La formación por competencias y el mundo del trabajo: de la calificación a la empleabilidad

Abstract

Considered as an element of business discourse, the competence-based education emerges associated with processes of productive restructuring influencing the economy since 1970. These processes arise as a consequence of the crisis of the accumulation model based on mass production and consumption following the principles of taylorism and fordism. In the last decades, the State has been unable to solve the periodic crisis that afflicts late capitalism. Because of this, the State moves away from its economic mission, promotes marketing mechanisms and, in the meantime, it tries to manage the motivational crisis of the population. This challenge forces the State to take interest in the vital world of individuals trying to solve the legitimacy crisis through educational reforms that affect the world of work. The relationship between the vertiginous changes of working world and a new educational formation is explicit. This educational formation must consider (at the same time) the management capacity, learning capacity, teamwork capacity and self-training. Based on this situation, there is a direct relationship between technologic advances, the structural crisis of capitalism and work organization. Besides, the 'qualification' term is replaced with 'competency-based education'.