A skill is different from knowledge. Skill is the application of knowledge to produce desired results. A skilled worker is someone who can produce desirable results by having specific knowledge and practical experience. While school training provides the necessary knowledge but only through actual working on the job that student develop their skills. That is why in the U.S and some Western European countries, college students often work in the summer to gain those important skills. Today more companies require one to two years of experience even for entry-level job. If students work in the summer, it counts toward the needed experience. If they work for three summers, it counts as one year of experience. If they have a Capstone project, it counts as six months of experience.
In the past, a key part of a manager’s jobs was on managing people. The company determined how many people it needs to do the work; managers hired them and managed them. Workers’ qualification was determined by degrees and work experience. However, there were workers with college degrees but still could not perform the work. They had knowledge but did not know how to develop their skills. There was no measurement on how well they performed and how long they could be productive.
Today a major part of a manager’s job is on managing skills. Skills management involves the acquisition and development of workers’ skills so that they can perform their jobs effectively and efficiently. Every manager must understand specific skills required for effective performance of each job in the company. Once the job skills are defined, manager can select workers for the job based on the set of criteria for those skills instead of relying only on the college degree. For example, job interview at Microsoft or Google often ask applicants to solve a number of problems which may require programming and designing. Selection of entry level workers is based on their skills as well as their characters and professional manner during the interview.
For promotion, manager must know specific skills of workers as well as their performance on current jobs. They identify the job skills that workers will need in their next positions, and provide training to fill the skill gaps before promoting them into the next position. Skills management involves the measurement of workers’ performance via a number of metric tools to assess workers’ skills against job requirements so they can select the best workers for promotion. The company provides training for number of potential workers then select the best based on how well they do on the challenges during the training. Having such an effective work environment will ensure that only the best gets to the position that they can contribute to the company.
Effective skill management starts with identifying the skill requirements of every job role in the company, from top to bottom and make sure that everyone has the skills needed to do their job and contribute to the company business goals. Company owner and top level managers always want to know how well the company is performing, what kind of skills that they have and what skills that they will need so they can plan for the future growth of the company. In this highly competitive market, having skilled workers in all levels of the company is critical to prosper.
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Prof. Vu
Carnegie Mellon University
source: http://www.segvn.org/forum/mvnforum/viewthread_thread,1977
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