The Integrated Qualifications System –
recognise your competences With The Skills Audit Method
Validation is a key element of the Integrated Qualifications System. It is a process that enables us to check whether a given person has the learning outcomes required for a given qualification – i.e. the appropriate knowledge, skills and social competences – regardless of how they have been acquired.
The Skills Audit Method (SAM) can support and prepare the client for the validation process: it enables the identification of competences, facilitates the collection of evidence and strengthens awareness of one's own skills. It is also applicable when working with diverse clients: from individuals preparing for validation processes, through candidates participating in recruitment procedures, to pupils in primary schools (grades 7-8), secondary school students, university students, as well as adults of various ages who are making decisions regarding their educational or career path.
The Skills Audit Method (SAM) can be used in the validation process at the stage of identification and documentation. It also plays an important supporting role – both before and after validation. It helps not only to choose the right qualification in the IQS, but also to plan further steps in professional and educational development. For many people, the audit becomes an impulse to formally confirm what they already know, as well as to take on new challenges.
In line with the idea of lifelong learning, SAM enables the recognition and organisation of knowledge, skills and social competences acquired at different times and places (e.g. at work, during courses, at school). Using SAM, one can also determine one's predispositions and interests in terms of the assumed goal. This provides a full picture of their potential based on experience and possible directions for further learning.
The Skills Audit Method allows for:
recognising what you know and can do
describing your skills in such a way that you can show them to others
gathering evidence of knowledge and skills
preparing development plans
Support for Counsellors:
People using the method should have a certain set of competences to effectively support their clients. A career counsellor should motivate a given person and properly present the benefits of undergoing the skills audit. This is often a long process that requires considerable commitment on the part of the client.
Meet our characters
The Skills Audit Method is useful when working with people in various life situations - from someone who needs a broad-based identification of competences to a person trying to get a specific job or promotion. Meet our characters who used the Skills Audit Method: Elena – 17 years old, Maria – 22 years old, Zbigniew – 63 years old.
