Industry and Higher Education· 2026Q1
Supervisors’ perspectives on employee development in competency-based education: The activation gap between learning and workplace practice
- 0citations
- Q1SCImago
- 2026year
Short summary
Supervisors often fail to recognize or leverage employee learning from competency-based education (CBE) programs due to a lack of awareness about the programs and formal feedback mechanisms, creating an 'activation gap'.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Key points
- Supervisors often lack awareness of the specific content and objectives of employee competency-based education (CBE) programs.
- Many supervisors noted improvements in employees' technical and transferable skills but struggled to link these directly to CBE participation.
- A lack of formal processes for discussing employee learning hinders supervisors' ability to leverage new competencies.
- The effectiveness of CBE programs is limited by supervisors' inability to 'activate' employee learning and create application opportunities.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Abstract
As lifelong learning becomes imperative for working adults, competency-based education (CBE) has gained traction as a means of aligning education with workplace needs. Yet research on CBE outcomes has largely focused on learners’ perspectives, with limited attention to how supervisors interpret employee outcomes. This study examines how work supervisors perceive the contribution of competency-based stackable micro-credential (CSM) degree pathways to employees’ work performance and development. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with six supervisors of employees enrolled in CSM pathways in Singapore, we analyse their accounts using the Five Capitals framework. Supervisors described changes in employees’ technical and transferable skills, including communication, time management, and confidence, which they associated, to varying degrees, with participation in the programme. However, many supervisors were not fully aware of what the programme involved, and there were few formal processes to discuss what employees had learned. As a result, supervisors were unable to fully leverage employees’ new competencies. The findings suggest that the value of CBE programmes depends not only on what employees learn, but also on how effectively supervisors activate learning and create opportunities to apply it. Strengthening shared responsibility among universities, employees, supervisors, and organisations may better support the translation of learning into workplace practice.
The authors' abstract, as published at the source. Industry and Higher Education, 2026 · DOI ↗
Continue with a free account
Ask the paper: 3 free questions a day about this paper; save it, get its citation, new summaries every day for your field. Takeaways are Premium.
Continue free on the webSign in with Google or Apple; no card needed. You come back to this paper.
On your phone:
Field: Human Factors and Ergonomics
Human Factors and ErgonomicsSocial Sciences