2018-05-BIOTALENT - Development of National Occupational Standards for the Bio-economy

Development of National Occupational Standards for the Bio-economy

The overarching purpose of the project is to set the foundation for any further skills development undertaken by employers, educators, labour market researchers, accreditation and certification of skills agencies, and policymakers in the bio-economy. 
 
The project’s objective extends beyond creating National Occupational Standards for the bio-economy, by creating a structure that will:

• Allow for cost-effective and regular updates of the National Occupational Standards.  
• Contain the necessary information to facilitate the use of the National Occupational Standards in the development of exams for future certification of skills programs.
• Organize information within a competency framework to facilitate the development of a learning and recognition of skills model for the bio-economy and facilitate the development of criteria for future accreditation of curriculum programs.
• Allow for easy transfer of the National Occupational Standards content into web tools.
• Allow for easy customization of the National Occupational Standards content into other HR tools.

• Create a competency framework to guide the development of National Occupational Standards for the bio-economy.
• Define the methodology to develop the National Occupational Standards based on the competency framework.
• Identify the National Occupational Standards to be developed based on the proposed competency framework and methodology. 
• Conduct secondary research followed by consultations with industry professionals to determine the skills and competencies required to perform within each occupational function. Each National Occupational Standard will be validated by sector workers, employers, and academic partners.
• Create essential skills profiles for all the National Occupational Standards.  The profiles must include language benchmarks ratings.
• Create, through secondary research and based on the competency framework and National Occupational Standards, a preliminary model for a “Learning and Recognition of Skills” framework for the bio-economy.  The framework can also be referred to as a “Training Qualifications” model.