Micro-competences and gender imbalances: a case from Valencia, Spain

Now, 8 months later, we are in front of a real window, an evaluator and 15 candidates. The candidates are invited one at a time for several days. They stand in front of a real mock-up consisting of a piece of wall where they will simulate the replacement of an old window with a new energy efficient one. Next to them, there is a table with various materials and tools.

Among them, we find 12 Spaniards, 4 unemployed, the youngest are 2 in their thirties, most of them only studied until they were 16 years old, but what motivated them to come and what do they think of this certificate?

All of them consider this certificate interesting and most of them think that accrediting their competences can help them to position themselves better in the market and to get better jobs and salaries. In addition, many of them would be interested in accrediting other competences such as: plumbing, masonry, electricity and electronics, installation of prefabricated partitions, installation of shading elements, rehabilitation of facades or even energy rehabilitation of dwellings. However, only one third of them would be willing to be trained, as they prefer to ask their colleagues on site or learn from other professionals by observing how they do it. This fact certainly deserves a reflection on how courses should be more attractive to become a real and voluntary option for workers.

Although there are already systems in place to recognise the competences of professionals acquired through experience, “the proposed methodology is very innovative because it goes beyond bureaucracy and the provision of paper documents”, says María Lladró, our facilitator at FEVEC, who adds “this pilot test will help us to assess the technical and economic viability of the proposed methodology”.

And what were the steps taken to get this far? The first step was to formulate a regulated certification scheme, which was taken on by the consultancy firm Masuno, headed by Javier Ariño, “the certification of people provides an objective system that can be easily verified”. For this reason, this type of certification can be considered as an “evaluation criterion” in financing mechanisms, public tenders or personnel selection processes.

The general certification scheme was then adapted to the selected micro-competence on “window replacement”. Eugenio Corbatón was in charge of detailing the assessment to be carried out with the 15 candidates “the test proposed will be individual and will be carried out in situ for approximately two and a half hours per candidate, with practical and theoretical evaluation, but the process could be speeded up in the future if we introduce virtual reality”.