Functional map of professional competences for EU socio-economic research

Qualifications

introduction

competency profile

flowchart of tasks

full qualifications report
(download PDF)

A professional competency profile: building a functional map

An occupational profile describes the work tasks to be carried out within the framework of a specific occupational activity, as well as the related knowledge, skills and abilities. It is an important instrument for assessment, as well as for the elaboration of vocational education programs. A professional competency profile provides the basis for a variety of human resource activities (recruitment, selection, training). The RESPECT project included the drawing up of professional and ethical codes for socio-economic research, with a particular (but not exclusive) focus on the research requirements of the IST programme. The main purposes for creating this professional competency profile were:

to be a reference document for compiling the voluntary code of practice (see links between the occupational profile and the code)
to be the basic material for the production of a user manual to European socio-economic research
to contribute to the broader professional debate about the curriculum consequences of international research
to contribute to the debate on creating quality standards and assessments of European socio-economic research.

The method of functional analysis has been used to develop the occupational profile. The product of this analytical process is a functional map. This map is a broad representation of the tasks required for a European socio-economic research project.

Before we come to the presentation of this specific profile we will discuss the content and usability of occupational profiles in general. Then we shall focus on the profile developed within the RESPECT project. We describe the research design and methodology used to develop the profile and give an overview of the content of this profile.

1. Occupational profiles in general

2. The occupational profile of socio-economic research

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