Writing Competency-Based Learning Materials: A Practical Guide

Competency-based learning materials are teaching and learning resources built directly from a unit of competency, so that every activity a learner completes moves them closer to demonstrating the performance criteria of that unit. They differ from conventional textbooks in three ways: they state outcomes rather than topics, they are dominated by practice rather than explanation, and they integrate assessment instead of appending it. This guide sets out what such materials look like, how to write them and how to check the result.

What makes a learning material competency-based?

The test is traceability. Open the material at any page and ask which element, performance criterion or item of underpinning knowledge that page serves. If the answer is clear, the material is competency-based; if the page is simply “about” the subject, it is not.

Materials that pass the test share six features.

• Built from the unit of competency. The unit title, elements and performance criteria come straight from the endorsed occupational standard, which is why we describe how occupational standards are developed before we discuss materials at all.
• Outcome statements. Each section opens with what the learner will be able to do on completing it, phrased as observable performance, not as what will be “covered”.
• Learner-centred. The material addresses the learner directly, assumes that almost anyone can learn given the right instruction, and is designed so that the learner can work through much of it without a lecturer standing in front of them. This is the “Learner-centred” principle in Eljen’s design philosophy applied at page level.
• Activity-rich. Explanation is kept short and is always followed by something to do: a practice task, a self-check, a demonstration to observe, a problem to solve.
• Self-paced elements. Because CBT measures competence rather than time served, the material must allow a faster learner to move on and a slower learner to repeat, with feedback built into the activities rather than held by the trainer.
• Integrated assessment. Formative checks appear throughout, and the final assessment is described inside the material, so learners know from the first page what evidence they will need to produce.

What does a complete learning package contain?

Most CBT systems separate the package into three guides, each written for a different reader. Formats vary between countries and sector bodies, but the content below is typical practice and mirrors what Eljen produces in Phase 2 of its methodology, “Programme Development”.

Keeping the three guides aligned is easier when they are drafted from one master outline, so that a change to a performance criterion propagates to all three rather than being fixed in the learner guide and forgotten in the assessment guide.

What are the writing principles?

1. Plain language. Short sentences, active voice, the terms the workplace actually uses, and a glossary for the rest. Reading level should suit the learners at that framework level, not the writer.
2. One skill per learning activity. An activity that tries to teach three things teaches none of them well. Break the element down until each activity has a single, checkable outcome.
3. Worked examples. Show the procedure done correctly, step by step, before asking the learner to do it. Where the skill is judgement rather than procedure, show a worked decision.
4. Safety notes where the hazard is. Put the warning at the point in the procedure where it applies, not in a chapter at the front that nobody reads.
5. Workplace context. Use local enterprises, local materials and realistic customer situations. A learner in Tamale or Freetown should recognise the workshop on the page.
6. Inclusive and gender-responsive language. Use names, images and examples that show women and men, and people with disabilities, doing the work. Avoid assuming the learner’s gender, and check that instructions do not depend on abilities the standard does not require.
7. Greening where relevant. Where the unit involves energy, water, waste, materials or chemicals, build the environmentally responsible practice into the procedure itself rather than adding a separate note. This is what Eljen’s “Green by design” principle means in practice.
8. Feedback inside the material. Every self-check has an answer, every practice task has a checklist, so the learner can judge their own progress.

How are competency-based learning materials developed?

The workflow below is the one we teach to institutional writing teams as well as follow ourselves; the point of the learning materials service is to leave behind writers, not only documents.

1. Analyse the standard. Read the unit as a whole. List the elements, performance criteria, range, evidence requirements and underpinning knowledge, and note where they overlap with other units.
2. Design the learning outcomes. Convert each element into outcome statements and decide the sequence in which they are best learned, which is not always the sequence in which they are listed.
3. Draft. Write the learner guide first, activity by activity, then derive the trainer and assessment guides from it.
4. Technical review by a practitioner. An industry expert who currently does the job checks procedures, tools, terminology, safety practice and whether the examples are realistic. This is the step most often skipped and most often regretted.
5. Pilot with learners. Deliver at least part of the material to a real group and watch where they stall, misread or skip.
6. Revise. Fix what the review and the pilot exposed, and re-check traceability to the standard after every change.
7. Version control. Give the package a version number, a date, a named owner and a change log, and tie its review date to the review date of the standard it serves. When the standard changes, the package must change with it.

Which format should you choose?

Format is a delivery decision, and it should be taken after the content is right rather than before.

• Print remains the most reliable format where connectivity, electricity or devices are limited, and it is the easiest to use at a workbench. Design for black-and-white photocopying, because that is how it will be reproduced.
• PDF is the usual master format: printable, easy to distribute and simple to version. Build it with clear headings and readable fonts so that it also works on a phone screen.
• Digital or LMS delivery adds progress tracking, video demonstrations, interactive self-checks and genuine self-pacing. It is worth doing when the institution can support it, and worth doing well: a PDF uploaded to a learning management system is not a digital learning material, only a digital file.

Whatever the delivery, keep a single version-controlled source so that print, PDF and digital editions never drift apart.

What are the common mistakes?

Textbook chapters relabelled as modules. The most frequent failure. The content explains the subject thoroughly, the headings have been renamed to match the units, and the learner is never once asked to perform the competence. The fix is not more editing; it is rebuilding around activities.

No practice tasks. Material that explains and then moves on. Competence is built by doing, with feedback, and materials without practice tasks leave that entire burden to the trainer’s improvisation.

Assessment bolted on. A set of examination questions added at the end, unconnected to the performance criteria and often testing recall alone. Assessment in CBT is planned from the standard, integrated through the material and explained to the learner from the start, as described in how CBT learners are assessed.

Other recurring problems include underpinning knowledge that has swollen into a full theory course, safety information isolated in a front chapter, examples imported from another country’s workplaces, and materials written once and never reviewed against a revised standard.

Quality checklist

Before a package is signed off, check that:

• every learning activity can be traced to an element, performance criterion or knowledge item in the standard;
• every element and performance criterion in the standard is served by at least one activity;
• each section opens with an outcome statement in observable terms;
• each activity teaches one skill and includes a worked example;
• safety notes appear at the point of hazard;
• examples, images and names reflect local workplaces and are gender-responsive and disability-inclusive;
• environmentally responsible practice is built into procedures where relevant;
• every self-check has an answer and every practice task has a feedback checklist;
• the assessment guide matches the evidence requirements of the standard and is referenced in the learner guide;
• a practitioner has reviewed the technical content and a pilot has been run;
• the package carries a version number, date, owner and review trigger.

Materials that meet this checklist are not simply better teaching aids; they are the working expression of the standards, assessment and verification described in the five pillars of TVET quality assurance, and they are what an accreditation panel will ask to see. They are also easier to produce when the whole programme has been designed competency-first, which is the purpose of our CBT programme design work.

If your institution is planning to write or revise its learning materials, or would like to build an in-house writing team, we would be glad to discuss it; you can contact us at any time.