Secretary's Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills (SCANS)

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The Secretary's Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills (SCANS) was appointed in 1990 by Lynn Martin, the Secretary of the United States Department of Labor. The commission was made up of 30 business, school, union and parental representatives. The SCANS' job was to examine the demands of the future workplace, and they eventually developed a list of skills "that high-performance workplaces require and that high-performance schools should produce." It consists of five basic competencies that are built on a three-part foundation, which define what an effective worker should know and have skill in.

[edit] The Five Competencies

1. Resources - allocating, time, money, materials and staff

2. Interpersonal - working on teams, teaching others, serving customers, leading, negotiating, and working well with people from culturally diverse backgrounds.

3. Information - acquiring and evaluating data, organizing and maintaining files, interpreting and communicating, and using computers to process information.

4. Systems - understanding social, organizational, and technological systems, monitoring and correcting performance, and designing or improving systems

5. Technology - selecting equipment and tools, applying technology to specific tasks, and maintaining and troubleshooting technologies.

[edit] The Three-Part Foundation

1. Basic Skills - reading, writing, arithmetic and mathematics, speaking and listening

2. Thinking Skills - thinking creatively, making decisions, solving problems, seeing things in the mind's eye, knowing how to learn, and reasoning.

3. Personal Qualities - individual responsibility, self-esteem, self-management, and integrity.