What is Competency-Based Education and Why Does it Work for Busy Professionals?

Learn a skill.

Learn another skill.

Keep learning skills, and wonder whether those skills will be relevant to your professional goals…

Busy professionals are constantly facing pressures to upskill and have been at the center of training and development initiatives forever. But until recently, those efforts aimed at continued learning have left much to be desired in two major ways. First, these learners are busy and traditional learning hours might not work for their schedules. Second, sometimes it’s hard to know what you’ll learn or gain from a program until after it’s done.

Professionals who want to learn while they work needed a new education model, and they’ve found that in competency-based education (CBE).

What Are Competencies?

Simply put, competencies are skills and knowledge in a specific area. Understanding the diversity of competencies that are needed by professionals is the jumping-off point for realizing just how customized the learning process needs to be.

The University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO) has always cared about continued education for every student — long after the completion of an undergraduate degree. CBE is simply a new pathway that allows more students to reach their post-graduate career goals in a way that works for them.

More specifically, the Center for Competencies, Skills, and Workforce Development (CCSW) has identified employer-sought competencies that matter for professionals. Competencies are already being taught in the classroom, UNO has simply gotten specific with identifying them and creating a way for students to prove their mastery. UNO’s CBE portfolio, Maverick Flex Path, provides a learning format that is up front both with what you’ll learn and what you’ll pay, while giving the learner the flexibility to move through the program at their own pace.

Competency-Based Education at UNO is Maverick Flex Path

In this innovative learning model, learners progress by mastering specific competencies. It allows students to draw on prior experiences to move more quickly through their education to gain and demonstrate the knowledge and skills that employers value.

Some of the biggest benefits of CBE, particularly for busy professionals, include:

• Learning outcomes aligned with workforce needs
• Progress based on demonstrated mastery, not time spent in class
• Flexibility within structured academic terms
• Frequent, meaningful interaction with instructors

The Proof is in the Badging

The CBE format gives you the knowledge and skills you need to succeed, UNO’s commitment to education and workforce partnership gives you the credential so you can prove it.

When you demonstrate a competency, you don’t have to say “trust me,” rather, students are issued a badge (proof of accredited learning) to help you communicate the competency you learned and earned. Students can share them with their employer, put them on their resume, add it to their LinkedIn, and more. As you move through your program, you’ll accumulate badges for the competencies, and at the end, also have the degree or certificate to show what you’ve accomplished.

Competency-based education isn’t replacing traditional education: it’s partnering with busy learners and making continued education more accessible than it’s ever been. Learn more about UNO’s CBE and other skills initiatives on their website for the Center for Competencies, Skills, and Workforce Development.