Skill standards break down an occupation into its main elements.  The “work-oriented” elements that describe the work itself are:

• Critical Work Functions – The principal responsibilities required to do the work.
• Key Activities – The major tasks required to carry out a critical work function.  
• Performance Criteria – The standards that indicate when a key activity is performed competently.

The “worker-oriented” elements that identify the skills and knowledge required to perform the work are:

• Academic Knowledge and Skills – The four basic subjects of reading, writing, mathematics and science.
• Employability Knowledge and Skills – Applied skills required for effective performance across a range of occupations, such as listening, speaking, working in teams. 
• Occupational Skills, Knowledge and Conditions – Technical skills that are specific to an occupation or industry, such as reading blueprints, knowledge of graphic design and layout principles, and the tools, equipment and resources required to perform a key activity. 

To develop the skill standards, any job analysis process, including a DACUM (Developing a Curriculum) may be used to gather this information.  The following hypothetical example for the occupation of College Instructor illustrates the skill standards elements listed above.  Much of the information for the example was generated in a DACUM session by a group of college instructors at Moraine Park Technical College in Wisconsin. 

Critical Work Functions are Broad Responsibilities
To develop skill standards for the occupation of College Instructor, the work is first described in terms of its major, or most critical, functions.  These are the broad, principal responsibilities, typically, 10-15 per occupation.  The Wisconsin instructors divided their job into the following Critical Work Functions:

1.    Prepare Learning Plans
2.    Implement Learning Plans
3.    Evaluate Learning Assessments
4.    Advise Students
5.    Maintain Professional Competency
6.    Perform Operational Functions
7.    Promote Program Growth
8.    Develop and Update Curriculum
9.    Support College Mission

Key Activities are Required to Accomplish Critical Work Functions
To accomplish each of these Critical Work Functions, a college instructor must perform several sub-steps or Key Activities.  For example, in order to Implement Learning Plans (Critical Work Function 2 above) a college instructor must perform several Key Activities, such as the following five that the Wisconsin instructors identified:

You’ll notice that breaking the job down to the detailed level of a Key Activity enables performance to be observed and measured.  In our example above, an instructor in training could be observed and evaluated on how well he or she performed Key Activity 1, Deliver Lecture. 

Performance Criteria Identify Standard of Assessment
How would you know how well was good enough?  Against what standard would you evaluate the potential instructor?  These questions are addressed in the third element of a set of skill standards, the Performance Criteria.  For each Key Activity, the Performance Criteria tell how well the worker must perform to be competent in the workplace.  The Performance Criteria describe how the activity, competently performed, would look.  For Key Activity 1, “Deliver Lecture,” the Performance Criteria might be:

• Lecture is organized in logical order.
• Subject matter is communicated clearly and succinctly.
• Class knowledge level & learning needs are considered.
• Lecture is delivered in appropriate time interval.
• Multiple media are utilized, where appropriate, to accommodate different learning styles.
  

Imagine using these skill standards elements to design a technical program for college instructors.  You would use the Key Activities as your students’ learning outcomes.  The Performance Criteria would provide you with the standards to assess your students’ mastery of those learning outcomes.

Occupational Skills, Knowledge and Conditions are Required to Perform Key Activity
Skill standards also list the Occupational Skills, Knowledge and Conditions that a worker needs to carry out each key activity competently.  Occupational Skills and Knowledge are the occupation-specific or technical skills and knowledge, and Conditions are the relevant tools, resources and equipment.  Continuing with our sample occupation of College Instructor, you can see the first four skill standards elements below for Critical Work Function 2, formatted as they would appear in the Texas Skill Standards Repository on the web site.  

       
Academic and Employability Knowledge and Skills are Similar to SCANS
The Academic and Employability Knowledge and Skills are the basic, underlying competencies that enable a worker to perform the key activities.  The Academic and Employability Knowledge and Skills are similar to the SCANS competencies that community and technical colleges are required to address in their technical programs.  The four academic and 13 employability knowledge and skills are listed below. 

The Academic and Employability Knowledge and Skills are identified for each Key Activity in a set of skill standards.  For “Deliver Lecture” from the College Instructor example, depending on the subject matter of the lecture, any of the four academic topics (reading, writing, mathematics or science) might be used.  In addition, at least the following employability knowledge and skills would be needed. 

• Adaptability (to potential audience reaction)
• Leading Others
• Making Decisions and Judgments
• Organizing and Planning (the information logically within the lecture)
• Speaking
• Using Information and Communications Technology (to present the information in multiple ways)
• Using Social Skills
  

Rating Indicates Level of Academic and Employability Knowledge or Skill Required
Not only does a set of skill standards identify the Academic and Employability Knowledge and Skills but it also indicates the level of the knowledge or skill needed to do the work.  For each employability skill listed above, a corresponding rating, from a low of 1 to a high of 5, is applied.  For example, the Speaking skills required to deliver college-level subject matter in a lecture are much higher than say, the speaking skills required to answer an office telephone and take a message.  The former may rate a 4 or 5, whereas the latter may rate a 1 or 2.  The rating levels for each of the academic and employability knowledge and skills are explained in the Skill Scales Companion Guide.

Statement of Assessment Recommends Evaluation Method
Finally, every set of skill standards includes the Statement of Assessment.  This element simply indicates the method of assessment that the industry recommends to evaluate the student’s level of skill attainment.  Again, using our example of a College Instructor delivering a lecture, the preferred evaluation method would be a performance-based assessment, rather than a multiple-choice exam.  Clearly, the only way to evaluate the ability to deliver a lecture is to see the person in action. 

Actual Skill Standards May Be Viewed in Repository on TSSB Web Site
To view complete sets of formatted skill standards that have been recognized by the Texas Skill Standards Board, go to the Texas Skill Standards Repository on the TSSB web site.  Once there, you will note a list of Recognized and Conditionally Recognized skill standards. 

Recognized skill standards – are primarily standards that have been developed from scratch for an occupation in which no standards exist and validated by a Texas industry group. They all consist of the seven elements described here.

Conditionally Recognized standards – are industry endorsed skill standards that have been developed outside of Texas (nationally, in another state or internationally), and have not been converted to the Texas elements and format.  Therefore, they look different than the Recognized skill standards.  However, both the content of the standards and the job analysis process used to create them, have been recognized by the TSSB as valid, reliable and representative of the work being described.