Abstract:

In today’s fast-paced and competitive business environment, companies face mounting pressure to sustain their market positions while navigating a complex recruitment landscape. This landscape is characterized by several challenges in terms of human resources, including labor shortages, high turnover rates, intense competition in manufacturing industries such as bar turning and unsuitable candidate profiles particularly in certain jobs that lack adequate training.

To effectively address the latter challenge, it is crucial for companies to adopt an active approach to improving the profile of candidates to match their needs. Competence-based approach has emerged as an essential means in this endeavor to equip their future candidates with the necessary competences. Employee competence representation (e.g. competence maps) is crucial to define the adequate training program. These maps serve as a visual representation of the competences required within professional situations. They are considered as a structured framework that highlights the components of situations: actors, activities, objectives, resources, performances, schemes and actions. Based on these components, it is possible to establish a training program following the competence-based approach. A specific tool, called CaTCaP and developed in our research laboratory, allows to build these competence maps to establish a common language between training institutions and companies.

As an example, in the field of batteries, industrial companies have identified a growing need for technicians. The rapid advancements in battery technology and the increasing demand for energy storage solutions have highlighted a significant competence gap in this sector. For instance, Verkor a company involved in battery manufacturing, whose ambition is to increase the production of low-carbon batteries to meet the growing demand for electric vehicles, have explicitly stated their need for well-trained battery technicians to support their operations and growth. To meet this demand, the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts et Métiers (ENSAM) has developed a new specialized bachelor’s degree course. This program aims to equip students with the competences needed to meet the specific needs of companies in the battery sector. By offering this targeted training, the school aims to facilitate their recruitment of the graduates and prepare them for successful careers. This initiative not only addresses the current competence gap but also supports companies struggling to find adequately trained professionals.

Within this framework, competences maps play an important role in representing the required competences in order to build the training program provided by the school. These maps serve as a visual and descriptive representation of clearly defining and communicating the specific competences essential for battery technicians. They help to identify the learning and assessment situations to achieve a constructive alignment of teaching and learning. This article aims to explore how, by starting from a real industry need, a training program can be built to meet the recruitment challenges that some professionals face today with regard to inadequate candidate profiles.

Keywords:

Initial training, Competence-based approach, KSA components, Competence development, Training program, Competence map.