Learning Competences
Capabilities to learn in an autonomous way and throughout life.
Learning competences refer to a set of capabilities that allow people initiate, organize, manage and asses their own learning process in an effective and conscious manner. These competences make possible learn in diverse contexts - formal, non formal and informal - and to adapt to new personal, academic and professional demands in lifelong.
Learning does not just consist on acquiring knowledge, but rather to know how to learn, how to improve progressively and how to transfer what is learnt to new situations. Therefore, learning competences constitute an essential basis for personal and professional development.
What do learning competences include?
Learning competences integrate cognitive, metacognitive and attitudinal abilities that allow to manage learning in an autonomous way. Among the most relevant can be found:
Motivation to learn: Internal disposition to learn, intellectual curiosity and guiding towards continuous improvement.
Learning planning: Capability to establish objectives, organize time, select resources and define adequate learning strategies.
Self-regulation and self-control: Ability to monitor own's learning process, keep the effort and adjust strategies when necessary.
Use of learning strategies: Conscious application of techniques for understanding, memorizing, relating and applying information.
Assesment and reflection about the learning: Capability to analyze obtained results, identify mistakes and extract learning to improve in the future.
Learning transference: Capability to apply knowledge and acquired abilities to new contexts and situations.
These competences are developed progressively and they are enforced through practice, experience and personal reflection.
Importance of learning competences
Learning competences are fundamental because:
They allow to adapt to constant changes in society and work.
They facilitate continuous update of knowledge and abilities.
They enforce personal and professional autonomy.
They improve learning's effectiveness in any stage of life.
They favour confidence in own's capacity to learn.
In a context marked by technological and social transformation, the capability of learning in a continuous manner has become a key competence.
Learning competences and professional environment
In the professional context, learning competences are especially valued because they allow:
Acquire new technical competences quickly.
Adapt to organizational and technological changes.
Improve performance through reflection over practice.
Assume new roles and responsibilities.
Keep employability over time.
In organizations, these competences contribute to more flexible, autonomous and guided profiles towards development.
Learn to learn in daily life
Beyond the educational and laboral context, learning competences influence in daily life, helping people face new challenges, make informed decisions and to develop in a conscious and autonomous manner.
In set, learning competences constitute an essential pillar for permanent learning, since they allow people learn in an effective, reflective and sustainable way, turning experience into knowledge and knowledge into action throughout life.
