Towards Meaningful, Cross-domain Employability Data Exchange a Nextgen Standards perspective

1. Towards Meaningful, Cross-domain Employability Data Exchange a Nextgen Standards perspective Synergetics Luk Vervenne OOA workshop – October 11 2006

2. ...”This is the moment when HCM takes its place in the Boardroom. Directors need to transform the airy cliche about people being their greatest asset into a guiding principle of business strategy”... Denise Kingsmill, Chair Task Force HCM, LBS

3. A small semantic sidekick • Corporate < Employee : human capital processes • Employee < Corporate : employed • Corporate >< Employee : employability Competenc(e)(y): a measurable characteristic for employability and its underlying processes and artefacts: personal development, learning, performance management, ...etc

4. Synergetics nv • HC Innovation company (Antwerp, Belgium ) • 50:50 research - commercial projects • Building an SAAS platform around competence-centric employability processes • Standards involvement: • HR-XML Europe Competency WG chair • IEEE LTSC Competency framework • ELIG core member (elig.org) • European ePortfolio Consortium board (eife-l.org) • EU projects: TenCompetence, Prolix, Codrive

5. Meaningful exchange of competence related HC data • Competenc(i)es are fast becoming the currency of the European Labor Market. • We therefore need a Common Currency (Competency “EURO”) • Education, industry and public & private employment services (P(R)ES) are joining the competency paradigm where “vocations, functions, vacancies and personal & learning activities profiles are directly or indirectly granularised into competencies • This “finergrained” constructivist approach improves the management of a variety of competency related or competency driven business processes such as ...training, performance management, employability, etc...

6. Third generation of ERP : Competence-based Employability Services? Succession Planning Wage admin Personal Scorecard Competency Framework Career Planning Training & Develop. Balanced Scorecard Performance Management Job Recruitment & Selection

7. Syntax & semantics • However... Today “Competencies” are mainly used as part of an internalbusiness process, which is exactly whathappened with business systems in general: Conceived to solely run organisation-internal processes, interoperability was merely an afterthought! (see: EDI) • We should NOT make the same mistake with competencies, especially if competencies are to play a role in the knowledge economy and/or drive the 3rd generation of ERP (Employability Resource Planning ) • The current competency xml / syntax standards such as IMS RDCEO (soon an official IEEE/LTSC standard), the HR-XML Competency specification and several proprietary P(R)ES xml formats are limited to the syntactic and the domain level • They lack: • Cross-domain interoperability • Meaningful (semantic) data exchange capability • and therefore only solve half of the equation.

8. Next generation standards • Particularly in Europe, a “meaningful exchange” of competency data is needed between the three main domains, also being the main social pilars of employability : • Education (1) • Industry (2) • P(R)ES (3)

9. Multiple Perspectives on Competencies ‘Employability’ PES/PRES Matching on Competencies Cross-sectorial Competencies EC-TEL / IEEE/ OOA/HR Towards a COMPETENCY REFERENCE Framework The Competence Observatory Towards a Common Competency Language ‘Employability’ ‘Employability’ EDUCATION INDUSTRY < Final terms < Learning activities / Tasks < Competenc(i)es Performance Management

10. “Meaningful Exchange” requires a two level approach • SYNTAX STANDARD : FORMAT & STRUCTURE (= XML specifications) ONE Competency-standard XML specification for working & learning ! ! = existing international COMPETENCY XML standards (IEEE, IMS, HR-XML) Challenge:cross-domain applicable standards From domain standard specificaitons to cross-domain “speclets” • SEMANTIC STANDARD : CONTENT & MEANING (= Ontology) With a “common meaningful language”, using ontology technology, content can be exchanged in an meaningful (= semantic) way.

11. Towards nextgen syntax standards SYNTAX • Cross-domain needs (thus: beyond domain standards) • October 25-26: global HR-XML summit Barcelona • New IEEE WG “towards a cross-domain competency framework” • Process and domain independent • Focus on cross domain data models, NOT their XML binding • Reusable & Universal “speclets” instead of monolythic standard specifications

12. Towards nextgen syntax standards • SEMANTICS • Adding semantics in order to add “meaning” : FP6 projects (45 million € research budget) • Prolix • Tencompetence • AposDle • KnowledgeWeb\OOA kick-off October 10, European EPortfolio Conference, Oxford (www.eife-l.org): support for industry from the worlds largest ontology Research Network • FP7 projects : continuity! • Market uptake : the Netherlands

13. EU Codrive project (codrive.org) • Context ontology : separates context information from “competency descriptions” • Competency ontology : storing relations, interpretations, constraints): RCD gets “context RefID” • Collaborative methodology for ontology development (MESS system) • Domain (context) model acts as main metadata generator for: • Indexing RLO’s (field 9 LOM) • Positioning, assessments, test items • Contextualizing competencies : Competency + Context = Meaning!!

14. What? ...”Any ‘nextgen’ standardisation effort around competences should be”... • Cross-Domain applicable (IEEE-HR-XML-IMS-P(R)ES) • Meaningful (adding Semantics to syntax) • Competency Process-Neutral • using a universal framework consisting of Core Components • Competency Process-Specific • adding elements and/or metadata?

15. How? • Competency Observatory : Cooperation EU competency-inclined projects: TenCompetence, AposDle, Prolix, Luisa, Codrive, ... • OOA/HR Chapter Ontology Outreach Authority : Oxford kick-off Oct. 10 (KnowledgeWeb) • HR-XML Consortium : Gobal Summit 25-26 Barcelona • 3 New IEEE studygroups • CEN/ISSS WS ?? FP7 project?? • ??? Suggestions ???