.
• Conclusions and recommendations
We think key competency assessment regardless a specific sector or profession is indeed possible and
might have several advantages that are crucial to lifelong and life wide learning:
- Enhance social orientation
- Create a link between different settings (leisure time activities, training, job counselling)
through a shared terminology and by doing so encourage APEL (Accreditation of prior
experiential learning)

- Create an integrated learning experience (people realise that they develop the same
competencies in different contexts)
We therefore think the ongoing debate should not only focus on the importance of context, but should
also clarify the idea of transferability. Concrete experiments will be needed to do so. We think it
would be beneficial to develop a shared terminology with shared performance indicators. It would be
an interesting exercise to agree on a set of ‘neutral’ performance indicators (regardless sector or
profession) and see whether it is possible to ‘translate’ this common set to the specific context and
needs of sectors and professions. Such a framework would improve transferability of competencies
from one setting to another and therefore enhance accreditation of prior experiential learning and
facilitate career transitions.
At JES, we made a start to test this hypothesis: we set up a cooperation with the Flemish Employment
Service (VDAB) and tried to agree on a competence framework. VDAB uses specific frameworks for
each sector (taking into account specific sectors). We are now trying to integrate the different
frameworks, but this exercise is still in an experimental stage. We hope to be able to set up future
experiments to provide an answer to the following questions:
− Is it useful to assess key competencies as such or is this only useful in view of a specific
profession?
− Do our assessments (based on group dynamic exercises) have a predictive value for performance
on key competencies in work settings?
− Do our assessments proof that someone ‘meets the standards’ of a specific profession or do they
only reveal strengths and talents of people (indicative value)?