15606 Vocational Competencies
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particular session, location and mode of offering is the authoritative source
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Subject handbook information prior to 2025 is available in the Archives.
Credit points: 6 cp
Result type: Grade and marks
Description
This subject enables students to undertake an individualised program of learning and development relevant to their current work in local government. The subject is suited to local public servants, irrespective of professional background, who are working at any of the administrative levels within the organisation, including senior management and front-line staff. Similarly, it is suited to local public servants irrespective of their particular work role, unit or department within the organisation.
Through undertaking this process of guided vocational competency development, students build on their existing knowledge, skills and values in order to identify innovative approaches, tools and methods to enhance practice in a given area of local government practice. They undertake this program of learning with the support of a mentor, who is a staff member at the Centre for Local Government.
Subject learning objectives (SLOs)
On successful completion of this subject, students should be able to:
| 1. | Better understand the learning and development, including self-reflection, required to improve practice in their current work environment |
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| 2. | Appreciate the technical/professional area of practice that is the focus of their vocational competency development |
| 3. | Conceive of, negotiate, and write a program for their own professional development |
| 4. | Identify the relationship between technical/professional competencies and the more generic management skills necessary for successful public administration and management in the local government workplace. |
Course intended learning outcomes (CILOs)
This subject also contributes to the following Course Intended Learning Outcomes:
- Address issues in local government and intergovernmental organisations with an attitude that is open, ethical and empathetic (A.1)
- Reflect on personal views and values in the development of professional judgement and practice (A.3)
- Apply processes of organisational practice and review for a broad range of policy fields across diverse types of organisations, relating to local government (P.1)
- Conduct independent applied research to develop a deep understanding of complex policy problems and innovative, cross-disciplinary solutions pertaining to government and its stakeholders (R.3)
Teaching and learning strategies
This subject is based on adult education principles and the design of a program of teaching/learning that is specific to the needs and requirements of each student. The mode of offering for this subject is based on tutoring, guidance and mentoring, following a program that is developed and negotiated by participants and staff from the Centre for Local Government. Students are provided with a Subject Description and Guide to Readings and make use of UTSOnline to support their self-directed learning. They are in regular contact with the subject coordinator and are assigned a mentor once agreement is reached (between the subject coordinator and the student) as to which workplace issue, need or situation is to be the focus of their learning and development within the context of this subject.
The program includes self-reflection, negotiation, reading, theory-practice integration and report writing. It places a focus on the need for students to develop an openness to, and competency in, reflecting on their personal views and values in describing their current work role, opportunities and challenges. They are challenged to consider how their values may affect their professional judgment and practice and what may be needed, both as a practitioner and as a learner, to grow and develop as a public administrator working in local government. Linked to the focus on self-reflection, there is an emphasis on the integration of theory and research into local government practice based on a cumulative process of information gathering, reflection, linkage and professional response. This is reflected in the figure below:
Source: Bogo and Vayda (1998)[1]
Drawing on this model, and under the guidance of their mentor, each student is supported in recalling information about a specific practice situation (retrieval); reflecting on the practice situation, including considering assumptions and beliefs, personal experience and reflection on the effectiveness of the intervention(s) undertaken; using cognitive association to link the retrieved information with knowledge learned from reading, research studies and practice wisdom (linage); and selecting and implementing a plan that draws on these processes in order to deal with the situation at hand (professional response).
Each student’s program of self-directed and supported learning will be dependent on how the program is developed and negotiated, but the underlying objective remains the same: to build on existing knowledge, skills and values in order to identify innovative approaches, tools and methods to enhance practice in a given area of local government practice.
A consistent message from all teachers in this subject is that there is much to be learned from the debates and research conducted into competencies for public managers in general, and local public administrators in particular. Sanderson and Foreman[2] (1996: 75; emphases added) argue for a strategic, holistic approach, and for the development of programs ‘based upon action-learning which develop the intellectual and personal qualities of managers as well as the specific job competences required in their specific organisational contexts.’ This is the approach adopted in this subject.
[1] See under required texts
[2] See under required texts
Content (topics)
The teaching/learning process encompasses:
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Developing and negotiating a proposed workplace learning program
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Developing a workplace learning program with academic integrity and a focus on theory-practice integration that is also informed by research (as described above)
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Undertaking learning with workplace and academic guidance
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Utilising new technical and professional skills for successful management in the workplace, including enhanced skills in professional report writing.
Students are supported to read, interpret and make use of models of public sector management competencies that are discussed in the literature, such as a model empirically tested by Bourgault et al (2006)[1]:
A comprehensive overview of the subject’s teaching/learning approach, its assessments and its focus on public sector competencies is provided to students at the start of the subject in the form of a Subject Description and Guide to Readings. These competencies are globally applicable and workplace oriented.
