In the previous lecture, you learned how to use JAFAR. A simple spreadsheet application for skills management. That we developed with this course. You may even recall a magic trick. That we did in the lecture by converting your field notes into a practically useable selection criteria statement. In this lecture, we will review the theoretical model for designing the application, and explore how the application can be used in various career development scenarios. Previously, we walked you through the process of identifying a job specific skill set for your current position. You also practiced simulating a competitive selection process for the position and learned how you can estimate your total skill set score based on self assessments. The process that you went through included four important and distinctly different steps. Namely, job analysis, full mastery analysis, assessment, and skill set review. As you can see, JAFAR is just an acronym. We invented it to help you memorize the steps and skills for evaluation procedure. Actually, we like the name as it seems to have some magical powers. Just say it, JAFAR. Don't you think? Anyway. This is how the skills management application, and the underpinning theoretical model received their name. Now let's review the theoretical foundations behind the model, and the application. The origins of the four step JAFAR procedure can be easily traced to personnel assessment techniques widely used in performance management systems in the corporate world. We think that you might already be familiar with one, or more of these systems. If you're not. You should Google personnel assessment, or performance management systems. Also an excellent overview can be found in the balance website. Performance management is a managerial approach that provides methods and techniques for companies to get the best from their employees. There are many H.R. technologies that implement the principles of performance management, and use various tools such as workforce analytics, KPI. Competency dashboards, and professional development planning software applications. As you saw, JAFAR, the skills management application that we explored in the previous lecture also uses competency dashboards which makes it a close relative to performance management systems used in the corporate world. You may ask, why do I need to use the competency dashboard? A competency dashboard is a convenient, and powerful visual tool. That helps managers to identify, measure, monitor, and develop the skills of their employees. This is the heart. The main engine of performance management in the corporate world. It shouldn't come as a surprise to you, that when designing JAFAR we basically use the same approach which we think allows you to objectively analyze your skills, identify competitive strengths and competency gaps, and establish smart goals for an effective skill building plan. Yet another question that you might have is, why you would need to use an individual skills management application like JAFAR, if the company you are working for are ready uses a performance management system? This is a very important question. Actually we have already answered it in previous lectures but let's do it again. The overarching goal of skills management is to empower you, the Career Builder, so you are in charge of organizing, managing, and developing your skills. The corporate world wants to get the best from you. That's why there are so many sophisticated tools for performance management. It's only fair that you take the best from the corporate world and use the methods and techniques originally developed for performance management for your own individual skills management. The cool thing about individual skills management is that it can provide you not only with outcomes that are identical to those of performance management systems, but it goes far beyond that. How is that possible? Just think about the limitations of corporate systems. Typically, a company's performance management system is configured to improve the employee's level of competence within the organization. Meaning that it is only focused on the skills that are deemed important for the business. It identifies her or his strengths and competency gaps against local benchmarks, and establishes locally important skill building goals. How is it helpful if you are not hired for life and the skills required in the outside world may be different and are constantly changing. Won't it be great if you could use the same skill building tool to work on a new job application? This is where you would probably want to see a theoretical model, and a skill building tool, that are better adjusted to your individual needs. The JAFAR model of individual skills management, that we use in this course is designed to address that need. First, the model is intended to measure and manage skills in relation to any job both inside and outside of a particular organization. Second, in addition to the four traditional steps utilized and performance management systems such as job analysis, full mastery analysis assessment, and skill set review, and includes the fifth step tangible outcomes. The final step in the JAFAR model is intended to provide you with tangible outcomes that are immediately useful for crafting new job applications, and planning related skill building activities. In the following lectures, you will see how you can use JAFAR for generating evidence based, and data driven skill-set summary checklists, functional resumes, selection criteria statements, and professional development plans for future jobs outside of your current department, company, or even vocational field. The next question that we think you may ask is, how is it supposed to work? You may recall, that we initially asked you to think about your current job, and go through a number of steps in the JAFAR model. This is because you are very familiar with your current job. So, you could more or less seamlessly walk through the required steps, and as a result come up with a meaningful competency dashboard. Now you may want to begin thinking about a new job, one that you would like to get in the near future. Let's call it next job. To prepare for it, it is likely that you will need to draw from your skills inventory possibly improve on some of the existing skills, and gain a completely new one. Here is a list of questions that you may ask yourself. What is your current level of readiness to compete for the job? Where do you need to improve and how much? How should you design your professional development activities? What would be your smart goals? The JAFAR model of individual skills management can drive you through the process serving not only as a roadmap but also as a GPS. Is it will tell you exactly what kind of skills you will need to develop, and the level of mastery you will need to gain to withstand the competition. By using JAFAR the skills manager application, you will also generate documents to support your job application. Does it sound like a little magic? Well, it certainly does. But wait, let's check out in the following lecture. In the meantime, we must think about potential scenarios, and contacts for your next job. For example is your next job going to utilize your existing set of skills? Will you need to extend it? Or maybe you were looking for a significant departure from your current occupation and you'll need to build a completely new set of skills. All of these scenarios are described by another model, that is called the Skills Management Matrix. The Skills Management Matrix consists of four quadrants that represent four different career development scenarios. The scenarios are job excellence, job enhancement, job diversification, and career change. In this brief course, we'll examine how to use the JAFAR model in three scenarios, and leave one scenario for your independent learning. The scenario for job excellence is designed to capture a situation where you are interested in strengthening your standing in the current job, or obtaining a similar position with another employer. In such a case, your job specific skill set is well-defined, and is not going to change at least in the short run. In this scenario, your plan of action is to include running a skill set check for the job, updating your competency dashboard, reviewing competitive strengths and competency gaps, and developing an evidence based and data driven plan for improvement. The next scenario job enhancement takes place when you add a new skill to your existing skill set to secure your current job, or get a promotion, or obtain a similar job with a broader range of responsibilities in another organization. Before you can execute a plan of action like in the previous scenario, you have to learn how to operationalize the skill that you have not mastered yet. By the way, if there is any sacred knowledge in individual skills management this is exactly where it is. If you have not yet mastered the skill how would you possibly know about critical tasks, benchmarks, and the required level of proficiency. Well, this is one of the main topics to explore in the following lectures. Yet another career development scenario is called Job Diversification. This scenario is intended to capture situation when you are planning to master a new skill from another vocational field. For example, you're in marketing, and you were thinking of taking on finance, or data analytics. Technically, this scenario is similar to Job Enhancement but it may be much harder to do in the unknown area. Finally, the Career Change scenario represents a situation where you will need to design and build a completely new skill set. It may seem super hard but with the use of the JAFAR model, you should be able to draft a prototype skill set fairly quickly. The idea is that the more often you do it the easier it gets. See you in the next lecture.
