- Secretary's Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills (SCANS)
The Secretary's Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills (SCANS) was appointed in 1990 by Lynn Martin, the Secretary of the
United States Department of Labor . The commission was made up of 30 business, school, union and parental representatives. The SCANS' job was to examine the demands of the future workplace, and they eventually developed a list of skills "that high-performance workplaces require and that high-performance schools should produce." It consists of five basic competencies that are built on a three-part foundation, which define what an effective worker should know and have skill in.The Five Competencies
1. Resources - allocating, time, money, materials and staff
2. Interpersonal - working on teams, teaching others, serving customers, leading, negotiating, and working well with people from culturally diverse backgrounds.
3. Information - acquiring and evaluating data, organizing and maintaining files, interpreting and communicating, and using computers to process information.
4. Systems - understanding social, organizational, and technological systems, monitoring and correcting performance, and designing or improving systems
5. Technology - selecting equipment and tools, applying technology to specific tasks, and maintaining and troubleshooting technologies.
The Three-Part Foundation
1. Basic Skills - reading, writing, arithmetic and mathematics, speaking and listening
2. Thinking Skills - thinking creatively, making decisions, solving problems, seeing things in the mind's eye, knowing how to learn, and reasoning.
3. Personal Qualities - individual responsibility, self-esteem, self-management, and integrity.
External links
[http://wdr.doleta.gov/SCANS Secretary's Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills]
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