What is a competency?
A competency is a skill or ability that an organisation needs a member of its staff to have. For example, Basic First Aid, Fire Safety Awareness or Infection Control.
A competency can be satisfied in one of three ways:
- Certification - by successfully completing a training course during their employment
- Exemption – by an external course or qualification. For example, a manager might grant an exemption for a First Aid competency to a member of staff who has completed a St John’s Ambulance course as part of their voluntary work for a charity
- On-boarding – by prior training or qualifications that a member of staff has had in the course of their current or previous employment
Creating and managing Competencies in Thoosa
Thoosa allows complete flexibility in defining and organising the competencies that your organisation requires. These are managed via Admin, Competencies in the main menu.
Categories
Competencies can, optionally, be categorised into groups to aid management. There is no limit to the number of categories that can be defined, nor to the number of competencies within a category. Current categories are displayed in the top left window.
To select a category, click on its name in the list. You will see the competencies within the selected category in the lower left window.
To add a new category, click on the ellipsis in the Categories window and then on +Add Category. Enter a name of the new category and then Save.
To edit or delete a category, first make sure it is selected by clicking on its name. Click on the ellipsis in the Categories window and then on +Edit Category. Either, change the name of the category and then Save, or Delete as required. Note that Thoosa will not let you delete a category if competencies are assigned to it. This is to prevent loss of important data. You should rarely need to delete a category and can only do so if you first remove all competencies from it.
Creating and Editing Competencies
Competencies are listed in the lower left window. If a category is selected, then only competencies within that category are displayed.
Note: In a new installation of Thoosa, before you have entered any competencies, a single item will be displayed, entitled Placeholder Competency. This will disappear as soon as you add your first competency.
To add a new competency, click on the ellipsis in the lower left, Competencies window and then on +Add Competency.
Enter the following information:
- A name for the competency
- A category for the competency. If you are not using Categories, or you don’t want the new competency to be assigned to a category, leave this as Uncategorised.
- Optionally, any notes on the competency.
Click on Next and then enter the Refresh Pattern for the competency. There are four options:
- One-off Course. This means that, once achieved, the competency remains valid indefinitely, with no need for reattendance or a refresher course. If you select this option, you don’t need to enter any further details.
- Repeated Full Course. This means that the competency expires after a specified Repeat Period and must be reaccredited by attending another full course. If you select this option you must enter the Full Course Repeat Period.
- Initial and Repeated Refresher Course. This means that the competency expires after a specified Initial Validity Period and must be reaccredited by attending a refresher course at regular intervals after that. For example, the initial accreditation might expire after 24 months after which a refresher course is required every 12 months. If you select this option you must enter the Initial Course Validity Period and the Refresher Course repeat period.
- Repeated Full and Refresher Course. This means that the competency requires a pattern of reaccreditation including both full and refresher courses. For example, a full course might be required every 5 years with a refresher course every year. If you select this option you must enter the Initial Course Validity Period and the Refresher Course Repeat Period.
- The flow chart graphic illustrates the pattern of accreditation selected.
Once you have selected the Refresh Pattern, Click on Next and then check the Summary of what you have entered. If correct, then click on Finish, or Click on Back to edit your data.
Competencies can be edited or deleted by selecting the relevant options in the ellipsis. Note that Thoosa will not let you delete a competency if it has dependencies elsewhere in the system, for example, if it has been allocated to teams. This is to prevent loss of important data. You should very rarely need to delete a competency.