Scans Competencies

Assessment Scans Competencies

Because the world of work is changing, the U.S. Departments of Labor and Education formed the Secretary's Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills (SCANS) to study the kinds of competencies and skills that workers must have to succeed in today's workplace. The results of the study were published in a document entitled What Work Requires of Schools: A SCANS Report for America 2000. A summary of the findings are provided below.

SCANS' Five Competencies

Resources: Identifies, organizes, plans, and allocates resources

Time - selects goal-relevant activities, ranks them, allocates time, and prepares and follows schedules
Money - uses or prepares budgets, makes forecasts, keeps records, and makes adjustments to meet objectives
Material and facilities - acquires, stores, allocates, and uses materials or space efficiently
Human resources - assesses skills and distributes work accordingly, evaluates performance and provides feedback

Interpersonal: Works with others

Participates as member of a team - contributes to group effort
Teaches others new skills
Services clients/customers - works to satisfy customers expectations
Exercises leadership - communicates ideas to justify position, persuades and convinces others, responsibly challenges existing procedures and policies
Negotiates - works toward agreements involving exchange of resources, resolves divergent interests
Works with diversity - works well with men and women from diverse backgrounds

Information: Acquires and evaluates information

Acquires and evaluates information
Organizes and maintains information
Interprets and communicates information
Uses computers to process information

Systems: Understands complex interrelationships

Understands systems - knows how social, organizational, and technological systems work and operates effectively with them
Monitors and corrects performance - distinguishes trends, predicts impacts on system operations, diagnoses deviations in systems performance and corrects malfunctions
Improves or designs systems - suggests modifications to existing systems and develops new or alternative systems to improve performance

Technology: Works with a variety of technologies

Selects technology - chooses procedures, tools, or equipment including computers and related technologies
Applies technology to task - understands intent and proper procedures for setup and operation of equipment
Maintains and troubleshoots equipment - prevents, identifies, or solves problems with equipment, including computers and other technologies

A Three-Part Foundation of SCANS Skills and Personal Qualities

Basic Skills: Reads, writes, performs arithmetic and mathematical operations, listens, and speaks

Reading - locates, understands, and interprets written information in prose and in documents such as manuals, graphs, and schedules
Writing - communicates thoughts, ideas, information, and messages in writing; and creates documents such as letters, directions, manuals, reports, graphs, and flow charts
Arithmetic/mathematics - performs basic computations and approaches practical problems by choosing appropriately from a variety of mathematical techniques
Listening - receives, attends to, interprets, and responds to verbal messages and other cues
Speaking - organizes ideas and communicates orally

Thinking Skills: Thinks creatively, makes decisions, solves problems, visualizes, knows how to learn, and reasons

Creative thinking - generates new ideas
Decision making - specifies goals and constraints, generates alternatives, considers risks, and evaluates and chooses best alternatives
Problem solving - recognizes problems and devises and implements plan of action
Visualizing - organizes and processes symbols
Knowing how to learn - uses efficient learning techniques to acquire and apply new knowledge and skills
Reasoning - discovers a rule or principle underlying the relationship between two or more objects and applies it when solving a problem

Personal Qualities: Responsibility, self-esteem, sociability, self-management, integrity, and honesty

Responsibility - exerts a high level of effort and perseveres towards goal attainment
Self-esteem - believes in own self-worth and maintains a positive view of self
Sociability - demonstrates understanding, friendliness, adaptability, empathy, and politeness in group settings
Self-management - assesses self accurately, sets personal goals, monitors progress, and exhibits self-control
Integrity/honesty - chooses ethical courses of action

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Tables excerpted from What Work Requires of Schools: A SCANS Report for America 2000, U.S. Department of Labor, June 1991, pp. xvii-xviii.