[1] See under required texts
Assessment
Assessment task 1: Negotiated Vocational Competency Project
| Intent: | Students complete a report of maximum 3,000 words that reflects the process of negotiation of the self-directed and supported program of learning and development in connection with a specific area of the student’s role and work in local government. This report is a considered, negotiated contract between the learner and the Centre for Local Government, represented by the mentor. It sets forward the program of negotiated learning and development that is reflected in Assessment Task 2, described below. |
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| Objective(s): | This task addresses the following subject learning objectives: 1, 2, 3 and 4 This task also addresses the following course intended learning outcomes that are linked with a code to indicate one of the five CAPRI graduate attribute categories (e.g. C.1, A.3, P.4, etc.): .3, A.1, A.3 and P.1 |
| Type: | Project |
| Groupwork: | Individual |
| Weight: | 40% |
| Length: | 3000 words |
| Criteria: | Assessment criterion 1.1 – CILO A.1 – weighting 10% The report demonstrates the student’s ability to describe and reflect upon the relevance of a public service ethos and public value to local government theory and practice. Assessment criterion 1.2 – CILO A.3 – weighting 50% The student demonstrates an openness to, and competency in, reflecting on personal views and values in describing his/her current work role, opportunities and challenges. The Report includes a discussion of how values may affect professional judgment and practice and what may be needed, both as a practitioner and as a learner, to grow and develop as a public administrator working in local government. A coherent statement of vocational competency development goals is put forward. Assessment criterion 1.3 – CILO P.1 – weighting 20% In the negotiation of a program of self-reflection, reading and theory-practice integration, the student demonstrates an understanding of local government principles and practices as they relate to his/her work role. Assessment criterion 1.4 – CILO 1.3 – weighting 20% Drawing on the literature and on self-reflection, innovative approaches to local governance, management and/or leadership practices are put forward. These are applied to the student’s work role as suggestions for learning, growth and development. TOTAL 100% (contributing 40% of the overall mark for the subject) The feedback provided to students on the basis of the above assessment plays an important part in the overall teaching/learning approach. Assessment task 1is a formative assessment, with a strong focus on providing feedback that will enable the student to address a specific area of their current work practice in local government by describing, analysing, reflecting upon, implementing and appraising a program of workplace professional learning. Drawing on this feedback, Assessment task 1 feeds directly into Assessment task 2. |
Assessment task 2: Workplace Professional Learning Report
| Intent: | Students complete a report of 8,000 to 10,000 words that reflects the learning and development that has taken place in keeping with the description, analysis and goals reflected in the Negotiated Vocational Competency Project report (Assignment 1). |
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| Objective(s): | This task addresses the following subject learning objectives: 1, 2, 3 and 4 This task also addresses the following course intended learning outcomes that are linked with a code to indicate one of the five CAPRI graduate attribute categories (e.g. C.1, A.3, P.4, etc.): .3, A.1, A.3, P.1 and R.3 |
| Type: | Report |
| Groupwork: | Individual |
| Weight: | 60% |
| Length: | 8,000 to 10,000 words |
| Criteria: | Assessment criterion 2.1 – CILO A.1 – weighting 10% The student has produced a Workplace Professional Learning Report, which competently and in an engaging way describes the ways in which she/he has applied principles of public service and public value to his or her work as a public administrator working in local government. Assessment criterion 2.2 – CILO A.3 – weighting 20% The student demonstrates an openness to, and competency in, reflecting on personal views and values and how they may affect professional judgment and practice. On this basis, he/she demonstrates that, upon negotiating and developing a program for professional development, she/he has applied this program to practice. Assessment criterion 2.3 – CILO P.1 – weighting 30% There is evidence of a well-developed understanding of local government principles and practices as they relate to the student’s work role. The Report makes clear links between the ways concepts, principles and frameworks are expressed in the literature, and how they manifest in the student’s own work unit and council. The Report also makes clear how enhanced understandings and reading have assisted him/her to consider and put into practice improvements to his/her work role to the benefit of the organisation and the community. Assessment criterion 2.4 – CILO R.3 – weighting 20% The student demonstrates growing competence in developing informed arguments and rationales relating to an identified issue or problem in local government. This enhanced competence is clearly linked in the Report to readings, discussion and self-reflection that the student has undertaken. In doing so, the student demonstrates the capacity to link theory, research and practice. Assessment criterion 2.5 – CILO I.3 – weighting 20% An innovative and forward-looking approach is evident in the recommendations put forward for improvement in his/her work role, the role of his/her work unit or department, or the council as a whole. Innovative approaches to addressing an identified issue or problem are critically discussed in the Report. TOTAL 100% (contributing 60% of the overall mark for the subject)
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Minimum requirements
Students overall must obtain at least 50% of the total marks.
Required texts
Bourgault, J., Charih, M., Maltais, D. and Rouillard, L., 2006, Hypotheses concerning the prevalence of competencies among government executives, according to three organisational variables, Public Personnel Management, 35(2): 89-119.
Lazenby, S., 2010, The adequacy of MPA course content in preparing local government managers, Journal of Public Affairs Education, 16(3): 337-360.
Lodge, M. and Hood, C., 2005, Symposium introduction: Competency and higher civil servants, Public Management, 83(4): 779-787.
Sanderson, I. and Foreman, A., 1996, Towards pluralism and partnership in management development in local government, Local Government Studies, 22(12): 59-77.
Reading widely on the chosen area of professional practice is essential to enable students to enhance their knowledge, values and skills.