A Competency Standard
What is it?
Competency Systems are the training framework of The Tourism and Food & Beverage (F&B) Workforce Skills Qualifications (WSQ). Its smallest unit is the Competency Standard. Essentially, this comprises a group of skills that are required to perform a role, duty or function or:
- Skills that must be mastered by workers
- Performance criteria &
- Direction on training and assessment (amongst others) for ATOs.
A Competency Standard is not courseware. It must be translated into a curriculum before training and assessment can take place. However, it can be a good guide for best practice in training and assessment.
Take for example, Provide Wine Service, a Competency Standard for a Higher Certificate in Food & Beverage (Service). As a Competency Standard, it represents an ‘A to Z’ on wine service. Thus, a worker who is assessed as competent under it will be able to execute a range of skills from describing and recommending wine through to how to decant and serve it.
Performance Criteria
Performance criteria refers to requirements that must be met under the Competency Standard. On Provide Wine Service, this would include knowing major types of wine and their characteristics – from still to dessert wine, grape variety and characteristics, to relevant statutory regulations and more.
Direction
ATOs are required to align their training and/or assessment with the Competency Standard’s direction. An example of training direction under the Provide Wine Service Competency Standard, includes a need for ATOs to consider holistic and customised worker training. This includes a combination of written exercise, observation, role play and presentation by the student. Training that incorporates adult learning principles on experiential education, at a place that replicates work environment – with wine bottles, tools and equipment, are also mandated.
Upon completing his education on the standard, a student can be expected to be able to describe wine types and pair these with food. Test questions for the benefit of ATOs – from describing different vine parts to how to tell whether wine is oxidised are also provided.
