Competency-based training in bioinformatics
This article was written by Victoria Hill, Chemistry PhD student at the University of Sheffield.
Recently, EMBL-EBI, in collaboration with a number of our EU project partners, launched the Competency Hub. This is a free platform where students and professionals can evaluate their abilities against the competencies of that framework.
What is a competency?
A competency is an observable and measurable ability of any professional, specific to those required in your field. They’re further broken down into the Knowledge, Skills, and Attitudes (KSAs).
The competencies are all mapped to career profiles ranging from PhD student to senior roles, both in industry and academia, and assigned a grade on a scale that measures the level the individual should be at in that competency depending on the profile. For a more in-depth analysis, the user can go into each graded competency and look at which KSAs are applicable at that career stage.
What does the Competency Hub offer?
- Evaluate your competencies against those of each framework by creating a profile and comparing them to the pre-defined career profiles.
- Find training resources for each competency, and in some frameworks, more in-depth learning pathways for skills relevant to that field.
- Develop courses as a trainer using the Competency Hub. Define your audience, plan your content, and write learning outcomes, as well as compare your resources to what is already available.
- Assess whether, as a trainer, you are targeting the correct audience and use the competencies to provide an overview to stakeholders.
- Evaluate your team and create job descriptions as a manager.
How did we do it?
After a pilot project with the BioExcel Knowledge Resource Centre, we decided to create a site where everybody can access all the information included in the competency framework.
The Competency Hub was developed by the EMBL-EBI Training and Web Development teams in dedicated two-week collaborative development sprints.
A goal was defined for each sprint; our most recent one focused on improving the career profile journeys. Previous sprints included making the site more user-friendly, adding learning pathway functionality, and adding career profiles, among other tasks to constantly improve the site.
What is next?
At the end of each sprint, we gain feedback from users to determine our next goals. The next sprint will focus on improving the connections between the competencies and the career profiles to the training resources.
Want to get involved with future development? Fill in our survey.
We’d love to hear what you think of this new feature! Tell us on Twitter using @EBItraining.