Difference between Skills and Competencies

Hi Anu.. A skill can be said as an ability that has been acquired by training where as competency is a behaviour that can be achieved thru competence(skill). Hope this will help u.. Durga

hi anu.

skills can be inborn or acquired, they vary from generic to special., but competencies are the special skill that you apply in a particular and job and which is not a generic skill.

for ex.

you have got good communication skills (that's a skill u possess)

you are fluent with american english (that's ur competency)

hope u got an idea.......


dips

Skills are abilities that one develops over the years thru' training or workshops.... these are not inborn but developed

Competencies are the demonstrable skills that one possesses inherently. This may be a speciality in one.

e.g. Singing is a skill... but yoodling is a competency (Kishore Kumar)
e.g. Writing is a skill.... being ambidextrous is a competency


Hope that makes sense

Cheers!
Kanishka
New Delhi

Anu:

I would call the adequate capacity to do something as a competency while a skill would be a talent or an ability to do something in a proficient manner.

So, a competence is enough to do something properly while a skill would take it to a higher plane.

Hope this answers your query.

Sanath

Hi Anu...
Skill is a part of competency. Competency consists of three parameters- Knowledge (K), Attitude (A) and Skills(S).

For example- I might be having very good interpersonal skills or people skills, but I will not be competent to join a company as HR Professional unless I possess adequate education/ experience (Knowledge) and the right temperament/ behaviour (attitude).

While rating skills, you have to determine what abilities are required to perform a job practically but while rating competency, you have to determine the set of abilities/ skills required along with the knowledge and attitude needed for the said job.

I hope this answers your question...
Pubali

Competency - Competency is a set of sucess factors required for achieving important results in the organization.

and Sucess Factors are the combination of Knowledge, Skill & Attributes (generally called as KSA's).



Skill - Skill is the ability to use your knowledge to accomplish task.

hi to all, can any one of you kindly explain me the difference between skills and abilities? i am very confused between these two terminologies,can you plese help me out? thanks... Have A g8 time

Hello Everyone,

I understood the concept of skills and competencies.
But can any one elaborate the skills and competecy related to practical examples, Like in Production department of an engineering firm, wat should be the skills and competencies of the Production manager. Or What should be the skills and competencies of R&D manager.

If some one could explain me in this context, that would of much help to me.

Hi Everone -


I would like to raise this discussion once again. There are many contradictory statements made here that may mislead.
My questions to the above discussion is, if competency = skill +Ability+Knowledge, then competency is the biggest factor and skill, knowledge and abilities are subsets of it.

If above is the case, then how come Singing is a skill and yoddling a competency, where yoddling is a subset of singing..
This is really confusing.

I would recommend all seniors to properly interject the discussions above, before putting forth their views. This will give us a clear idea.
Please let me know, as I am going to start a big project of mapping designatons across two locations and that would require a better understanding of competencies and skills.

I really seek assistance.