Abstract:

During recent years the field of Higher Education oriented increasing interest towards the field of competence development and assessment in its attempt of minimizing distances with the business world and in its quality of major knowledge and workforce provider. However, there is still a perceivable imbalance between competence development and assessment in the considered fields - higher education and business – in terms of interest, application maturity, assessment tools and habitual practice, to mention just a few.

Our aim is to contribute towards competence assessment and development in the academic field. For that purpose we use an intelligent, web-based, ICT tool specifically designed for the project management work role. Students act as evaluators of their own project management competencies in present (actual) and future (desired) perspectives. Individual results are important and powerful motivating tools for participants. Group results serve especially for demonstrating why and how certain teaching methods and materials can contribute to competence development.

Since competences are knowledge in practice, once development gaps are identified and priorized, a series of activities are designed as possible contributors to fill these gaps.

For the purpose of the present study we experiment with a group of international students coursing the Business Innovation and Technology Management master career in the University of Girona, Spain in the year 2010/2011. Their relative maturity, diverse background, experience and interest make this collective an interesting group of study.

The main contribution of this study is twofold. On the one hand we provide valuable information and empirical evidences of perceived competence levels in the considered student community. On the other hand, by taking into account student profiles and development proposals a teacher-student joint co-work environment is generated which could possible translate into improved teaching quality.

Keywords:

Competence, creative tension, student, innovation, university, Spain.