Competency model for technical education: a methodological review

Abstract

Purpose. The place of research in the educational development of any nation cannot be downplayed. The adoption of a methodological approach is significant in achieving valid results and sustainability. However, there does not appear to be an agreement on the methodological approach to developing a competency model for research in technical and vocational education among researchers. This study was designed to analyze the different methods used by researchers to bring out their strengths towards ensuring the adoption of a uniform methodology. Results. Findings show that there was no consistent and uniform technique for researching competency models in technical education. The outcome of this study has shown that researchers favour the use of qualitative and quantitative methods separately. This may be due to the ease and their convenience usage in terms of energy, time and resources. Scientific novelty. The listing and review of current articles from 2018 to 2021 in the domain of competency in technical education is novel as it shows the strengths and weaknesses in the usage of different methods by researchers. Similarly, the result shows the rate of research outcomes on a regional basis and document types. Practical value. The study is going to change the horizon and focus of researchers toward the adoption of the mixed-method research design in the 21st century because of its immense benefits in generating valid research results. The study was able to reveal that the source of data in mixed-method design is always acceptable to experts and the results of the findings can be generalized.

Keywords

• technical education
• competency
• model
• methodology
• review.