Competencies are a great way for students to develop a better understanding of their own skills and how they can communicate them. They serve 3 crucial purposes:

1. Gives students a better understanding of what is expected of them in whatever work role they plan to be in/go for.
2. Gives employers a common language to speak in.
3. Gives educators a foundation to teach from and to.

As competencies are now a requirement for redesignation, we felt it would be nice to provide some resources on competencies as well as linking it to other great work being done to develop this area.

Overview

What is a competency? A competency is defined as (and used in this context for us):

“Competency is the ability for the student to complete a task in the context of a work role.”

Essentially, being competent (per our definition) means to successfully complete a task an organization or person would pay someone to do. It is important to note, that competencies are not here to replace what you do as an instructor or organization. Instead, the hope is that competencies can come alongside the work that you already do to provide a new way for students to view what they do and how they communicate that. It is our hope that we can have conversations with industry, as well, so everyone is speaking the same language and can communicate more effectively. The definition of a competency, and by extension what it means to be competent in our industry, is extremely important and should be defined when talking about them so we are all working with the same foundational understanding.

It is important to remember that competencies are based on tasks within the work roles of the NICE Framework and/or DCWF framework NOT knowledge, abilities, or skills.

How-To

Reminder, competencies and competency statements are not intended to replace anything that you are doing as an instructor. If anything, it may help frame what you do and help students understand why it is important that they put forth true effort in accomplishing the tasks at hand. It has been our experience, that talking with students about what competencies are and how they relate to the work they will do throughout their time at the institution to be encouraging and, depending on the task, exciting. As students can then relate what they are doing in the classroom to what they are doing in the workplace much easier.

This guide will not go into depth what competencies are or how to create a competency statement. There are resources linked at the bottom of this document and in the toolkit for that. There are also many in the CAE community available for you to reach out to for any questions. Instead, this guide will discuss how one may approach using competencies in their institution and beyond. For clarity, work roles are defined by the NICE framework or DCWF, more information on this can be found in both the 2-pager and the e-handbook. Tools to help develop competency statements are also available and listed in the Resource links at the bottom of this page as well as in the toolkit.

Within the classroom, a competency statement can lead to an assignment or an assignment that is already being done could make a solid competency statement. There are several examples of competency statements and competency inspired assignments within the toolkit free for you to review and use if you’d like. Including what framework, you pull the task from to build your assignment and explaining this to your class has had a positive impact on coursework and even questions from students. We hope that you have a similar experience if you decide to pursue this route.

Additionally, for extra curricular activities that may relate to professions within the cybersecurity field would also be great to develop competency statements from. Cybersecurity clubs, outreach activities, workshops, internships, etc. can all provide excellent competency statements. In the case of internships or student lead activities, encourage and help the student to build a competency statement. This helps them reflect on the work they have done and how they can communicate/mimic that work to help train others as well as assisting in developing required competency statements for your institution.

The work for competency statements does not begin or end at the institution. When opportunities arise, we do encourage you to speak to industry leaders, partners, or coworkers about competencies. Share with them competency statements that you build and ask if the task as designed would:

1. Build those professional skills, in their professional opinion.
2. Be something that an organization like theirs or similar would pay for.
3. Be something that they, if in the same or similar role, may do, have done or would like seen done at their place of work.

This provides more validity to the competency statement not just for redesignation but for explaining to students why their work matters and why their ability to communicate it matters as well.

Of course, be sure to share your competency statements with the CAE community! How do I share? Check out the Resource Links Below!

Downloads

• Defining Montreat 360 Competencies and Skills
• Integration Examples
• What Is a Competency?

Resource Links

• 2-Pager Information Sheet: As a reminder, this section of the toolkit is NOT intended to take anything away from the wonderful work being done surrounding competencies by Dr. Fowler & Dr. Nestler or the other teams and contributors to the CAE Community. We thank everyone for the hard work on everything that makes this community and field great. The 2-pager information sheet linked above goes more in-depth on competencies as well as providing more information than we could properly do here. Be sure to check it out and download it for easy reference!
• CAE Competency Template: This is a form that you may use for reference or to build competencies away from the constructor if you want to try to do it manually. It provides detailed guidance on what you want to include in a competency statement. It breaks down each part step-by-step for you to develop a solid competency statement. It is modeled similarly to the competency constructor, so once you build your statement, be sure to copy your work into the constructor so it is easier to share!
• Competency Constructor: The Competency Constructor may become your best friend for building competencies. You must use your school email account to register for the site. It provides a very clear and detailed step-by-step process for building your competency. The best part? Once you build it, you can submit it to the SecurED team at Clark and they will give you feedback on it as well as share it with the CAE Community. If you’re looking to share your statements (which we strongly encourage you do), then you need to bookmark this link and become familiar with using the constructor! Thanks to the SecurED team for all of their hard work on this!
• E-Handbook: It is highly recommended that you download and keep a copy of the Competency E-Handbook. From detailed explanations, definitions, the STAR technique, activities, and even more useful links. The E-Handbook has everything that you need to solidify your understanding of competencies as well as turn your students into ready-to-be great cyber professionals. If you don’t download anything else, be sure you download this!
• Work Role Tool: Developed by Paige Flores at SecurED (Thank you Paige!), this tool highlights Tasks in both the NICE Framework & the DCWF Framework for all available work roles. You can expedite and center your focus on developing competencies based on the tasks. Remember competency statements are focused on tasks not skills, knowledge or abilities.
• NICE Framework – version 1, updated: Above is a link to the NICE Framework. It has been updated since March 2024, and a link to download the updated version is available above as well.
• DCWF Framework: Above is a link to the DCWF Framework; you may notice crossover and similarities with the NICE framework. The DCWF is the DoD’s Framework; there are differences.