Final Report Pilot Project - Relaciones Internacionales de la ...

5.1. The objectives
The objectives of the questionnaire included:
—The wish to initiate the joint discussion on this field of competences
and skills at the European level, based on consultation with groups
from outside academia (graduates and employers) as well as from a
broader base in relation to academics (beyond Tuning representatives
from each of the subject areas involved).
—The attempt to gather updated information for reflection on
possible trends and the degree of variety and change all over
Europe.
—The desire to start from the experience and the reality in order to
reach levels of diversity or commonality between the different
countries, starting the debate from specific questions with
concrete language.
—The importance of focusing the reflection and debate at three
different levels: the institutional level (the basis and the first one
to take place), the subject area level (a reference point for the HE
institutions) and the aggregate level (a second reference point in
relation to the situation at European level).
5.2. The content of the questionnaire
DEFINITION OF COMPETENCES
Several terms: capacity, attribute, ability, skill, competence are used
with an often interchangeable, and to some degree overlapping
meaning. They all relate to the person and to what he/she is able of
achieving. But they also have more specific meanings. Ability, from the
Latin «habilis» meaning «able to hold, carry or handle easily», led to
the word «habilitas» which can be translated as «aptitude, ability,
fitness or skill.»
The term skill is probably the most frequently used, with the
meaning of being able, capable or skilful. It is often used in the plural,
«skills,» and sometimes with a more restricted meaning than that of
competences. This explains the choice of the term competences in the
Tuning Project. In the questionnaire to the graduates and employers,
however, the two terms «skills» and «competences» appear together
for a more encompassing meaning.
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