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IN OUR KNOWLEDGE ECONOMY, A CLEAR UNDERSTANDING OF YOUR OWN COMPETENCIES AND HOW YOU CAN APPLY THEM WILL CONTINUOUSLY ACCRUE VALUE.
In today's knowledge economy, good jobs and career progression require ever-higher levels of rapidly changing skills (see Carnavale 2013). A single credential or a stable set of well-known job skills is no longer sufficient for career success. Most of us can expect numerous career transitions that will require "upskilling" and professional development. This is a challenge not only for individuals trying to navigate their career progression, but also for employers, many of whom are citing an inability to find people with necessary skills as a critical business concern (SHRM 2016).
The world of information professionals is no exception; in fact, the level and complexity of knowledge and skills required for career progression in this field are arguably escalating faster than in other fields. In the scramble to keep up, employers, educators, professional associations such as SLA, and especially information professionals themselves need effective ways of articulating the knowledge, skills, and abilities that are professionally relevant. A shared language of competencies is a critical component in addressing this need.
In 2016, SLA revised its Competencies for Information Professionals, the goal of which is to "provide a common platform in which each information professional is able to find his or her unique competencies represented" (SLA 2016). In practical terms, this competency set provides-
* Clear, shared statements to describe what an individual knows and can do;
* Building blocks for describing what's entailed in a role at a specific organization;
* A framework for designing an effective, competency-aligned curriculum and training materials;
* A map to define the relationships between these competencies and other competencies, such as specializations; and
* A template individuals can apply as they collect and curate their own evidence of competencies.
The competencies document provides a shared framework for stakeholders to communicate the knowledge, skills, and abilities that are relevant in the field of information management. Employers can use it to understand the skills that information professionals contribute to achieving business goals. Educators can use it to design a curriculum that is applicable to specific pro- fessional responsibilities. Prospective information professionals can use it to understand the profession and what will...